Iranian-born Software Developer Mehdi Javan is impressed by the low hierarchy and equality of the Finnish working culture. After living years in busy Tehran, the size of the compact city of Turku is perfect, he says.
You moved to Turku, Finland to work for Vaadin. What’s Vaadin all about?
We produce free and open source products that can be used by software developers around the world. Software development would be very difficult if such frameworks didn’t exist. We also offer commercial products and services to our customers.
You had other job offers from Europe, why did you choose Vaadin?
I knew Vaadin before applying and thought that it is a very interesting company. Here I have a chance to help software developers around the world, not only my colleagues in one company. It’s wonderful. We have something like 150 000 developers that use Vaadin’s products.
Where is the work done at Vaadin seen in use?
It can be seen almost anywhere. Software developers use our products to develop web applications. When you’re using for example your Internet bank or a hospital application, it might have been developed by using the Vaadin platform.
How do you find living in Turku?
The size of this city is perfect for me: you can go everywhere in no time. There are lots of sports clubs, different kinds of entertainment, even a great Concert Hall. It is easy to find a nice path to run. The people are nice and almost all of them can speak English quite well. I know that I should learn Finnish, but it is more difficult than I expected.