Petri Virkkunen, Senior Software Engineer

“I have been part of the Symbio team since the beginning of this year, and I work in the user interface and front-end development side of the product. My career in the programming field started in 2017, and I have a history working with the QT technology stack and C++. In my current role, I’m working on an Ubuntu laptop, using Qt Creator and Visual Studio as code editors. As programming languages, I use Qt, QML, and C++, along with a sprinkling of Bash. Other tools and technologies I frequently use include Git, BitBake, and Vim/Nano. 

Besides the responsibilities of developing features, fixing bugs, helping others, and reviewing code, I’d say one of my primary responsibilities is to take every opportunity I get to learn and get comfortable with new systems and technologies. What makes anything enjoyable to me is the feeling that I’ve contributed something meaningful to the customer or my workmates. It’s also interesting to develop products for the world of daily users, such as the software we make at Symbio. In the world, there are millions of cars that have Symbio’s software inside them. 

At Symbio, people are eager to help with their expertise. The collaboration is smooth via Teams channels and at the office. What has helped me succeed in the role is probably my history with the Qt technology stack and C++. But hand in hand with technical skills, I’d say having the right attitude towards asking questions from co-workers and being active and curious overall is crucial, considering the breadth of systems I’m now involved with that I haven’t had any experience with before. 

In the future, for me, it’s essential to keep learning:  I’d like to either move deeper into more C/C++ focused tasks or to learn an entirely new programming language like ReactJS or maybe C#. “