Hi Lili and Sandra! You work as Engineer managers and directors at Klarna. Tell us more about Klarna – what do you do?

We work within the financial department of Klarna, a unicorn fintech company, to digitise the financial functionalities – our main focus is engineering. And yes, there are a lot of engineering innovations ongoing within the financial department and the company all the time!

But what does fintech really mean?

Fintech, by its Wikipedia definition, is  ‘the technology and innovation that aims to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services.’ There are so many different financial services powered by technology out there nowadays and we want our audiences to do a bit of their research online as well learning about how technology can make changes to every corner of our life including finance.

What is so special about this industry?

Let’s face it, technology is everywhere today. Some people might take a cautious approach to technology, and others might embrace it easily, but technology-powered services are deeply rooted within our day to day life – so why shouldn’t financial services be the same? Traditional banking procedures are usually lengthy and hard to get by for consumers and the people who might need a loan for a small amount, support finding a cheaper and faster insurance service or any other short-term financial support.

Fintech companies are also focusing on providing easily adaptable solutions for younger generations. The delivery of the services is more related to the customers’ real needs, empowered by new technical platforms like smartphones and the internet – they don’t want to have to visit a branch or an office to get a simple transaction sorted. So when fintech companies start playing in the financial servicing industry, it is easily accepted by customers. It is exciting to see the progress of a young and passionate industry booming, but the business model is fairly new compared to the very mature banking industry, so different regulatory supervisions are still being developed for the protection of our end users.

What opportunities are there within Klarna?

If you would like to add a new feature to a checkout process – like Klarna checkout on your mobile phone – how would you do it if you were working for Klarna? This question sounds like something for a software developer with experience in frontend designing, language or application, at first thought. But is that enough?

An idea doesn’t just get transformed into production by a programmer – it also needs the architecture skills which make sure this product will be regulatory compliant, operable, sustainable and even environment friendly, and its knowledge will eventually be retained as a company asset, to be well streamlined to be kept on file and reported to the authorities. The market response to this new feature will also determine if the feature will stay or be taken away – the revenue generated will be monitored and the customer feedback will be reviewed to help us understand if this is a great feature or just a redundant piece.

This is just a small example of transforming an idea into a product offering – where do you see yourself in this example?

Do you need certain skills to work within this industry?

On top of any specific skills, the open mind of developing yourself for different areas throughout your career and embracing the idea of lifelong learning might be the most important skill to adopt. Being an engineer might land you a job in a technical company or a fintech or a traditional finance serving company, but it might not be enough for you to get through your whole life.

Business model changes, production changes, technology changes and even our way of understanding this ever-changing world changes rapidly. A fintech company is like any other company that will need people who work in talent acquisition, in the finance department, as engineering support and in production development, etc.

As long as the skillset one person acquires fits the open position requirements, a job in a fintech company is no different from a job in any other type of company. But, once someone has joined a fintech company, she or he might notice that more opportunities are available for them to take on within the company.

Technology is something we can’t avoid today – we are exposed to more technological devices and tools every day than the entire human history has offered. Instead of thinking of being constrained with one type of skill, just keep being curious and try to think about how you can solve problems like an engineer – it will pay off.

Är du nyfiken på en roll inom fintech? Kika då in Klarnas karriärs-sida!

Hi Kathrin! Tell us about yourself and what you do at Klarna

My name is Kathrin and I am a 29-year-old businesswoman-turned-developer. I originally studied International Business and later added a Master in Sustainability on top of that. After working in Finance for a while, I quit my job, did a nine-week coding boot camp and finally got accepted for the Engineering Graduate Program at Klarna.

I’ve been a Fullstack JavaScript Developer as part of the Grad Program at Klarna for a bit more than seven months now. Being full-stack means I have the chance to touch every part of the program we are building – frontend (what the user sees) and backend (where we do all the logic and store the data). The team I was working in for the first half a year is responsible for building an internal platform to manage various data related to merchants that sign up with Klarna.

What I love most about the Grad Program is the fact that we get to experience various different perspectives of the company. I am currently doing an exchange in a new team, for instance, where I get to learn about completely new aspects of the coding language I am using. After three months in the new team, I will be able to go back to my original team and incorporate everything I’ve learned into my work there.

How come you decided to change careers?

After having studied business and sustainability, I started my career as a business analyst and later transitioned into a finance role. Yet the longer I worked in the field, the more I got the feeling that I needed a job that gave me more freedom to build stuff and be creative. I always loved using my logical thinking skills to analyse data and trends, but the creative part of my brain was feeling a little left out. Speaking to friends who were working as software developers confirmed the hunch that coding may be just the right thing for me as it perfectly combines the logical and creative parts of the brain. I decided to do a boot camp to jump-start my transition into the big wide world of tech, but also to see if coding would end up being something that I enjoyed. To my own surprise, I loved every second of it and continued teaching myself after the boot camp was over.

I eventually found the Grad Program advertised on Klarna’s website and thought it would be the perfect place for me to continue my coding journey. The program allows me to learn from more experienced developers in a company that prides itself on the irregular career paths of its employees. What better place to start a new job as a career switcher?

What’s your first memory from coding?

My first interaction with the coding world was in 2019 when I joined some events with an initiative to help minorities get into tech. Sadly, women count as a minority in this field and so I was able to join a couple of sessions where experienced developers would help anybody who was interested with their problems in coding. As I had never coded before, I was following a basic course about HTML and CSS, two languages that are often recommended as a starting point to get into coding. To be completely honest, I did not really understand what I was doing at all and stopped going after a handful of times. Looking back, I believe that I was missing a more structured and basic approach to explaining everything in a bit more detail. If anybody is ever in a similar situation, I really recommend exploring a couple of different ways of learning as not everybody comprehends these concepts in the same way.

What is the most fun thing about your job? Most challenging?

The best part about coding is definitely when you’ve been trying to do something for a very long time and it finally works out the way you want it to! I’ve experienced the profession of software development to be something of a rollercoaster ride, with very extreme highs but also some intense lows. Rarely does something work out just the way you intend it to on the first try. Sometimes it really is a game of trial and error and so it takes some time to make it work perfectly. However, that moment when you reload the webpage and everything shows up beautifully really is a moment of joy. On the other hand, it is easy to forget to work through a problem in a structured and logical way when something is not working. Staying calm and reminding yourself to understand the problem step by step can be challenging at times.

Tips for other women who want to get a career as a developer/engineer?

Try some of the free resources online to get a feel for if coding is something you would enjoy. But don’t fret if you don’t understand the complex logic that some coding languages are built on. Teaching yourself is hard and definitely not for everyone. I only really understood many concepts when I was in week two or three of the boot camp and had a teacher that I could ask all my questions to.

My personal favourite way to learn was definitely the boot camp I enrolled in. If you can spare the time and money, I would definitely recommend it as a starting point. It will not only provide you with explanations from the ground up and a teacher to clarify difficult concepts but also provide you with a community of peers who are trying to learn the same things. There will inevitably be a time when you are frustrated with your progress, so having a group of people to share those experiences with can make it easier in the long run.

Learning how to code, especially as a girl, can be quite tough and lonely. The tech world is unfortunately still a male-dominated industry and there are a lot of very talented developers out there. Sadly, this setup makes it very easy to feel like an imposter when starting out. You are not alone though – I’ve heard very senior developers share their feelings of not belonging after years of working in the field. That’s why I think having a group of peers is so valuable and I would really encourage you to reach out to others to exchange your experiences.

Thank you Kathrin! Feel free to reach out to Kathrin on LinkedIn here .

Monitor ERP system är ett affärssystem som flera länder i världen över använder, men huvudsätet hittar du i mysiga Hudiksvall  . Vi har fått intervjua tre utvecklare från företaget, tre härliga kvinnor med olika yrken och vägar dit. Vad gör en systemarkitekt och en systemutvecklare, och vad har de gemensamt? 

Hej Snezhina, Lova och Madelene!  Ni jobbar alla tre som utvecklare på Monitor ERP System men med lite olika roller – berätta mer! 

Lova:  Jag heter Lova, är 28 år gammal och jobbar på Monitor som utvecklare med titeln systemarkitekt. Det innebär att jag är med och bestämmer hur vår produkt ska utformas rent tekniskt. Jag kom till Monitor för lite mer än 10 år sedan, och med tanke på min ålder innebär det alltså att jag började här direkt efter gymnasiet. Det som först började som praktik blev snart till sommarjobb, vikariat, och till sist fast anställning i slutet av 2010. I början jobbade jag direkt mot kund på den avdelning inom företaget som utvecklar tillägg till vår huvudprodukt, men efter 2 år i den rollen blev jag handplockad till det team som skulle ta fram nästa version av produkten, och på den vägen är det.

Snezhina: Jag har varit systemutvecklare här på Monitor i nästan två år! Teamet jag är med i är Försäljning/Inköp – det betyder att jag och mina kolleger tar ansvar för alla appar(eller rutiner) i Monitor som har med försäljningen eller inköpet av varor att göra, vilket är ett ganska brett sortiment med tanke på vad Monitors syfte är. Innan det så pluggade jag Software Engineering and Management i Göteborg men jag visste alltid att jag skulle helst hamna här, om jag skulle få göra det. Min första dag här var tre dagar efter min c-uppsatspresentation så jag kan lätt säga att allt löste sig just som jag ville till slut, haha.

Madelene: Jag är 24år och uppvuxen i Hudiksvall och flyttade till Sundsvall för att gå en två-årig utbildning där som ”Systemutvecklare-Java”. Under sista året av studierna fick jag chansen att ha både praktik och ex-jobb på Monitor. Jag flyttade då hem till Hudiksvall igen och sedan dess har jag varit kvar på Monitor. Jag har nu jobbat på Monitor i snart 2år, och jag sitter på vår Anpassnings-avdelning vilket innebär att vi utvecklar externa program till kunder som redan använder/ska börja använda Monitor.

Vad skulle ni säga är roligast med just ert jobb?

Lova: Att få ta fram smarta, kreativa lösningar på problem. Dom flesta som inte är insatta tänker ofta att programmering bara handlar om logik och matte, men för mig är det även ett sätt att få uttrycka mig kreativt. Nästan en konstform. För ett givet problem kommer det finnas lika många lösningar som det finns människor. Varje lösning är unik, och jakten på den smartaste, mest effektiva och eleganta lösningen på problem är det som driver mig.

Snezhina: Ärligt sagt, att jag känner mig bekväm nog att ställa frågor hela tiden. Med kod är det alltid något kvar att lära sig om, vilket är den bästa grejen, men det kan också bli ganska skrämmande ibland när en inte har alla svar direkt. I sådana fall tycker jag att det är viktigast att kunna samarbeta nära andra och lära sig av hur de gör. Jag kan inte tänka mig på något roligare än att äntligen lösa en jobbig bugg med bara en rad av kod OCH att ha lärt mig något nytt under processen.

Madelene: Att det är så varierande! Varje anpassning är kund-unik och man får vara med i så många olika delar för varje projekt, allt ifrån små- till stora projekt. Mitt jobb innebär också mycket eget ansvar, samt att det är ett nära arbete till kunden vilket jag trivs väldigt bra med!

Vad har ni för tips till andra som är sugna på en karriär inom tech och programmering?

Lova: Branshen skriker efter folk att anställa, så om du tycker att programmering är kul så har du ett gyllene tillfälle att få jobba med något som är
utmanande, utvecklande och spännande! Dessutom är min erfarenhet att utvecklar-kretsar är en av dom allra mest inkluderande sammanhangen som finns.

Snezhina: Va tålmodig med dig själv och med alla andra kring dig. Utveckling är ett av de syften man aldrig vet allt om, så håll dig öppen för nya saker hela tiden. Försök att hålla koll på vad du tycker är jobbigt i din vardag, och tänk på om du kan förbättra det genom en app eller verktyg som du själv har skapat! Och försök att skriva artiklar om det du har lärt dig, så att du både sprider informationen vidare, men också själv förstår det på ett djupare sätt.

Är du nyfiken på att veta mer om Monitor ERP System eller vill hugga tag i någon av tjejerna, kolla då in deras LinkedIn  här.