First month at the Nordcloud UK Azure team

What a month it's been!

Well, just a little over a month but an incredibly exciting, busy and interesting 6 weeks. I started with Nordcloud on the 29th, March 2019 and it's a move that I'm really pleased I made.

I had worked within a consultancy environment for many years, travelling the country and working with customers of all shapes, sizes, and abilities. Having made the decision back in 2017 that I'd had enough of travelling the length and breadth of the UK I decided to take a more local position at the Co-op as a Cloud Solutions Specialist working with the team there to establish their Cloud strategy. I'll be the first to admit 'the grass wasn't greener' and I soon missed the challenges, customer relationship building and variety of the consultant's 'lifestyle'.

I spoke to most of the big consultancy firms, had the same conversations, had telephone interviews and generally got invited to face-to-face interviews which I turned down - they were just not exciting or interesting. I didn't want to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire (how many clichés can you put into one blog post?). I was conscious that I hadn't been at the Co-op too long and wanted to make sure my next move was considered and somewhere I could be for a long time. The criteria was to; be somewhere fun, where I could grow, help to build something, learn something new every day, not just be a faceless number, somewhere I could get the consultancy 'lifestyle' but all without the endless travelling of the country and be appreciated (OK, my list of requirements was long!).

Being a bit of an avid LinkedIn user (sorry for the number of posts, likes, and shares that I do!) I noticed an interesting company, one that seemed to be a little fun with its posts, not generic a corporate approach  - 'Nordcloud'. I spent some time researching the company and it looked like they had the exact culture and fit I was looking for! I got my CV updated and submitted it online and hoped for the best. It wasn't long before I got a call back from Anna who talked me through Nordcloud, the opportunities, what I was looking for and the possibilities of a Northern office.

The process of me starting took some time with my notice period and Nordcloud working through their Northern office plans but one thing throughout the process that kept me interested and assured me that I'd make the right decision was the communication and honesty they gave me throughout the process, something that I think can really lack in the recruitment world.

Since starting at Nordcloud it has lived up to everything that was promised and that I was hoping for. As with all companies growing at the pace and scale of Nordcloud across Europe, there are things that can be changed but everyone is happy to listen, from your colleagues, team leader, country manager, and wider Nordcloud team, it's a very flat, no hierarchical structure. Being a company that's growing it's a fantastic opportunity to put your stamp on something and not just be a faceless person (one of my requirements!). If you have an idea you'd like to do to help yourself and the company Nordcloud will be more than happy to help support and organise with you - something I think is often promised but often never lived up to in businesses. To succeed you really do need to be a self-starter and make your own opportunities, the company will help and support you as much as you want if you do. Being one of the fastest growing companies in Europe (an incredible achievement for such a young company) the opportunities are endless.

Being the new starter and first Nordcloud person up in the North of the UK it would be easy to be forgotten or 'not in the loop' but it's not been like that at all, from the Azure team, the wider UK team and even Nordcloud people across Europe have all made sure I'm included and part of the team, there's fantastic team spirit and culture, team calls, team drinks, Slack channels, Meetups, one-to-one's, company feedback questionnaires, and support in going to the fantastic London office when I want (the office is located in Holborn, central London in a big, bright and fun building with countless hotdesking and quirky offices.

Another area that I have been incredibly impressed with is the induction which was very well organised, thorough, and planned. The induction really helped me get a really good start. From arriving on the first day and finding my brand new MacBook ready and waiting and my induction plan sorted with both local and company-wide inductions organised for me it was a fantastic first impression to the company. I've started at places before where nothing is ready and you're left for a week with nothing to do while people run around trying to sort it out.

And as you can probably tell I'm loving Nordcloud but as with everyone I can't come to work for free but the compensation has been fantastic, from brilliant pay (yes, you may be able to find somewhere that will give a few pounds more but they're nowhere near as fun and interesting to work at as Nordcloud), not only are your exams paid for but you're also paid a bonuses for passing!, talking of bonuses you get a quarterly bonus - no more waiting an entire year, recruitment bonuses for finding other fantastic people to work here, the list goes on and one, safe to say you're well looked after. Even with all those benefits work-life balance is really important to the company and you're fully supported with a good process in place to make sure that happens. I've worked for companies before that will happily have you running all over the country - that won't happen at Nordcloud, you feel respected and appreciated for the work you do. Being a modern company and at the forefront of cloud technology you can obviously work from anywhere; home, the London office, the Manchester office, customer site, a cafe or wherever you want to and can get your work done.

Well, that's it - I could go on about how great Nordcloud has been to start at and how much I've enjoyed my first 6 weeks but find out for yourself and have a look at the current opportunities or drop myself or Anna in the talent team a message (anna.makinen@nordcloud.com).

/Joe Hodkinson, Senior Cloud Architect joe.hodkinson@nordcloud.com Drop me an email or connect with me in Linkedin !