Teemu Suvinen joins Columbia Road

Hi Teemu, How did you get good at what you do?

I started studying at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences aiming to learn more about video editing and photo retouching, but well there found that the curriculum had a wide range of courses in all different types of media. I had never seen or touched code before but after my first few classes of HTML and CSS I realised front-end coding was what I really wanted to do.

Later on I got an internship at a fairly large media company. There I quickly realised that the coding I was learning at school was not even near the level I needed professionally, so I took it upon myself to learn it and spent the majority of my waking hours building on my skills.

Therefore I’d say that I am mostly self-taught, but I have gained broad experience from working on a wide variety of projects as well. I’m also quite passionate about web design and user experience and constantly looking to learn new techniques to make online services easier and more fun to use.

Where have you earned your spurs?

I worked for Valve and Wakeone for over four years. Working very closely with designers, I have developed an eye for pixel perfect layouts and will do everything in my power to correct the elements that are “just a few pixels off”. I have created multiple product configurators, websites and a host of smaller things for customers in a wide variety of businesses. I have also dabbled my feet in some inhouse product development. Kiintestömaailma has been one of my most significant client relationships, there I was responsible for the front-end development of kiinteistömaailma.fi. 

Why Columbia Road?

I had started to feel like it was time for a change and my close friend, Jenny Tran, had just joined Columbia Road a few months prior. I already knew some things about the company and my curiosity grew even stronger after Jenny told me how she feels about working at Columbia Road. So, I finally bit the bullet and sent in my application.

And I have to say, people here are some of the nicest I’ve ever met and there is a real sense of fellowship and caring. The level of possibilities and encouragement to learn and grow is amazing.

Eero, what will make our clients love Teemu?

“Teemu is a skilled in front-end developer with great eye for UI and UX design, which is a very valuable combination in helping our clients succeed in digital sales. Teemu really cares about the end user experience and he has vast experience in projects of many different sizes and varieties, seeing them through from beginning til end, from planning, to execution to maintenance afterwards. This gives him a great understanding of different client needs and a great asset to any client project. On top of that Teemu is a great listener and a quick learner which makes him a great addition to any team,” says Eero Martela, General Manager at Columbia Road.

What makes your heart beat a little faster?

I love all kinds of music and have been playing the guitar for almost 15 years now. I used to play in a fairly popular “underground” hard rock band in the Helsinki area before, and did a few hundred live shows - including some festivals and a TV show performance. 

Console gaming is something I do quite regularly. Fun fact: I played the Red Dead Redemption 2 game five times through, and spent over 600 hours with it in 2019.

I also recently discovered archery and fell head over heels in love with it. I’m daydreaming of competing in recurve archery some day in the future.

How would you fancy working alongside Teemu at Columbia Road? We're constantly looking for new nice and skilful people to join our crew! Take a peek at our open positions 👇