Andreas Mueller
Lead Web Architect & People Lead
Andreas has always prioritised learning and development. A key reason he joined us was he felt that the company had the most specific and attractive professional development offer. From his first interview, he recognised that we invested in our people.
“I knew from the interview process that they invest a lot into their people. It sounded really exciting. They emphasized how they helped people grow and were specific about how they do it, which got my attention.”
Since joining, Andreas has been on a series of long-term projects, which means he has worked on a significantly smaller variety of projects than is typical at Zühlke. But this hasn’t slowed his professional development at all.
“As long as I am learning something, I am happy. I never felt stagnant or that I’m not progressing. In all of these environments, I've found things to do that were new to me, or roles to do, stepping outside my comfort zone.”
He has built a successful career defined by continuous development. How? A combination of personal curiosity, supportive colleagues, a learning culture and the range of opportunities beyond his day-to-day work.
How personal curiosity defines your professional development
Our culture is defined by curiosity. We hire curious people and give them opportunities and space to follow that curiosity. Andreas believes this is the key to professional development.
“Keeping yourself curious about what you're doing will help you see other things that you can do. Always asking questions, being interested in how something works and why it works that way. Exploring things that are not necessarily directly in front of you and just trying to understand the whole system that you're part of in a better way will always give you new areas to explore.”
That curiosity has driven Andreas’ career growth. He started as a web developer but expanded his skillset into Full stack development and DevOps. These developments often came directly as a result of wanting to understand more about how the system and its business processes work, and our style of close client collaboration means clients are often happy to share their expertise.
“A lot of clients don't mind sitting down with you and explaining something if you show interest. That usually builds a different kind of relationship with them.”
These relationships have meant Andreas has built up his domain knowledge, which in turns has unlocked new opportunities on projects and chances to grow. Deeper knowledge means he can have more productive conversations with clients who are more likely to treat him as a partner rather than supplier. On one project for a telecoms client, his persistence in understanding the wider context resulted in a visit to their site to better learn about the physical infrastructure behind their project.
“It really opened my eyes in a lot of ways because all of a sudden this application that I've been working on for three years made much more sense. Those insights meant I didn't need the client’s input every time. I could make some of the decisions myself. It really helped me to enter this circle and be respected for that because I knew what I was talking about.”
“Ask yourself regularly, what’s the next challenge I could take on? How can I improve what I or my team are doing? You don’t have to stay in your lane here. You’re encouraged to think holistically about tasks and their place in our wider ecosystem. You could ask to shadow someone or help with a project beyond your ‘on paper’ remit.”
How colleagues and culture can shape learning and development at Zühlke
Alongside work, Zühlke has a holistic development model that ensures colleagues have access to training and certifications to bolster their technical skills. Andreas has taken advantage of these throughout his career but he credits his colleagues and the culture they’ve built as much, if not more, for his growth.
“Just working alongside highly talented people and observing how they work and conduct themselves is one of the most effective ways to learn. Additionally, I think the open feedback culture that we have is really important too. It’s not just giving feedback to tell you, ‘hey this was good, this was bad’ but often times also involved a portion of actively helping me to think about what the next step is for me to grow further. And this helps all of us develop our own ability to give good feedback and support each other to develop.”
Andreas has experienced this across every aspect of working here that he’s been exposed to. There’s a consistent philosophy that when individuals grow, so does our organisation, that permeates throughout the business. He has been constantly challenged and educated by colleagues sharing their own experiences.
“There is a very strong culture of investing in sharing. You’re very much encouraged if you learn something or if you've experienced something to share this. There are a lot of sharing sessions you can join and learn from others, as well as blog articles and other channels where people try to multiply the investment that they took to learn something and spread it amongst others. This also peaks every year with our Zühlke Camp, our annual meetup.”
“When you get feedback, don’t just focus on what you did well or poorly. Focus on what you can do to keep growing. That forward-looking perspective turns feedback into a development tool. Keep that in mind when you give feedback too. That’s how our development-led culture perpetuates itself.”
Taking on extra responsibilities to develop new skills
The final piece of Andreas’ constant development has been the opportunities to take on roles well beyond his day-to-day software duties. He’s been involved in recruitment efforts when it fits alongside his work and has taken on more managerial responsibilities the longer he’s been with us. These have given him additional perspectives on both his work and his own abilities. Beyond recruitment, there are opportunities to get involved in pre-sales, account management, research initiatvies, capability building, running workshops and more depending on your interests and the current business needs.
“I have always just found new ways to get involved. I was part of driving a lot of topics forward. For example, joining the recruitment team, which was a big eye opener for me. Sitting on the other side of the table was not just a change in perspective but also helped in terms of communication and reading a situation and so on.”
“If you don’t see an obvious way to challenge yourself in client work, look at what your team and the wider business need beyond delivery. There are often a lot of processes or opportunities that benefit from a different perspective and give you a chance to flex or develop skills in a different way, that can then improve how you perform in general.”
The journey isn’t over. As Andreas has grown, he’s realised that project success depends on far more than technical skills. It’s about communication, leadership and understanding the bigger picture. His career at Zühlke is proof that long-term projects don’t limit growth but have created the space to shape it. By staying curious, engaging with colleagues and exploring opportunities beyond delivery, he’s built a career defined not by the variety of client work, but by how deeply he’s developed himself.
Want to find out more about opportunities with Zühlke and how we can support your learning journey?
Check out our careers page for available roles!
