I remember that one May morning as it was only yesterday: I sat in a lobby of Tieto Keilalahti HQ and waited for my first day of summer internship to begin. I felt extremely enthousiastic as my five months wait was finally over: at last it was the time to change the scenery from uni’s library and lecture halls into bustling and inspiring office life (which in this case is better known as #tietolife).

But in order to speak honestly, this feeling of being over the moon enthousiastic included a tiny twist inside my own head. As quietly in my mind I was wondering how I will adapt into one of the biggest IT companies in the Europe with background of a pure business student without any earlier experience on basically anything IT-related. And in that sense, I felt bit like sailing away of my own safe harbour and leaving on adventure to see where the limits of my comfort zone truly are. You never know if you never try, right? Nevertheless, those silly thoughts of mine were soon totally washed away as I became more familiar with the opportunities for people with a business background inside the company. Even though Tieto might fundamentally be a house of Software and Tech, it most certainly doesn’t mean that each of the job there is only an IT job. It’s also a house of Business understanding.

I listed below three main cornerstones of my summer, which enabled me to adapt into the tech world:

1) My work and the co-workers

I was instantly taken as a part of team: Already on my first workday, I participated in the meetings like any other of my co-workers. And when the first workweek was over, I had, for example, already spent two whole days in Sales Hackathon in Stockholm and learned valuable information of the Tieto’s Financial Services business and the unit that I just had recently joined as a Junior Sales Trainee. Right starting from my first day, I was for sure engrossed into the world of Fintech with various inspiring insights from many professionals of the field and I was also given multiple interesting and variating work assignments right from the beginning. I was also beyond lucky to get to work with talented and experienced people who were willing to share their expertise with me, as well as support and help me when learning and working with tech related stuff wasn’t always a bed of roses.

2) Tieto’s engagement to their trainees

Right starting from my first interview round it was made clear to me that Tieto invests in its trainees and wants me to succeed and develop together with them. This was also concretely proved to me during my summer internship: besides being given interesting tasks and good amount of responsibility, I was trusted and priviledged to see, experience and learn Tieto’s Financial Digital Channels business from various angles in order to explore where I could feel most at ”home”. I was also given an opportunity to continue working part-time besides of my studies and I was told about the future opportunities regarding my master’s thesis and my possible future career at Tieto.

3) Networks – People people and once more people

One of the most memorable event of my summer internship was the traditional Tieto Take-Off day, which gathers together all the new employees from the Nordics into a two-day seminar filled with different activities and interesting presentations – not to forget the event program in the Helsinki city center! That was the occasion where I finally met my fellow summer trainees and other newcomers, who provided me with invaluable peer support during the summer and as well offered perspective and familiarized me with the other units and businesses inside of Tieto. Or let alone all those afternoon coffee breaks spent with them on the sunny 8th floor rooftop terrace when the whole office was pretty much quiet during the busiest holiday season! One other very important perk of my Tietolife was also the network of Tieto Young Professionals that organizes a wide variety of different activities such as afterworks.

And if things like these won’t make you feel like at home at your new job, I most certainly don’t know what does! And when it comes to my initial setting as a bare-foot business student in the IT-company, I learned the most important thing: By stepping out of your assumed comfort zone might make you see that it’s even larger than you thought. And that’s also the best way to discover and acquire new perspectives and ways of thinking – and as a bonus: learning a lot about yourself is guaranteed!

Niina Hokkanen

M.Sc Economics Student

Tervehdys, nimeni on Eero Suhonen ja opiskelen nyt toista vuotta Aalto-yliopistossa kone- ja rakennustekniikkaa. Kerron teille tässä lyhyehkössä, mutta ytimekkäässä blogi-kirjoituksessani, millaista työtä on tarjolla Avain Yhtiöillä ja miten hyvin siellä viihdyin.

Avain Yhtiöt -konsernin muodostaa kuusi yhtiötä, joiden yhteinen tehtävä on rakentaa toimivaa ja turvallista asumista. Itse työskentelin Avain Rakennuttaja Oy:ssä, jossa minun roolini oli työmaavalvojan apulainen. Saavuin ensimmäisenä työpäivänä ajoissa paikalle (kuten myös muinakin päivinä) ja odottelin työmaavalvojaa, jonka alaisuudessa tulisin työskentelemään koko kesän. Pian hän saapuikin konttorille vahvan kädenpuristuksen kera, hörppäsi kahvimukin tyhjäksi ja huikkasi: ”Nyt lähdetään!”

Työpäivä työmaavalvojan apulaisena ei ollut koskaan täysin samanlainen. Meillä oli valvottavana kolme eri rakenteilla olevaa uudiskohdetta, yksi Vantaan Martinlaaksossa, toinen Keimolassa ja kolmas Tampereen Vuoreksessa. Päivät saattoivat koostua kohteissa pidettävistä työmaakokouksista, joissa toimin pöytäkirjanpitäjänä, tai urakoitsijapalavereista, joissa olimme vain lähinnä paikan päällä kuuntelemassa, jotta olisimme ajan tasalla työmaan tapahtumista ja aikataulusta. Kävimme myös katselmoimassa malliasennuksia, jotka sitten hyväksytimme mahdollisesti tarvittavien korjausvaatimusten kera esim. vesikatoilla tai asuntojen kalusteasennuksissa. Lisäksi pidimme myös takuuvaiheissa olevissa kohteissa esim. takuutarkastuksia ja kasvuunlähtökatselmuksia. Työhön siis kuului paljon matkustelua kohteesta toiseen, joten äidin autosta oli hyötyä?. Jos työmailla oli hiljaisempaa, olin konttorilla tekemässä paperihommia, kuten pöytäkirjojen laatimista ja niiden jakamista kaikille kokouksissa läsnäolijoille. Kokosin myös katselmuksissa ottamani kuvat raporteiksi ja lisäksi yritin järjestää Vantaan kaupungin kanssa palaveria, joka käsitteli Martinlaakson muuttavien asukkaiden väliaikaista parkkipaikkaa, jossa lopulta onnistuinkin.

Työskentely Avain Rakennuttajalla oli hauskaa ja erittäin antoisaa. Meillä synkkasi valvojani kanssa hyvin yhteen ja meitä kutsuttiinkin toimistolla ”isäksi” ja ”pojaksi”. Hänestä taisikin tulla minun rakennusalan esikuvani, sillä hän osasi tehdä työnsä oikein ja vastuuntuntoisesti, mutta samalla hän osasi ottaa asiat rennosti. En nähnyt hänen kertaakaan huutavan kenellekään, edes työmaakokouksissa, vaan hän hoiti kaikki erimielisyydet asiallisesti. Voisin kuvailla häntä yhdellä sanalla; päällikkö.

Konttorille oli aina miellyttävä saapua, kun ilmapiiri oli energinen ja vastaanottava. Meille viidelle ”kesähessulle” oli tehty yhdestä kokoustilasta oma työskentelytila, jossa oli viihtyisää ja hyvä työskennellä. Vietimme kesällä paljon aikaa yhdessä ja meistä tuli hyvät kaverukset.

Tämä työ tarjosi minulle paljon hyvää kokemusta rakennusalalta. Sain hyvän käsityksen, miten asiat toimivat työmailla, ja kuinka paljon eroavaisuuksia eri työmaiden välillä oli. Opin erilaisia rakennustekniikoita, sekä näin eri rakennusvaiheessa olevia rakennuksia. Lisäksi opin paljon kasvavan yrityksen toiminnasta ja sitä kohtaavista haasteista. Avain Rakennuttajalla sain siis erittäin hyvän kokonaiskuvan alaltani ja suosittelen muitakin hakemaan tänne, vaikka olisit täysin kokematon, kuten minä olin.

I started my Vaisala career as a Giant Leap intern in summer 2016. What you need to know about “Giant Leapers” is that each of them is assigned with a project that they need to solve – only in a few months! In my project, I worked in the Industrial Measurements Business Area, developing system testing practices. The project ended up being very hands-on: I got to build an automated test station which enables nightly regression tests for products under development. As such, the experience proved to be an intriguing mixture of hardware, software and networks.

After the summer, I continued to work on the subject as a Master’s Thesis Worker. The framework for automated tests – my Giant Leap Project – was ready by then, and now it was time to build the actual test setups. The work included such interesting tasks as the creation of hardware prototypes and programming of a test library. In the end, I managed to develop a setup that enabled automated tests for smart measurement probes.

In the spring 2017, I graduated from Aalto University with Electrical Engineering as my major, but the work I started at Vaisala still continues, as I now work with test automation and system testing. Thus applying for the Giant Leap project proved to be a turning point in my career. Vaisala is truly a great place to work with a combination of meaningful tasks, friendly coworkers and professional atmosphere.

Niina Kajovuori,

Test engineer

I have always been attracted by the success stories about self-made men: sportsmen, leaders, thinkers, entrepreneurs… you name it. An interesting observation from those stories is that even though they all have different starting points and a route, they appear to end successfully. After reading dozens of different stories I have understood at least one very simple rule: there isn’t a golden route to success. You should focus on things that you really love and desire, and trust it will lead to happiness.

Besides people, I find the same success factors meaningful for the companies. It maybe sounds naïve, but I think the reason for Accenture’s success, the company I am working for, is different kinds of passionate people with various backgrounds, worldviews, and skillsets. As a combination of skills, the company itself is greater than the sum of its parts.

My passion towards success stories stems from the time when I was a small city boy, who had major dreams but minor circles. Reading interesting stories gave me on the same time desire and perspective to carry on with a can-do attitude. I realized I would be the sum of my decisions and write my own story.

After graduation, I was sure I would head to business school, but otherwise, it was all blur. Studying went well, but I was more interested in overall learning than university grades. The practical business fascinated me more than theory and therefore I decided to start my own businesses. I left Vaasa after three years of studying and ever since, besides my master’s thesis, I have focused on practise; first in banking and currently in consulting. In a way, I perceive my current position as a result of different choices I have made earlier – “connecting the dots” as Steve Jobs has said.

From my point of view, I want to encourage everyone to try different fields in university and listen to internal passion instead of making things that external factors wish you to perform.

Have an efficient and passionate winter!

Juuso Pelkonen

Management Consulting Analyst, Financial Services

M.Sc. (Industrial Management), University of Vaasa