Alum Riikka Nieminen: 'You don’t always have to be a complete package to take on a certain role'

Riikka Nieminen’s team at Salesforce focuses on identifying new sales opportunities among Finnish customers. It is a team of eight people and each Nordic country has its own corresponding team. Riikka’s team is responsible purely for the Finnish market, both existing customers and new ones.

Salesforce’s European headquarters is located in Dublin, where Riikka currently lives and works. In the interview, Riikka often talks about the Dublin ‘hub’, as it is home to many headquarters of technology companies.

'I made extensive use of Aalto’s offering'

'I studied for my bachelor’s degree in Business Technology (now Business Analytics) from 2013 to 2017, and it has been great to see how the programme develops as the world changes. Even back then, the programme was already very focused on digitalisation and it provided an excellent foundation for my current career,' Riikka says.

During her first year of studies, Riikka came across the International Design Business Management master’s programme (IDBM), in which she was particularly interested in service design. She graduated with her master’s degree in that programme in 2019.

During her bachelor’s studies, Riikka completed a minor in marketing. In her master’s studies she took a minor in entrepreneurship, where they examined entrepreneurial ways of thinking and discussed what entrepreneurship is. 'I made extensive use of Aalto’s offering also by completing all my elective courses in the field of fashion at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture. When I was young, I dreamed of working as a fashion designer, but since I am clearly a business‑minded person, that side ultimately won me over.'

Proud to be from Aalto

Riikka says that her studies at the School of Business taught her critical thinking. In her view, this is particularly important today, especially in the age of artificial intelligence, when you cannot absorb everything without first digesting it and questioning it. 'The School of Business’ way of working, based on group work and case studies, provides very valuable lessons: how to work in a group, how to learn from others and their ways of working – this is what the modern working life is like.'

Riikka says she was active in KY: 'I was active in a committee as well as on the board as responsible for communications and brand, and from those years I gained a wide network. During our studies, there was a lot of talk about a rich student life being part of a good study experience. At that time, the general trend was that people wanted to work and at the same time everyone had a strong drive in their studies. I feel that I managed to successfully combine both without one taking away from the other.'

Competitiveness is often associated with the School of Business, and during one's studies it is easy to compare oneself with others. Riikka wants to give her advice to current students: 'Focusing on your own path is the most important thing. Do the things that you yourself are genuinely interested in.'

'I enjoyed being at Aalto and I am proud to say I'm from Aalto. Of course, the School of Business has a strong identity, but in my mind that can be true at the same time as having an Aalto identity – they do not exclude each other.'

Summer jobs and internships – and an unexpected career turn

Riikka’s first summer job was at L’Oreal in customer service and logistics for pharmacy cosmetics. 'It went so well that they asked me to come back the next summer.'

'My interest in marketing took me to SSAB as a trainee, but my title was quickly changed to marketing coordinator – I was active and showed my desire to develop. The change in title gave me confidence that I truly had a chance to influence the development of my career, and that started a virtuous cycle. At SSAB, a competitive tendering process for partnerships began and I was involved in selecting a consulting firm to carry out sales and marketing optimisation processes. The consulting firm that was chosen approached me with a job offer. I first moved to them as a junior consultant and then continued as a consultant.' Riikka says this was in many ways a jump into the deep end, from which she gained valuable experience: you don’t always have to be a complete package to take on a certain role.

While working as a consultant, Riikka identified different sales opportunities and ended up selling more projects to customers than the company’s own salespeople. Alongside her actual consulting work, she had been thinking about what additional work could be done even before the actual sold project would be delivered to the customer. 'That was where the latest turn in my career happened, when my colleagues started encouraging me to move more into sales.'

'I did not know what Salesforce was when I started looking into the world’s top sales companies where I could learn to sell. I ended up submitting an application to Salesforce through their open application process,' Riikka recalls.

'At first I tried to apply directly for a sales role, but during the recruitment process I learned that there are business development roles, which is what I then applied for. That role was an excellent way to move from consulting into sales. My own customers were Finnish listed companies, so sales opportunities were sought together with the account executive using a strategic approach, instead of purely volume‑based cold calling. I feel that my strong School of Business background helped as I understood how business and large companies operate. A large part of the sales process is identifying customers’ needs, and that is exactly what we did during our studies at the School of Business and in the IDBM programme.'

Why an international career?

'My parents once worked as expats in the technology sector in Madrid, Spain, so an international environment became familiar to me at a young age. My family encouraged me to go to work abroad,' Riikka says.

'During my bachelor’s studies I knew that I wanted to work abroad, and I also looked into different options for master’s studies abroad. However, choosing the IDBM programme at Aalto won out: the courses were of really high quality and the studies were completely free.'

Riikka says that settling in Dublin was easy, as the tech bubble in Dublin is so significant that the city’s international character is inevitably evident. 'There are a lot of people here in the same life situation who may not know anyone when they arrive for work. New people are naturally welcomed into the community. Of course I already had a network, as I had been working at Salesforce from Finland, but I feel that employers help a great deal with settling in and moving.'

Clear framework for managerial work

In her current role, Riikka works purely as a manager and feels that there is a good model for this in Irish work culture. 'In Finland people often talk about managerial work being a ‘reward’ for good expert work, although in my opinion it is not that simple. As a manager, you must be able to take different profiles into account and learn interpersonal skills. Fortunately, here there is a clear framework of what managerial work involves.'

Riikka’s job is to ensure that her team succeeds in its own results and to take care of her subordinates’ wellbeing and that they have the necessary elements for success. 'The members of my team are in the early stages of their careers and a certain kind of coaching has a strong presence in my work. I help them to prioritise, we discuss things and give feedback.'

Taking care of wellbeing is important in a constantly changing field

Artificial intelligence is also at the heart of Riikka’s work, and the technology sector is currently undergoing huge changes. 'The industry is changing at a tremendous pace and new launches are coming up that were completely unknown even a short time before. This requires resilience to stay with the changes. For customers, these are major investments and the development of the global economy also affects our work. I would say that once again the skills from the School of Business play a very important role.'

'The first years in the field are often very tough and people think that they have to ‘earn’ their place in the organisation. However, no senior is better, and everyone has equally good opportunities to learn and grow,' Riikka reminds.

Explore Riikka’s career path in more detail on LinkedIn.