Welcome Evening – starting the path from master’s student to alumnus

For the first time, the Aalto University School of Business invited all new master’s students to the Welcome Evening, in which the students could get to know their community, especially the alumni, the former graduates of the School of Business. About 150 master’s students participated in the evening and had a chance to hear the alumni’s experiences and tips for studies and career paths. The idea behind the welcome evening organised in the main building of the School of Business on 4 September was to encourage new students to create networks, learn new things and find interesting career paths starting from their very first day.

‘It is worthwhile to invest in your studies, but at the same time, it is important to gain work experience that is significant in terms of your career. Emilia Karlén, our Alumni Relations Coordinator, is the person to ask about the active mentoring programme and the alumni activities in general. Our Career Services Managers Tanja Makkonen and Annemari Rautio in turn will tell you about matters related to finding employment, including work placements, which are an excellent opportunity to gain relevant work experience for the future’, said Head of External Relations of the School of Business Jonna Söderholm in her introduction.

The active alumni community is an important resource for the School of Business

The representative of the Economics alumni was Kristo Ovaska, a successful startup entrepreneur and CEO of Smartly.io.
‘Learn to code and get a work placement with us either in Finland or abroad‘, he said with a twinkle in his eye and communicated that a work placement is an excellent route to finding actual employment.

The Accounting alumni were represented by Emilia Rantala, who graduated five years ago and now works at KONE.
‘I find that forming networks and friendships during studies is vital, just like the studies are too, of course’, she said.

Henrik Scherer, a master’s student from Germany, said he was starting in the new CEMS master’s programme.
‘The impression I have of Finland, Aalto University and CEMS is excellent and that is why I decided to apply to the very interesting Master’s Programme in Global Management’, Scherer said.

After the alumni had been introduced, the participants played networking bingo and the discussion was continued at the tables reserved for degree programmes. A total of 25 alumni were present, approximately two from each degree programme.

The Welcome Evening was organised jointly by the Career Services of the School of Business, Alumni Relations and KY. The event, part of the orientation week and now organised for the first time, will become a tradition. Another event increasing the community spirit is MYC, Meet Your Community, which has already been organised three times and gathers together the first-year bachelor’s students, or walruses, and the alumni every spring.

Further information:
alumni-biz@aalto.fi,  career-biz@aalto.fi