You do not need to speak Finnish to get a summer job

More than 60 employers and more than a thousand of students participated in the Aalto Summer Job Day on Thursday 16 January at the Aalto University Undergraduate Centre in Otaniemi. Every year, Aalto Career Services organises two major events, Aalto Talent Expo in the autumn and Aalto Summer Job Day in January. In addition, Aalto organises the CHEM Career Forum, a smaller event than the two mentioned above, in December, which is a career and recruitment event targeted at chemical technology students.

This year's Aalto Summer Job Day was attended by 64 exhibitors representing companies, the public sector, and the departments and programmes of Aalto University schools. The discussions around the presentation stands were lively, and the number of summer jobs available was high. Up to 72% of the exhibitors had announced in advance that they are also willing to hire foreign students who do not speak Finnish to their summer jobs!

Summer job application period has begun

The summer job application period has begun, and the application window will close for many organisations as early as the end of February. Of course, you can still apply for some summer jobs in March and April. A few randomly surveyed participants in the event gave us the following information about summer job prospects.

HR Manager Arttu Lindroos from Teknos told us that they have 80 summer jobs open for bachelor's degree students. In production, they have open positions in such tasks as paint manufacturing, quality control and logistics.

‘Competence in chemical technology and potential earlier work experience are an advantage in these jobs, but it is also possible to get hired without prior experience if you have an energetic attitude towards learning new things and doing your work. Students in the master's level can apply to Teknos’ trainee programme,’ Arttu Lindroos said.

Katja Sorvali, recruitment consultant at the City of Helsinki, said that the City of Helsinki has about 4,000 summer workers every year. There are jobs available for students from almost any field of study at Aalto.

‘For example, at the Urban Environment Division there will be positions opening up for landscape architecture and architecture students as well as for communication and IT students,’ Katja Sorvali says as a hint.

It may be easy to forget that Aalto University also has dozens of summer jobs available to students. Half of Aalto's schools have already published their summer jobs, and the rest of the jobs will be opened for applications in the next few weeks. According to Mirjam Lappalainen, HR Secretary at the School of Electrical Engineering, in many cases it is also possible for students to work on their final paper or bachelor's thesis alongside their summer jobs. She was also very happy to see that many lecturers were actively marketing summer job opportunities at Aalto as well.

Tiina Ahva, student of industrial engineering and management at the School of Science, was one of the students who visited the event. She had come to see which employers were present at the event and was planning to discuss with the employers she considered most interesting among them. Tiina Ahva said that she already had a consulting internship for the autumn and thought that she might like doing work related to consulting and business strategy even during the summer.

In addition to offering the students a chance to discuss summer job vacancies with the exhibitors, Aalto Summer Job Day offered them an opportunity to have a high-quality photo taken for their CV and to get expert comments on the content and appearance of their CVs.

‘It was a pleasure to see so many employers and students at the Aalto Summer Job Day. The presence of more than 60 exhibitors clearly indicates that Aalto students are highly desired employees. I would like to extend warm thanks to everyone who participated in this event. This year's Aalto Talent Expo will be held in the autumn, and we are expecting thousands of participants again in Otahalli, getting valuable information and contact for their future career,’ says Annemari Rautio, Senior Manager, Employer Services at the School of Business.

Text: Terhi Ollikainen