Career opportunities and employability for Aalto students

Aalto University’s Career Design Lab helps students prepare for their future by providing coaching, career counselling, job fairs and recruitment tools for students. The services include both general tips and practical tools for designing a career path and preparing for future work life. We encourage students to start exploring opportunities step by step already from the beginning of their studies!

Career design is an experimental approach to creating a meaningful career path. It’s encouraged to test different opportunities creatively when trying to discover your interests. For example, Aalto’s versatile and active community is a perfect place to learn valuable career skills and broaden networks in a student environment. Each project, volunteer role and summer job expand your skillset and help you to define your interests and strengths. 

We believe that hands-on learning and collaboration make a perfect foundation for developing creativity and problem-solving skills. In many courses, students get to solve real-life business challenges and present their solutions to company representatives. Depending on the field and programme, students can also put their learnings into practice in workshops or laboratories.

In addition to the networks built in the classrooms, our student union’s active subject clubs ensure you can grow your networks with relevant people in your field. The subject clubs organise events tailored to students within specific fields or subjects. In these events, you can get a chance to meet other students and alumni from your field, or potentially your future employer! 

Aalto master’s graduates build diverse career paths and are employed very well. Aalto University Career Services follows the career development and labour market situation of our degree graduates five years after graduation. According to the 2022 survey, of those who completed their degree five years ago, 96 % think that the degree is valued by employers and 93 % would recommend their education to others. Aalto graduates generally find a job corresponding to their education and receive a high salary.

The majority of international students from Aalto University find employment in Finland after graduation. We want to do our best to support our international students in finding a place to work in Finland. For example, Aalto International Talent Programme offers mentoring and networking opportunities to support international students’ careers. Finland Works course and Finnish language courses aim to help students to understand the Finnish work culture and to navigate in the working life, and Aalto University Mentoring Programme connects students and working-life experts.

Did you know that half of the Finnish start-ups founded in universities come from the Aalto community? There are around 70-100 new companies founded in our ecosystem every year.

We want to inspire our students to think and learn like an entrepreneur by integrating entrepreneurial courses into all fields of study. Our aim is to provide all students with new tools for entrepreneurship and chances to develop their entrepreneurial mindset. Every Aalto student also has an opportunity to complete minor studies in entrepreneurship in Aalto Ventures Program.

The driving force behind the entrepreneurial ecosystem is the low-hierarchy culture with empowered students. The student community is, indeed, an excellent environment to meet fellow students who are interested in entrepreneurship. There are many student-led communities and events in the Aalto ecosystem to watch out for! For example, Europe’s largest design hackathon Dash, hackathon and tech community Junction and the world’s leading start-up and tech conference Slush all have their origins in Aalto’s student community. 

Aalto encourages students to gain international experience by providing them with easy access to an exchange or internship period abroad. You can study and work abroad as well as actively take part in multicultural partnerships and projects. For someone who dreams of a truly international career, applying to an international joint master’s programme, that includes a mobility period in a foreign university can be the perfect choice. There are also different types of short-term mobilities and courses with international components.

In Aalto’s multicultural community, you have plenty of opportunities to be part of international teams. You can find friends from all over the world through study projects or student union activities. The student associations and subject clubs also provide chances to take part in leisure trips and excursions to companies abroad.  

There are as many career paths as there are people. Choosing certain programme will not definitively shape your future but there are many different ways to tailor your study and work life to fit your dreams. Aalto graduates work in different companies, non-profit organisations, associations and as entrepreneurs in Finland and abroad. The studies also give excellent foundations for those who want to pursue an academic career.