University of Turku’s Career Services (Rekry), Alumni Relations, Turku Business Region with International House Turku organized a Job searching & support-event aimed at helping students in their job search March 2, 2023.
Career Day- event took place in Educarium’s EDU3 lecture hall. During the participants got the opportunity to participate in a free CV photoshoot, hear about different services for internationals in Turku region, hear about successful alumni stories, participate in Linkedin-coaching and network with fellow students and alumni.
Event was intended for all the students and doctoral candidates of University of Turku and was organized in English.
Alumni that participated in the panel discussion session were
Marvin H. Tran
Marvin has studied in the Master’s Degree program, Economics and Business Administration - Global Innovation and is an alum of the Turku School of Economics. He currently works as Account Executive @ Vaadin.
Gail Maunula
Gail has studied the Master's Degree program in International and Comparative Law and is an alum of the Faculty of Law at the University of Turku. She works as a Senior Data Protection Specialist @ Privaon Oy
Meeri Sarkkinen
Meri is an alum of the University of Turku's Faculty of Education and has studied in the Master's degree program, Educational science. She works as a Senior Recruitment Specialist @ Vincit
Kristaps Kovalonoks hosted the alumni panel.
Kristaps is also an alum of the University of Turku and has a Master of Arts in Finnish and Other Finno-Ugric Languages from the Faculty of Humanities, Department of Language and Translation Sciences. He works as a Coordinator, Global Engagement at Aalto University.
The panel discussed alumni career stories and received many questions from the audience about career development and job seeking. Here are summarized some of the themes discussed and advise that the alumni panel has for the students:
Meeri with her experience of working as a HR specialist says that
- Take the initiative and contact a company you are interested in. You can either reach out to the recruiter or send an open application.
- A good attitude while applying and communicating - attitude matters
- Check company's values when you apply - be aware of the motivations of the company
- Be nice to people that you interact with while in the application process - you never know how things work out and who knows who
- Build your network
- Check the company's values when you apply, clarify to yourself why you want to work in this specific company and most importantly, personalize your application and CV according to this.
Marvin spoke from the perspective of working as an Account Executive in sales and experience in recruitment:
- Always think of your end goal and think long term when you apply
- If you want to be in sales get acquainted with the tools
- Work on these tools and build proficiency
- Set your attitude right in whatever you do. Go the extra mile
Gail spoke about working in the legal field, data protection and also experiences in recruitment in her field:
- Networking goes a long way
- don’t be discouraged if you don’t get a response - recruiters tend go back to applications
- Be active and go to conferences
Feedback was collected for the event and received a positive response, and we hope to organize more such events in the future to help students in their career development journey by meeting more alumni.