Alumni Story: Enguerrand Lanoire

Good question. Many people ask me, especially the question: “why are you in Finland? You come from France”. When they ask this, they mean that why did I come to such a small country in the north of Europe. So, the story is that when I was studying in France, my bachelor's degree, I took an optional course that was called Introduction to Finnish Culture. The teacher was a journalist who was crazy about Finland and somehow convinced the University to let him teach 45 minutes a week non-compulsory course for just two or four credits. I took it and I was like, wow, I don't know anything about Finland, but it’s so interesting. I learned so many new things. And I was very interested in the fact that Finland is a very Democratic country with very functioning social services and public services and strong welfare state while still doing economically very well.

So, I decided to do the Erasmus stay 1st in 2013. In the fall, I was one semester in the law Department of Turku University and I had a great time there. And there I learned about this English master degree. So, after coming back to France for half a year, I applied and got the study place. So, in 2014, in the summer, I started this master degree. I liked my stay in Turku, obviously, very much and I wanted to continue being in Finland. So, this was the perfect gateway into staying longer in Finland. I'm quite happy I chose Turku.

Let's say the transition happened already earlier because by the end of the second year, I was done with most of my courses and I was just writing my master's thesis. But I was already very much job searching and engaging with the job market. While studying I needed to pay for my living expenses and I needed to work. And one of the things I did was to do online translation as a freelancer and among other things, I also did some legal translation. So that was a little bit in the field of my study. But I knew that I had to find something, even maybe before finishing the master degree just to make sure I have something. And I can’t stay very long having no source of income or anything after the studies.

So, I started early and attended a lot of workshops about how to apply, how to make good applications, how to work on my resume. I attended many events organized, for example, at Boost Turku, the organization for entrepreneurs. They had events in English that were very useful. I also attended some events made by the Åbo Akademi and international organizations. And then I just applied a lot. I started to map places that would hire international people, obviously very international companies as well as Finnish companies. So, I needed to target the companies that would hire somebody like me and just get information about who works there, what is it like to work there and try to tailor my application as much as possible. It took a very long time that I got even an interview, but I got an interview that led to a summer job.

Before I had finished my master, I got this summer job in a company called Kemira in 2016. So, I was there for five months. And then when I came back, I continued searching. And in the end, I think I sent around 90 more applications. And not boilerplate applications, but quite tailored. Let's say it needed a little bit of hanging in there because you don't get replies, sometimes not any replies, not many interviews, but if you continue, you get the fruit of your hard work. And I got two interviews in Nokia and then in the company where I'm working in: Sandvik, which are both international companies with teams that are not only Finnish teams, and one of them, the recruiter, was not a Finn herself, which I think was also a very important factor in getting hired. So, after two years, I got the job in 2017 in Sandvik, in Tampere, where I work today.

I would give three tips how to get there. And maybe these tips also contain source of motivation. One of them is to do other things than just studying and applying, because that in itself might help, for example, having hobbies and being part of associations. When I was studying, I was in the board of this international association of students called ISTU. We're just students gathering and making events for other international students. And there you meet many people and you meet Finns as well, and they get to discuss about how is it for them to apply or to live in Finland. And that's very fruitful to have hobbies because first to get your mind somewhere else, they give you extra energy and they might lead to interesting connections.

One of my foreigner friends from the master degree, she met her next boss in the parking lot of the gym. She was trying to open her car and it was stuck. And this Finnish man comes and opens it for her. And they start discussing and she says, hey, I am a law student looking for work. And they say, oh, we are actually looking for legal trainee. So, you never know when things can come. They can come from your hobbies. Hence my second piece of advice: just talking to other people and being interested in them and telling them about your situation, it goes a long way. Just be open, talk to people, and you never know what works out.

My last advice is to know what are your strengths and what you can bring. So, you can put yourself in the shoes of the recruiter and quickly you understand the recruiter’s mindset and how they might see it as a risk to hire a foreigner because they can trust Finnish education and backgrounds but they are uncertain about what they don’t know. By understanding this mindset, you can think how to make them feel more comfortable hiring you. So, you have to put forward the qualities that maybe Finns don't have and also show that you want to integrate and you want to be part of a Finnish team. And learning Finnish, in my view, is important not because you will be able to work and Finnish. That maybe a goal too high, but to show that you want to integrate to a Finnish team and you are able to small talk at lunch.

I took all the courses that University offered. So, I think I took around six courses from level A1 to B 2, which really gave me a solid foundation. And after that I was able to prepare for the YKI test, the language test, official language test, and I took a preparation course from Turun työväenopisto outside the University. And then I was able to get the certification, which really looks good on the CV. So, I recommend it, yes. You feel less often as an outsider when you can understand what people say. And when you're able to just reply like somebody asks you: where is the bus stop? And you're able to answer the question: where is this shop? It just feels that you belong more in the place where you live that gives you a great feeling.

Jun 2017 - Present (2022)                  

Sandvik, Tampere, Finland - Patent Administrator

2017                                         

Graduated from UTU.

Thesis: Choice of law and jurisdiction in cross-border copyright infringement disputes in the EU – An assessment of the current rules

May 2016 - Mar 2020             

Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava - Language Consultant: helped writing the “C’est Parfait !” textbooks for adult Finns learning French

May 2016 - Sep 2016              

Kemira, Espoo, Finland - IP Management Trainee

Sep 2014 - Feb 2016               

Freelance Legal Specialist and Translator, Waiter in Café Monarch (Turku), part-time French teacher in Porin työväenopisto (Pori), Private French teacher (Turku)

Aug 2014                                 

Moved permanently to Turku to study at UTU

Aug 2013 – Dec 2013               

Erasmus semester in Turku

Nov 2014 - Dec 2015               ISTU - Head of Communication and Project Manager (Turku)

Jan 2013 - Jan 2014                UVSQ'POST Newspaper - Media Coordinator and Columnist (France)

Jan 2012 - Jan 2014                Association READ - Team Member (France)