Tiina had her sight on a career in business since day one
I’m Tiina Laurén, a 44-year-old mother of two from Jyväskylä. I come from Laukaa, which is a municipality near Jyväskylä, and I attended primary school and high school there. In -98, I applied to Jamk for the first time, but I didn't get in. However, I always knew I wanted to study business and the commercial sector was something I wanted to work on, so I first went to study to get a vocational qualification in business and administration. After that I applied to Jamk again and got in.
I focused in finance management and thought I would spend my career in book keeping, in a small office, and I got hired right away into an LTD. Kiilto company bought this company – it’s a bigger Finnish family owned company and quite soon my job changed to that of an export assistant – something I never though I’d do! – and along the years one thing lead to another and I still work there.
After export assistant I worked as a sales assistant, product coordinator, product manager, business development manager, and the latest one is solutions manager. I haven’t done any booking related jobs in my career.
Kiilto entering the international markets brought new aspects to Tiina’s work
As the company started to grow a lot and aim at international markets, they decided that they needed solutions managers who focus on developing products for the international markets (Finland, Scandinavia, and Baltics). So, I’m responsible of launching and commercializing new products and solutions in two product groups. I build relations with customers and partners and try to sniff out the opportunities the target market has for us. I also work as a project manager, and I am responsible for the profitability of these product groups – kind of like leading my own company, in a sense.
In the Finnish market we, Kiilto, are a market leader, but there’s still a lot to do in the other markets we’re currently pushing into. I also support sales, so it’s a wide web of responsibilities I have. It can be quite challenging, but extremely rewarding.
The will to work and succeed in international management position inspired Tiina to study to become a MBA
Well, it had been a while since I last studied so I wanted to update my skills. I also wanted to aim a bit higher with my education. International business management was something which was my field, where I wanted to work and succeed. Kiilto has grown a lot during my career, and it was important to learn the theory behind the business, as I had already gotten a taste of the practicalities of it.
For a while I doubted if I can study in English, but I decided to challenge myself, and it was definitely worth it. I never thought that English would be my working language. I never felt that I had the language skills required, and maybe that’s why I originally aimed at booking, since back then at least it rarely required other language skills besides Finnish.
I live in Jyväskylä so Jamk was a natural choice for me. But I also knew it from my previous studies, so I knew I could trust the quality of teaching. Even though it had been a while since I last studied there. Of course, Jamk also has a good reputation as an educator – Jyväskylä is a city of education after all!
Studying in an international environment opened doors to cultural understanding
I think that I really benefited from the international group that we had. It opened doors to cultural understanding when you actually study with the people from different cultures. It’s so interesting to collaborate with students from different countries and cultures, learning from them firsthand about their markets and product placements etc. and just learning about them from one course. We had students from almost every continent, so it was a truly international group. That was a huge benefit, and if I now had to choose between studies in Finnish or English, I’d definitely choose English again.
My work had already switched to a more international nature as I started my studies, so all the tasks that I did on the courses, I could just directly integrate them to my work. There was no need for translations or refitting them to a different cultural context, so it was a huge benefit already while working.
Tiina went into the studies looking to benefit her career – and the studies delivered
I wanted to benefit from my work. My thesis was directly related to my solution area, so I could combine my work and the thesis and really drill down on one specific market and focus on how we could perform better in that area. In that sense the thesis is one of the clearest examples of the benefits I got from the studies. I also got more responsibilities with my latest title change, so the studies helped me adapt to those new responsibilities.
Studying in English boosted Tiina’s confidence as an expert
The studies really opened my eyes to the cogs behind international business and understanding that is so important to reading and understanding the business. But I’d still say that the best thing about the studies was the people I met and studied with – networking is always so important. But just studying in English comes close to the top spot – I really challenged myself, and realizing I could study in English really boosted my self confidence and helped me enter areas outside my comfort zone also in my working life more confidently.
If you work or want to enter the field of international business, this programme is for you
I would recommend this to all who are working in International Business or tasks related to it. Entrepreneurs, who want to move to international business – we had at least one entrepreneur in our course with that benefit in mind. Also, experts in marketing and finances, who are aiming to take the next steps in their career. I think there are multiple different work life situation where you could benefit from this. But this is a great choice also if you just want to widen your horizons, why not!
As for the Finns – I think that when you study you really get a different kind of perspective to your work. You can find new kind of sources for ideas, innovations, and solutions. I had worked for 20 years when I started my studies, and they still managed to open a whole new world for me, shedding a whole new light even to areas in the field that I had already encountered. It might be challenging to study while working, but it is so rewarding – especially when you understand in just how many ways the studies can support your career and take you to that next step. And when you graduate – it’s an amazing and rewarding accomplishment. The studies in English gave, at least to me, a wider perspective, and helped me understand an even bigger picture than just studying in Finnish would have.
