Oamk Alumni had their first alumni event with international students and I had a great opportunity to take a part in it. It was Thursday evening November 6 in Business Kitchen. All I had to do was to sign in online in advance to secure a place for the event.

We had four guests from different home backgrounds and they all shared their journeys after graduating from OUAS. Coming from a different national background myself, it was very easy to relate and I learnt a lot from the advices they had for international students.

Each guest speaker came from different national as well as educational background so the topics were diverse and suited for students from different degree programmes.

The first guest speaker Toni Hämeenniemi now working at Piimega gave the students an insight into how he got himself a job through a summer training placement. At the end of the talk he also offered an opportunity to apply for the summer training placements. We also had Aterm Daniliant, a serial entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur himself he taught us to go after things we are passionate for instead of relying everything on schools. Binay Guragain who is working at Siili Solutions told us how his first professional job interview went and how he successfully got a job after that. He said learn everything from school but find something you like and go for learning that specific area in depth and finally Keith an entrepreneur at his own company Keken Verhoilu shared his story after moving to Finland. After each talk students had lots of questions during the Q & A session. I myself also had lots of questions to ask. I had always wondered what to expect after graduating when a student does not speak fluent Finnish. The answer was to go for an international company where English is the official working language or be good at something that Finnish skills is not required.

The talk was ended with great food from a newly opened Nepalese Restaurant ‘Sauraha’. We had more than enough to eat for a dinner so we were lucky enough to take some food home.

I could not thank enough Oamk Alumni for organising such an inspiring and great event as this where it was open for international students. We are definitely looking forward to more events to come in the future.

Jin Lee

Student of Business and IT degree programme