By: Nhi Nguyen, IBL 18

Who you are and about your history in Metropolia Business School?
Hi, my name is Erkki Paunonen and I’m a Metropolia IBL graduate. I started in August of 2016, and graduated November 2019, group A, at the Myyrmäki campus, as a resident Finnish student (no exchange). During my BBA degree, I completed my internship at Labyrinth Games Room Escape in Helsinki. Since graduating, I’ve enrolled at Hanken School of Economics in their Master of Economics and Business Administration (M.Sc.) graduate program as a Marketing major.

My experience has been defined by taking a very broad view of business studies. For one, as a logistics student at Metropolia, I ended up focusing on customer experience during my internship. Then, I wrote my thesis on marketing theory. I’ve become aware that there is no business sector or organizational department that isn’t connected to the rest of the organization. Whatever area you’re choosing to specialize in, there’s always a benefit in spreading out and seeing the connection of different functions. Even Hanken Marketing students begin their studies with sustainability, supply chain resilience, and data analysis courses!

Because of MBS, I’ve had a lot of practice communicating and working in group projects. This is one skill that translates to further business studies, and especially to the workforce. Since we all have been used to shifting to a blended digital and face-to-face style of work, you’re also going to need to know how to manage a lot of different communication styles (email, video calling, text groups, file collaboration and sharing, etc.). I got a lot of practice while at MBS and that makes it much more manageable to keep organized and communicate efficiently.

What you have done after graduation, how have you ended up to where you are now and what kind of role MBS did or did not have in it? Have you always had a clear image of your future and how studies in MBS supported it? How life has turned out overall.

Right now, I’m a marketing intern for the app Happy Bob, a diabetes management tool that makes glucose monitoring fun and rewarding. Almost all my work for this internship is done through Slack, while all my schoolwork is done through Teams. So, I’d say that any communication skills and comfort with the digital space you can pick up at Metropolia will directly influence your work/study life. It can get hectic!

Any tips and tricks to current students, what to take out from this experience. Greetings you would like to send.

The best tip on this is to use the tools at your disposal, so spend some time focusing on making your digital space work for you. Customize notifications, set rules to sort your email inbox, and keep your desktop folders neat and well named—this will come in handy when looking for that one course syllabus to describe the skills you learned at MBS for your resume.

Finally, don’t underestimate how valuable studying in an international program can be. I didn’t have a clear picture of my future, but meeting people and networking with an international crowd opens you up to exponentially more exciting opportunities around the world. As they say, your network is your net-worth, and having a global network means you really get a sense of what’s out there and possible. On that note, start building your LinkedIn now! When connecting with people, make sure to try and include a relevant message. Feel free to add me, and I can always try and answer questions about Hanken and more.

Further information:

Find out more about Erkki’s career path in LinkedIn!