I am Liisa Antola, and I studied in the BScBA program in Mikkeli for my Bachelor’s. I also completed the CEMS Master’s at Aalto University and the University of St. Gallen. I graduated in 2020.
For as long as I can remember, my dream was to be a lawyer. Thankfully, I had an amazing career counselor in high school who recognized my passion for learning new languages and international matters. She recommended that I add business school as an alternative option on my applications, making a fair point about how it is much easier to pursue an international career with this path. Ultimately, it was my dad who made me accept the study place at Aalto. He felt that going to university was a better choice than taking a gap year or another year preparing for law school entrance exams. Now, years later, I have to thank him for pushing me. Thanks, Dad!
The most rewarding aspect of my studies was, by far, the international exposure. We had an amazingly diverse cohort in Mikkeli. For a girl who grew up in a remote part of Finland with very little international experience, I have to continue my theme of gratefulness and express how much I value my studies for giving me the opportunity to go abroad and engage with amazing international peers in Mikkeli and Otaniemi (Espoo). My studies gave me the chance to live in Canada, Switzerland, Poland, California, and now to have an international career.
The most challenging part of my studies was choosing what I wanted to specialize in. Business school offers endless opportunities to major in, which is a huge advantage, but at the time, I found it overwhelming. In hindsight, I realize that you learn what you want to do through work experience rather than your studies. And in any case, I bet I will continue to pivot time and time again throughout my career as well.
I admit that I applied to countless internships during my studies and chose the one that was offered and closest to my family so I could spend summers at home. I ended up working for HKScan in Turku for a couple of years, and although the job (accounting and finance) was far from what I do today, I learned immensely during that time. I had amazing colleagues who showed me what a good workplace culture looks like. I also had great managers who pushed me to pursue my dreams.
I also got to work at Vaisala for one of my internships and managed to do my thesis with them as well. I would highly recommend this to other students, too. Doing my thesis for a company made a huge difference for me, and it helped me with the internship that followed.
I was also active in many extracurricular activities like our CEMS Board, Nesu-Probba at Mikkeli, and a bunch of other voluntary positions. Participating in these activities make your experience at university just that much better, because you get to trial having a bit of responsibility (organizing sits parties for 100+ people is no joke) but also because you often end up spending time with people outside of your own friend group.
I suppose the most important skill required in my job is stakeholder management. There are countless different interests you need to balance and take into account when making decisions.
The second most useful skill is persuasive communication. I work in an area that is unfortunately still found controversial by some, so a lot of my time is spent defending my own corner and trying to convince leadership of my view. My studies at Aalto most certainly helped with this. I did not even realize how many presentations we had to give during our studies in comparison to other faculties.
I am not only saying this because of my job title, but the working world must become more equitable. Currently, power is not spread equally, and we all have a role to play in changing that.
My first jobs are very far from what I currently do. I had no existing business network through my family, and thus, I had to start with whatever I could find and make my own path.
I would urge people to not only follow their passion but to be more values-led in their career. After experiencing the working world in a couple of different firms, I simply got frustrated with the inequality I kept witnessing around me. Although it was difficult to leave a corporate job behind, I do not regret it in the slightest. I went from operational HR to working in a charity and now a non-profit, and it’s the best pivot in my career so far.
I initially came to London to do a 3-month project with a charity and simply never left. The charity job was advertised to me on Instagram, that’s how randomly these things can happen. I have a deep passion for DEI and got my current job through a skills-based hiring process.
My employer is a UK-based trade body. I have to explain to most people what a trade body does, so I won’t take anything for granted here – we are the voice of the insurance sector and we represent 300 member firms. We are a purpose-led organization, and on behalf of our members, we work closely with the UK’s governments, HM Treasury, regulators, consumer organizations, and NGOs, to help ensure that our industry is trusted by customers, is invested in people and the planet, and can drive growth and innovation through an effective market.
This means I get to provide advisory directly to firms, but I also get to influence policymaking. The most nerve-wracking day at work was by far last year when we gave oral evidence in parliament to an inquiry called ‘Sexism in the City’ looking at removing barriers that women still face within the wider financial services sector. My main responsibility is to ensure we deliver on our DEI Blueprint, a sector-wide strategy with the mission of making the insurance and long-term savings sector the most diverse, equitable, and inclusive sector of the UK economy.
I am in a dream job and have good people around me. Internally, I get to work with colleagues in a wide range of specialties: data, public affairs, HR, and conduct to name a few. No day truly is the same – this week I am delivering allyship training in Manchester and online for member firms, and at the end of this week, I will be in Brussels to meet with other trade bodies operating in Europe to share best practices. In between travel, I have submitted an industry response to the House of Lords and I also spoke on a panel in London for one of our associate partners.
Working from places like Westminster Hall, built in the 1100s, attending work events with individuals from the Royal Family, all while helping 300,000 individuals employed within our sector to have better working lives, still makes my head spin at times.
I want to encourage everyone to at least try working abroad for a bit. You learn so much from the different national/firm/office cultures. One of my favorite summers to date is the one I spent on my CEMS internship in Poland with Metsa Group. There are many Finnish firms that have operations abroad which is a helpful starting point. The worst part is being away from family, but within Europe, I have found it manageable.
Meaningful work to me means having a positive societal impact. Although progress often does not feel fast enough, and there are constant setbacks in terms of discouraging media discourse and devastating world events, I do believe we are making a change.
Learn more of Liisa's story and career path on LinkedIn!
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