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New Master's degree students welcomed into Aalto University School of Business

Published: 11.9.2019

The alumni of the School of Business took part in welcoming new Master's degree students on their first orientation day.

Welcome Evening for new School of Business Master's students. In the picture, there are the panelists (from the left) Jonne Nyberg, Riikka Saari and Elina Kukkonen, and the moderator Heikki Helaniemi. — Panelists of the event: Jonne Nyberg from Elisa (on the left), Riikka Saari from PwC and Elina Kukkonen from Alma Media. On the right, the moderator of the panel discussion, School of Business student Heikki Helaniemi.

During the first week of September, more than one hundred new Master's degree students took part in the Welcome Evening event organised by the School of Business's Career Services and Alumni Relations. The purpose of the event is to offer new Master's degree students the opportunity to explore various career paths and to welcome them into the community at the School of Business. Thirty School of Business alumni were invited to share their own experiences of studying and finding their career paths.

New School of Business Master's students listening to the panel discussion of the Welcome Evening.

Panel discussion on collaboration skills and networking

The event started with a panel discussion to which representatives were invited from three of the school’s partnering companies: Alma Media, Elisa and PwC. The representatives they came were also Aalto alumni. The discussion offered students the viewpoints of business representatives on the skills needed in working life.

The panellists discussed, among other things, the development during one’s studies of soft skills such as cooperation skills and self-presentation skills. "The School of Business offers a number of good options for developing these skills, such as course group work and career events", said Elina Kukkonen, Senior Vice President, Communications and Brand at Alma Media.

Many different events are organised within the framework of the School of Business’s partner cooperation, and these give students the opportunity to familiarise themselves with various companies and work tasks. ‘For example, there is the PwC trainee program, through which the students have the opportunity to work for us full time’, explains PwC Partner Riikka Saari.

Alumni give plenty of tips to the students

After the panel discussion, the evening moved onto a more relaxed session where the students were able to discuss different degree programmes with graduates from those same programmes. Marketing graduate Markus Helaniemi, who now works as a communications and PR consultant at Hill + Knowlton Strategy, encouraged students to make use of the school’s Career Services during their studies.

The alumni received a lot of good questions from students. ‘Among other things, the students asked about finding employment in Finland, my current work and career path, and which minor subjects are worth studying’, said accounting graduate Jie Ren. Ren works as a tax specialist for KPMG.

The Welcome Evening is held every year as part of the orientation week for Master’s students. Through this event, the school’s Career Services and Alumni Relations want to ensure that new students get to form networks, learn new things and discover interesting career paths right from the first day of their studies.