Record number of employers at Aalto University’s Summer Job Day

The lobby of the Aalto University’s Undergraduate Centre at Otakaari 1 was crammed with people as more than 50 employers had arrived to offer summer jobs, placements and thesis topics to Aalto students. Now is the busiest time for applying for summer jobs and in many companies the deadline for applications is already before mid-February. This year the event, organised on 18 January, was larger than ever before as, compared with last year, for example, there were twice as many employers present.

‘It is wonderful to see that employers are increasingly interested in Aalto students and that students are sough-after employees. We hope that the size of the event also means twice as many jobs as last year,’ says Annemari Rautio from the Career Services of the School of Business.  

OP and Elisa are companies that take on a lot of summer employees every year.

‘We have about 500 open summer jobs in several business sectors in the whole country and about 150 of them are here in the Helsinki metropolitan area,’ says Jani Mikanmaa at OP’s stand.  

‘You could say that we offer a minor module in sales and customer services for about 250 students this summer,’ said Juho Toivola from Elisa’s HR department.

According to Pia Varila, HR Partner at IF, the company will employ some 200 people in Finland this summer. There is more traditional customer service work available for those at the beginning of their studies, while those further in their studies will be employed in expert tasks in communications, marketing and law, for example. In addition to this, thesis topics are also provided. ‘For instance, the impact of digitalisation on the operating models of insurance companies could be a good topic to do research on,’ she said.

Diverse visibility for technology sectors in the event

‘It is great to see that this year especially the construction and ICT sector are actively engaged in our event. Furthermore, it is nice to see that students no longer think too strictly along the lines of sectors. This can be seen particularly well among IT experts, who are often very broadly interested in several sectors and also in more traditional industry’, says Riitta Kontio from the Career Services of the School of Science.

Vaisala offers 20 internships for students in their Giant Leap internship programme, which is implemented as a 3-month internship period in the summer.

Motivation, enthusiasm, curiosity and an ability to apply the expertise gained in studies into practice,’ said HR Manager Tiina Baniba-Atoko, listing the qualities of a good applicant. She has herself stayed in the company after completing the Giant Leap placement.

‘An interest and experience in programming will already take you far,’ said HR Business Partner Anne Saukkoriipi, encouraging students at the stand of Airbus Defence and Space.

Employers can advertise open vacancies and internships to students free of charge in Aalto CareerWeb.