Ilona's story: Proactivity in working life brings rewards

Studying and degrees seemed to me to be the primary path to working life. I started studying at the University of Jyväskylä right after high school and graduated with a master's degree in 4.5 years. My major at the university was Finnish, and I studied communications, business, and literature as minor subjects. I also took advantage of the university language center with courses in French, Hungarian and Hebrew.

During my studies, I worked for an insurance company for several summers, where I was able to do a variety of work related to insurance processing and customer service. Later, I landed a communication internship in the same company, and that role fitted me like a glove. On the other hand, I had also liked the other roles I had had over years and as a generalist I am easily excited about a wide variety of new things.

I ended up in my current role through an open application. I had taken family leave immediately after graduating from the university and returned to my old home neighbourhood in Satakunta. Jobs in the communications sector are often hard to find, even in a medium-sized city, so I sent a lot of open applications to various communications and marketing agencies as well as to large companies in the area. Luckily communications agency Kumppania happened to be looking for a part-time project manager.

I started with a 60% work time allocation but soon continued full-time as a permanent employee. Now there are five of us project managers, and I have been able to shape what my job includes and grow with the role and the company. It’s a great feeling to get good feedback by just being yourself and being able to exceed expectations with a fairly small effort. For example, I remember how my employer said they would put me at the top of the list when it becomes possible to clone project managers.

Everyone has networks

The most inspiring part of my job is producing various magazines and publications, which I have been happy to focus on in recent years. My days are filled with, for example, companies’ customer and staff magazines, annual reports, and newsletters. I regularly write various articles for clients as well as for Komppania's own communications. In addition, I have found a passion for corporate responsibility communications and, with the support of my employer, studied both environmental science at the Open University and more specific areas of communication.

The best thing about my current job is definitely its versatility and flexibility. Because the communications agency is constantly working in parallel with multiple clients and different projects, variation occurs naturally. Each project offers a natural opportunity to learn new things and deepen your own skills even further.

In addition to paid work, I have been actively involved in communication-related volunteering in various scout projects, such as leading communications and marketing for major events. I like to emphasize that most people have networks outside of work. They can be of great interdisciplinary benefit in unexpected situations.

When is enough?

In hindsight, my career path has progressed harmoniously from job to job and I landed a permanent role fairly quickly, which at times seems to be relatively rare in the millennial generation. However, progress has not seemed in any way certain and clear when the situation is, so to speak ‘ongoing’, and it still does not always feel that clear. However, I am convinced that in working life (and in life in general) it is worth being as proactive as possible and push things forward.

The challenges in today’s expert roles are also quite familiar to me. The question ‘when is enough’ arises when it doesn’t matter how much you work, there is always more, and the overload can affect our well-being. To balance things, I worked on an 80% allocation for several years. During this time, it became clear that sometimes some tasks just didn’t get completed and common issues often needed to be discussed between 3 - 5pm. My experience has thought me that the hardest expectations of all, however, are usually found in one’s own head.

When one teaches oneself tenaciously that work is done during working hours and other things at other times, it gradually becomes a routine that the mind does not constantly question. This also gives more room for flexibility when needed and for short periods we can do more work at peak times. I think that well-being requires a balance. There can be a lot of things going on in life, as long as they are sufficiently different and do not steal time from one another. My own life outside of work consists of appropriate proportions of everyday family life, reading, exercise and other hobbies.

Ilona Nordlund