Oh yeah, I graduated

This post is coming a bit late, we MITIM's graduated from LUT on 30.June and from GSOM on 2.July. It was one busy weekend, but definitely one that will stay in the top 5 best memories.  

There was all together 110 graduating from LUT (including the Ph.D & engineer students), so the ceremony took a while, as we all one by one went up there to pick our diplomas. When I finally got that funny light blue hard-covered book in my hand and a glass of sparkling wine, I just couldn't stop smiling. 

MITIM'11

The after party was in the summer cottage close to the Uni, where we have been few other times too, BBQ & sauna. It was really nice, warm evening again. 

Next morning a group of us took a minibus to St.Pete, where we arrived after a loong wait (the bus was 2 hours late) and a long drive. But other than the delay, it was good. I was in a hurry to go to St.Pete, since my parents were waiting for me there. They had arrived to Russia already on Thursday but of course they wanted to see the city from my point of view. Well, unfortunately we didn't have so much time, but fortunately we got a good Russian dinner with some rossiskoje shampanskoje. :) 

Dad & Mom in St.Pete

The graduation party was a bit different in St.Pete, we had the whole Harry Potter -look and overall the ceremony with all the speeches was more festive than in LUT. In the evening we had the after party in Malevich bar with the MIB students. 

Before the ceremony in the main building of the St.Pete State University

The second night I stayed at the Nevsky Grand Hotel, which was really nice (well, I payed 124 euros for one night, so it should be). On Sunday before taking the marshrutka back to Helsinki, I sat in the park behind Ruskii Muzei, went for a boat trip and did some shopping in Galleria. 

Oh, St.Pete, I will miss you...

View from Neva

Oh yeah, a thing that made my graduation even more exciting was that on Thursday morning I got a job offer from Kesko Food (IT department). Obviously I accepted it, as the position matches exactly what I have been studying & looking and wishing for. I will start 15.8. 

So now, it's a holiday!! :D Enjoy!

Defense completed

We had the last challenge of the MITIM program yesterday and the day before. We had the public defense, where we needed to present our theses and answer to any questions that the committee had. The committee consisted of several professors from GSOM and from an other university from St.Petersburg, professors and the dean from LUT and two company representatives (Technopolis Lappeenranta and a small consulting company). As the defense was a public one, there was also some quests. 

My turn to defend my thesis was on Tuesday at three. I have never before been so nervous about presenting. But as I started my presentation, most of the nervousness changed to excitement and the presentation went really well. As the committee started to ask questions, my heart started to beat like hell again. Fortunately the questions were rather easy for me to answer and there were not many questions. I got really good feedback too. Overall, I'm very satisfied with my grade (although, we still need to wait until Monday when we'll get the final grades). 

It's done now, we're Masters :D

LUT MITIMs + few GSOM MITIMs after the defense. Picture by Liisa-Maija Sainio. 

Life is sweet

I guess I don't need to say anything here :)

Hunting for a job

It's not as easy as one would think but I am optimistic. I would like to start working as soon as possible, but so far I have sent only five applications and no interviews yet. I am quite picky, I must say. I can't apply for a job if I truly can't see myself doing the thing. I do learn and adapt really quickly, so challenging or a tiny bit out of my career objective jobs wouldn't be a problem at all. After all, this is a starting point of my career and I can build it on the way and develop myself further. 


I am happy to hear that many of my MITIM colleagues have recently got jobs. They started to look for their jobs already earlier this spring, which would have been good for me too, but I wanted to concentrate on my thesis. I don't think it was a bad decision.


Ok, back to writing job applications.. It's the hardest part of the applying process (at least for a Finn to praise your own achievements feels embarrassing, but who's gonna flatter you if you don't do it yourself..?). Fingers crossed so I'd find a job soon!! 

It is done?

Is it?

Few hours back I sent my thesis to my supervisor for final comments. On Monday it needs to be ready for printing, so I still have time during the weekend to make final corrections if needed. I know there is always something, I could spend weeks and months to finalize and rewrite things. I know my thesis is not perfect, but it is pretty ok considering the time I have spent on it and the other things that has happened in my life that have messed up my concentration and motivation. Therefore, I decided to be satisfied with it and let it go, it is ready now. 

I should be happy now, but for some reason I'm feeling a bit sad. I don't know if it's because of all the things that happened during the past few years which I have tried to ignore but that I shouldn't have and now they are coming back to me? Or is it because I know that the past two years I have gained tremendous amount of great experiences and fantastic, beautiful friends to who I have to say goodbye (at least for a while)...? Or is this just a sign that I should take it easy for a little while, enjoy what I have accomplished and live in the moment for a while? ;)

I am already stressed over finding a job and a place to stay, even though I am not graduated yet... 

Ok, sorry for this highly personal post this time, I just wanted to warn all you who are starting to write their theses about these mixed post-thesis-writing-feelings that might occur.. Don't worry, I'm sure it's a bypassing phase :)

Almost ready with the thesis..

...and writing the acknowledgements makes me weep... 

Hyvä kevätflunssa,

tämä on omistettu sinulle. Kiitos käynnistäsi kevätflunssa, oli mukava levätä kanssasi ja katsoa leffoja mutta nyt sinun olisi jo aika lähteä. Ystäväni C-vitamiini, hunaja-tee ja Finrexin ovat samaa mieltä kanssani. Joten ole hyvä ja lähde ennenkuin kutsun valkosipuli-sipulimaidon tänne. Tiedäthän, se ei ole kummallekaan meistä erityisen miellyyttävää seuraa.. Joten ole hyvä kevätflunssa ja lähde vielä kun päätös on sinun. Kiitos.