“Earning money”, and “getting work experience to put on my CV”. When you ask a student why they are looking to get a summer job, those are the first two reasons that inevitably come up.
In Finland, particularly in engineering and technology related fields, summer jobs are especially common. According to the 2023 TEK Graduate Survey (TGS), 30% of Finnish students graduated with over two years of field-relevant work experience during their studies, even excluding the master’s thesis. Another 39% had over one year of field-relevant experience by graduation.
What are the reasons why summer work has such a high importance, and why is it therefore about even more than money and experience for an international student?
1. Building your network
A network is one of the most crucial aspects of thriving after graduation in Finland. This means more than knowing a lot of people from networking events, it means having people who trust you and your skills and can provide linkage points between you and others.
Only 18% of employed TGS respondents had no previous collaboration with their employer. The connection can be created through course projects, student association activity, the master’s thesis, or crucially, through summer work. One summer job does not just help you learn about that company, it can help you learn about companies across the whole sector and make connections to future coworkers in them.
2. Understanding Finnish working culture
Even in an ever-more global world, different countries still hold quite distinct working cultures. In Finland, this manifests for example as a high focus on self-drive, straight forward communication, and a low company hierarchy. While someone should not have to change themselves to match this, it is vital they can fit in and thrive in those surroundings.
A summer job is a way to learn and practice this, in a setting where it should be comfortable to do so. In addition, you can practice the other “soft skills” that Finnish employers expect, such as meeting style, team working ability, and valuing a work-life balance. Respondents of the TGS saw working life skills as the most important skill to receive during their studies.
3. Familiar work experience
In the Survey of International Experts that TEK published together with Insinööriliitto in August, a common source of complaint about the job searching process was the lack of recognition given to foreign education and work experience. While this will improve as Finnish companies become more global, having easily relatable work experience is still critical. This can then act as a gateway to discussing previous work experience and skills.
4. Language practice
Few or no companies expect an international student, especially one coming for a master’s degree only, to speak work life level Finnish or Swedish by graduation. This doesn’t mean that some language skills don’t come in handy, and the workplace is the perfect place to get some simple practice in. Even daily greetings and being able to say how you are doing is more than many hiring managers may expect from a non-native interviewee.
For many, a summer job may also be the first time working in English. Practicing this is important if it will be your primary working language in the future.
5. The master’s thesis
Doing a master’s thesis for the private sector increases the chance of being employed at graduation for an international graduate by two to four times. This is according to analysis of the TGS, which found that even for Finnish students the difference was notable.
The most common route to a master’s thesis is via summer work. It is your time to familiarize yourself with your employer, making each of you better suited to the other, and finding a potential thesis topic. Securing an industry summer job can therefore be a crucial step towards employment after graduation.
How to do it?
Of course, the benefits of a summer job don’t matter if you cannot enter an employment relationship, and that is ultimately up to employers. While TEK works to create a technology industry for everyone, it is still the case that there may be employers who require Finnish, or otherwise do not hire international students. There can also be high demand amongst applicants for jobs in English, leading to tough competition for those places, and so the rejection of even high-quality candidates.
It is important to remember that there is only so much you can do, and that your studies and mental health come before getting a summer job. While beneficial, it is far from the only route to success.
If you are putting in a lot of work, however, make sure you are doing it in the right way. To find out how TEK can support you in moving from student to summer job worker, come listen to the “Get a (Summer) Job!” event and webinar on Thursday 7.11. from 14.15-16.00, or later via the recording.
