Moninainen Kainuu

From Satakunta to Kainuu – Nina’s career story

I am Nina Vikkula, I work as a specialist in the business and employer services of the Kainuu TE Office. In addition to a wide range of business services tasks, my responsibilities include recruitment services and their development, as well as advising start-up entrepreneurs and preparing start-up funding decisions. I moved to Vuokatti from Pori a couple of years ago. Love brought me here.

Customer service and entrepreneurship

A large part of my working career has been spent in various customer service positions. After high school, my path took me to a family business in the clothing industry for 13 years and I trained in sales, supervisor and merchant positions alongside my work. This was followed by a strong passion for entrepreneurship and I continued to work as an entrepreneur in the same industry for over 9 years. I have always felt that I am primarily an entrepreneur, and even now I am motivated at work by the same inner entrepreneurship as when I work in my own company.

At this point, the interior design industry interested me, and I studied to become an interior designer. I did these jobs full-time for a few years and I still do work in the industry occasionally. Through customer service work, I ended up in the human resources sector in 2017. After almost 4 years spent in the private sector, I moved to the TE Office at the beginning of 2021.

Highlights and challenges

The highlights and most challenging situations of my career are certainly related to my entrepreneurial career. The situation was challenging at the beginning of 2002, when the introduction of the euro caused a loss of customers in our company, which had only been open for a few months. There have also been enough challenges during the family business, when as a child of a family business I have had to work twice as hard to earn my place. I have also had several challenging situations related to human resources management in my career, both as an entrepreneur and as a supervisor.

The highlights include the success and growth of my own company with new business locations and the AAA+ credit rating awarded for three consecutive years.

Flexible and individual working models

When I worked in the family business, I worked part-time when I returned to work from maternity leave. When I was an entrepreneur, I have occasionally only worked morning shifts because my children’s father traveled a lot. The end of entrepreneurship in 2010 was also due to family reasons – I wanted to give more time to my family and especially to my children.

My current employer supports the combination of personal life and work with flexible working hours and the possibility to use accrued leave according to one’s needs. Remote work also allows for the flexibility of combining one’s life with work.

 

We have a hybrid work system and it allows us to plan our own expenses and tasks more flexibly. I can also manage my own affairs during the working day, because the lunch break is 30-90 minutes long. I like to do large projects that require concentration at home, where I can work without interruption. I can do tasks that require community and sociability at the office. I also find face-to-face meetings important in terms of the transfer of tacit knowledge. I have studied vocational qualifications alongside my work (e.g. decorator, clothing retailer/entrepreneur). These have been very successful with apprenticeship training. I am currently studying a vocational qualification as a business advisor alongside my work through an apprenticeship. Our employer supports studying and self-development in a variety of ways during my work.
“It is really good to be and work here.”
Kainuu has clean nature and a variety of hobby and exercise opportunities that are diverse and accessible. The people of Kainuu are nice and relaxed people, and at least I have found it easy to get to know them.

In many traditional fields, the Kainuu work culture seems to be a bit inward-looking and traditional. On the other hand, for example, in expert positions there are employees who have come from elsewhere and the work culture is very diverse and progressive. This enables different employees and cultures to successfully unite.

One of the best things about living and working in Kainuu is that housing prices in Kainuu are affordable, at least compared to growth centers. There is a lot of nature and waterways in many municipalities. I personally like the peace and unhurriedness here.

Text and photos: Nina Vikkula