Summer blog: A successful recruitment process creates a positive employer image

To whom it may concern,

I am Aliisa Mäkinen, soon-to-be fifth-year economics student and one of the lucky summer workers at Aktia in 2021. Today, I share with you my thoughts on Aktia’s summer recruitment process and on how, during these exceptional times, the work has started from the remote office at my one-room flat.

Summer job seeking is a nightmare for every student – countless job applications, continuous CV refining and preparation for job interviews. At the same time, there is often a large pile of unfinished schoolwork requiring your attention and, perhaps, part-time work. Even the deadline for the student exchange application is conveniently at the end of January. In the midst of this storm, the ease of the Aktia summer job application process gave an excellent image of Aktia as an employer even before the work began.

The recruitment process highlighted three things that I am sure every student appreciates when applying for work: speed, clarity and simplicity. In my case, the recruitment process began in December when I ran into the aTalent ad for summer jobs at Aktia. Although – with Christmas and the last exams on my mind – I had hardly had time to think about the forthcoming summer job search, it would have been foolish not to apply with a simple CV application. And fortunately I did, because in January, I got an e-mail invitation to the AktiaSummer recruitment event, where I was lucky to be able to make a positive impression on the recruiting supervisor during our short interview. After that, we proceeded to a discussion where I was already able to hear more about future work tasks and meet my future team. The biggest perk in the entire recruitment process was that the employment contract was signed before mid-February, which made it possible for me to focus on other things for the rest of the spring.

The positive employer image of Aktia created in the recruitment process has also continued since the start of the work in the first week of May. I myself work in Information Security, where, in the first month, I have been able to dive deep into that world and have been given an appropriate amount of responsibility and projects of my own. Of course, a twist to the new work has been to work remotely due to these exceptional times. In fact, since the first working day, I have only been to the office once. Apart from the poor office ergonomics, starting the new job remotely has proceeded more smoothly than expected – a resourceful and vigorous attitude goes a long way. The most important factor has been the open dialogue, which has made it easy to ask for help at a low threshold.

In the coming summer, I look forward to more learning, success and getting to know the other Aktia-employees. From the student's point of view, I hope more companies pay attention to making the recruitment process smooth for the applicants. This can make a surprisingly big difference in creating a positive employer image.

Enjoy the season and the rest of the summer! Best regards,

Aliisa Mäkinen
Summer Trainee, Information Security