Summer job at NYAB – five of our summer employees share their experiences
17.07.24This summer, five enthusiastic and skilled summer employees are working at NYAB in Finland: civil engineering student Jasmin Salenius and electrical engineering student Eppu Veijalainen from the University of Tampere, study environmental engineering students Toivo Virtanen and Iiris Häkkinen from the University of Oulu, and Joonas Nissinen, who graduated a few years ago with a degree in business administration. Discover their insights and experiences as they share what it’s like to work at NYAB during their summer job.
From open applications to student events
Jasmin Salenius ended up getting a summer job at NYAB through an open summer job application, but reveals she already had information about the company through a family member.
“I have had the opportunity to visit NYAB’s construction sites thanks to my family member. Seeing different projects and hearing about them increased my interest in NYAB. As a child, I said that I wanted to work for Suomen Maastorakentajat (nowadays NYAB Finland), and here I am now, working a summer job at NYAB. It amuses me a lot because I would never have believed it would happen more than ten years later,” Jasmin says.
NYAB participated in three different student recruitment events earlier this year: Talent Forum in Vaasa, Pestipäivät in Oulu, and Yrityspäivät in Tampere. At these events, students had the opportunity to network and get to know various employers in the field. Eppu Veijalainen and Iiris Häkkinen got to know NYAB by attending a student event organized at their university.
“Through my studies, my interest in renewable energy and solar power has grown, and I wanted to work in this area of expertise. At a trade fair at the university, I talked with my current colleagues, who told me about the job opportunities offered by Sitema. Inspired by this, I decided to apply for a job, and here we are,” Iiris says.
Joonas Nissinen, on the other hand, received a tip about an open summer replacement position at NYAB. The position matched his previous work experience and seemed interesting overall, so he decided to apply.
Diverse tasks according to competence background
NYAB offers its summer employees a wide range of tasks ranging from assisting tasks on construction sites and offices to logistics, project management and accounting. The summer workers say that they have been able to engage in a wide range of tasks according to their area of expertise and interests, and the tasks have met their expectations well.
“My job involves managing logistics and quality matters for the Isosuo solar park project in Utajärvi. Renewable energy brings with it a lot of new things and new learning opportunities,” says Toivo Virtanen, who has previously worked on various projects.
Jasmin, on the other hand, says that she has issued work permits, conducted TR inspections, prepared meeting materials, carried out reinforcement inspections and acted as a casting supervisor. “In addition to these, I have handled various site engineer and safety officer tasks,” he adds.
Let’s succeed together
A positive and supportive work environment, as well as good team spirit, are key factors for job satisfaction. The significance of the work and the value generated by the employee’s own tasks are also considered important. This can mean a variety of job tasks, opportunities to influence one’s own work, and an understanding of how one’s own work contributes to the company’s goals. Meaningful and varied tasks that offer a suitable amount of challenge and opportunities to learn new things enhance job satisfaction.
“The work is suitably challenging, and I feel that I can now concretely apply my studies in renewable energy,” Toivo says.
The summer employees say that the work atmosphere and team spirit have been excellent from the very first day. They highlight that asking for help has not been intimidating, as colleagues have always been willing to assist.
“My colleagues are always ready to help and answer questions that might seem obvious to the most experienced workers,” Iiris appreciates.
“The work atmosphere is supportive, and the team spirit is collaborative. You always get help when you ask, and cooperation works well,” Eppu notes.
Jasmin values the relaxed work atmosphere and shared activities during field assignments: “During fieldwork, we’ve organised sports evenings where we’ve done things like running Copper’s tests, playing football, and trying out other sports. The subcontractors’ employees have been challenged to a football game and the autumn Cooper,” she reveals.
The best aspects of summer work
Learning new things, diverse work tasks, and self-development are the foremost positives when asked what the best part of the summer job has been so far. Depending on the job description and tasks, the possibility to work remotely receives praise. In addition to their own work, some summer employees have had the opportunity to explore other roles within the industry.
“The management has come up with additional construction-related tasks for me, so I can further develop my knowledge in the construction industry even more,” Jasmin appreciates.
At NYAB, summer employees can get involved in large projects. Toivo mentions that, in addition to getting to know people in the industry, it has been great to be part of the significant Utajärvi Solar Park project on a national scale. Eppu and Joonas also add that the staff days held in May were a pleasant experience, as they had the opportunity to meet other NYAB employees from all over Finland in person.
Expectations for the end of summer
All the summer employees are eagerly looking forward to the rest of the summer and the upcoming weeks of work, hoping to utilize their skills and apply everything they have learned during the summer in practice.
“The responsibility in my job will increase even more when my supervisor goes on vacation and I take over the site engineer duties,” Jasmin says.
Toivo, on the other hand, is most looking forward to learning and seeing the concrete implementation and various stages of the Utajärvi solar power project.
Summer work at NYAB is full of learning, new experiences, and pleasant moments. These young summer employees’ stories highlight the importance of offering diverse and interesting job opportunities to future professionals. NYAB has succeeded in creating a work environment where learning and development are at the core and where every employee feels part of the team.
In photo, from left to right: Joonas Nissinen, Eppu Veijalainen, Jasmin Salenius, Iiris Häkkinen ja Toivo Virtanen.
