Career services help students find a job and reflect on their careers

Self-reflection, career dreams and identifying personal competence are among the biggest themes in the job of Esa Hukkanen, a career services specialist at Laurea.

Career services are part of Laurea’s student well-being team. The well-being team supports students’ well-being and coping in a multidisciplinary manner. In addition to career services, the team includes university chaplains, counselling psychologists, a university social worker and special needs teachers.

Career Services Specialist Esa helps students in looking for work and career-related discussions. The topics of individual meetings and workshops include preparing a CV, career plans, jobseekers’ personal branding and preparing for job interviews.

-Students often come to me when reflecting on what to do when they grow up. This is not an age-dependent issue, but something that older students are also thinking about, Esa says.

The question is always approached individually with the students. Some students’ job search is guided by their current skills and previous experience. Others are strongly motivated by finding employment in a specific industry.

Becoming a career coach through different opportunities

Esa Hukkanen thinks back to his own career path. Before his role as a career coach, he felt unsure about his plans and growth opportunities.

- It is tough to feel uncertain about which direction to take in your career. I would like to help others with similar feelings, Esa says.

Esa familiarised himself with career-related issues and realised he enjoys the jobseeking process. He seized the opportunities that came up, which led him to find employment as a career coach. He started working at Laurea in December 2022.

-The key to my reflections on my career was participating in different situations with an open mind.

Self-reflection pays in jobseeking

Unsuccessful job searches and students’ insecurity about their professional skills may cause feelings of frustration and therefore affect their everyday coping. According to Esa, the most common concern of students in working life is the feeling that everyone else knows what they want from their future and career. However, this is not the case, and Esa encourages students to reflect on which choices feel right for them.

You should not limit your job search to places that match the competence you already have.

-This may restrict your development and job search. You learn more about yourself through experiments. When looking for a job, you should think about what you would like to do, even though you’re not able to do everything yet, says Esa.

Help with preparing for job interviews

You can book an appointment for individual counselling in the career services booking system or by email (esa.hukkanen@laurea.fi). The contact information for Career Services is available on the student intranet. Esa recommends that students book appointments for purposes such as discussing job interview situations.

-Drawing up job applications takes a lot of time, so you may forget about preparing for the interviews. When people get invited to an interview, they often believe that they will manage it without preparation. During the individual counselling sessions, we often notice that the student lacks interview skills.

As his final tip, Esa encourages students to participate widely in Laurea’s various events and to also select courses whose themes may seem unfamiliar.

-The more uncertain you are about your future, the bolder you should be in trying new things.

International students are also welcome to the counselling.

-Sometimes people struggle to relate their work experience and education obtained abroad to the needs in Finland. Different countries also use different kinds of job search templates and CVs. We can discuss Finland’s labour market together.

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