Tampere Talent Ambassadors

Tampere Talent Ambassador Bolarinwa Akindaini works as an Economic and Statistical Researcher at Nasdaq Stockholm

Hello! I am Thanida Dharmajiva, an HR talent attraction coordinator and most recently an entrepreneur who recruits talents for Finland. I have seven years of experience in project coordination, talent attraction, marketing, and communications in international organizations, i.e. the technology company Continental. Self-development is a notable theme in my entrepreneurial journey. Being an entrepreneur allows me to push myself to take action and execute my passions while learning new things.

I come from Rayong, an eastern Thai province, known for its national parks, beautiful beaches and industrial development. The city is 2 hours away from Bangkok and takes only 40 minutes to Pattaya. While Thailand is known as the Detroit of Asia, my hometown is recognized as the “Detroit of Thailand”. The province is home to over 918,400 populations and 109 automotive supply-line companies including 9 of the world’s top 10 automotive suppliers.

I consider myself proactive and caring which means I respect people’s time and effort. I plan things well and make sure I act immediately. I am a good listener who values the ideas of others and is straightforward when needed. I like to bring out the best in people. You might find me encouraging colleagues to share and help summarize their ideas. My pride comes from my ability to help others which is why I devoted my time to supporting communities where I have lived e.g., teaching unfortunate kids, visiting old people, and giving advice to people in need. My goal is to expand my networks in Finland and Thailand and dwell in the business of education which I believe will bring a positive impact on society.

What is the best about Tampere

Coming from Thailand, I am amazed at how Tampere has provided comfortable life to people of all ages. I am impressed to see disabled and old people get into public transportation conveniently. Children travel safely and families here have a chance to maintain a work-life balance. This is fortunate for everyone as we breathe fresh air, live close to nature, fulfill our passions and nurture families in a safe place.

Moving to Tampere in 2016 meant getting to know a new city from scratch for me. What I enjoy the most about living in Tampere is hanging around the Hatanpää Arboretum and Rose Garden. I love to explore the different types of roses and sit by the lake in this peaceful area during Summer. Tampere has everything that a good city could offer; safe business hubs, public support for international talents, culture, nature, and fun events.

My mission as Tampere Ambassador

My country and Tampere are 8000 kilometers away from each other and I believe the two cities can learn from each other. Apart from promoting beautiful places in Tampere, I would like to project a livable city idea to Thai society as well as introduce more business connections from my home country. My main connections are in the educational field as I studied education in both my bachelor’s and master’s. I hope to be a facilitator who connects Finnish educational institutions with Thai schools and universities.

LIFE IS ABOUT THE JOURNEY

My Life Did Not Start Here...

Originally from Brazil, I come from a big family with a lot of uncles and cousins. My father was a self-taught, succesful, city worker. His hobbies were: composing songs for piano, writing poetry, and repairing watches. The puzzle of it was fascinating to him! My mother loves challenges, she is very much involved with social issues, and she is also talented with handicrafts. Now, at the age of 90+, she is a member of a motorcycle club in Brazil. What a lady! 

Life is about the journey. I don’t see limitation as something that can stop me. For me it’s just a flag that shows me that I need to find another way to do what I want to do. My main interest in life is people and social causes. When I was young, I learned how to listen myself. This gave me a strong personality and values, but it also gave me the total freedom to enjoy of being a part of the diversity – without the need to agree and just accept the differences in people’s choices.

My Work Diary

I breathe changes and eat challenges in all shapes and forms. This has given me the opportunities to work in different jobs and fields. You name it, I have done it or I will take it as an idea for next! 🙂

Recently, in collaboration with Ramona Bilmez, Business Coordinator at the City of Tampere, we started a Cultural Business Training. A series of gatherings, meetings, and workshops bringing together a multitude of cultures in our city while promoting entrepreneurship.

Currently, I’m writing a new exciting chapter in my life – I am a business partner with my lovely husband in the food industry. What a journey! We run a small food trailer at Tammelantori – Tapioca Soul where we offer our own interpretation of Brazilian food and catering service with the option of live music entertainment by me and my fellow musicians. This year we became sponsors of Rafael Giorgio, a Brazilian Futsal player at Ilves FS. One of my personal goal is to inspire other small companies to engage with society and invest in talents. People are not only our customers, they are an important part of the chain.

I am a Citizen of the World, but I Found My “Sweet Home” in Tampere

I believe in creating solutions and opportunities. I came from a country where we don’t have a social system as in Finland, one has to be creative and most of the time, literally build from scratch or even from nothing and get it done in a big way. That could be one of my contributions. What potential do you see for Tampere in the future? Just the desire to try and make changes is already a great reason to believe that Tampere has the potential. I see Tampere as a canvas with a lot of magic blank spaces, we have the opportunity to fill it with new colors that come from our amazing diversity of talents and paint the future we want to create for the next generations. It is never too soon or too late, now we are here, that makes it perfect timing to do that.

CONNECTION WITH NATURE

Catherine Ghersi, a publicist and wilderness guide from Chile, came to Tampere to start her career as a wilderness guide. She has been living all around the world  but in Tampere, she really feels the closeness and connection with nature.

Tampere Talent Ambassador Catherine Ghersi

MULTICULTURAL LAYERS OF THE CITY OF TAMPERE

I am a multi-disciplinary artist working with tools such as photography, drawing, painting and installation. I have participated in artist residency programs; selected shows at art institutions in Belgium, Turkey and Finland. At the beginning of 2020, I moved to Tampere, Finland and embarked upon a new step in my career at the international level.  I became a member of the Tampere Artists’ Association, and I still continue my artistic research & production that focuses on the typographic application of an abstract alphabet influenced by sleeping patterns. Starting from October 2020, I became a proud member of the International Tampere Talent Ambassadors Network.

Aside from my artistic career, I worked in the art & culture industry, higher education sector while participating in freelance marketing and design projects, which included leading strategic research-driven campaigns, re-branding, developing design solutions on print media, photographic & video production but not limited to visual content production but writing/editing editorial content. Currently, I am studying at Tampere University at the faculty of Education and Culture to develop pedagogical competencies in the lifelong learning and workplace pedagogy fields while offering services for designing and planning art education curriculum, artistic activities and workshops at the local cultural institutions on behalf of Tampere Intercultural Art Community.

Despite the trying times, Tampere Talent Ambassadors have been actively working to build social & professional connections to support professional development of the community while engaging in projects targeting international talent attraction and retention through online seminars and networking events. The COVID-19 and transition process at the public realm was never easy; however, I am happy to participate in a community that does not give up on their dreams, missions and continue working very hard to meet their goals even under very restricting conditions. This is the Finnish sisu  and that  gives me hope & motivation to become an active participant in the community to support the diversity, inclusivity of the city of Tampere. 

A MEANINGFUL DECADE IN A MEANINGFUL CITY

Hello everyone, nice to meet you!

My name is Victoria Laaksonen and I am originally from Russia. I moved to Finland in 2010, in the age of 19, all by myself – after dreaming about it for several years as a teenager and finally finding a way to make the dream come true. My first trip to Finland was made a year earlier, it was my actual birthday on the 11th of August – I turned 18, it was finally possible for me to travel alone as an adult, so I headed abroad for the first time in my life, and spent a week in Helsinki and Tampere with my friend whom I met online. Back then all I could say in Finnish was “moi”, “kiitos” and a couple of swear words. After that I visited a couple of times and exactly a year later I moved to Finland already able to speak fluent Finnish (motivation and practice were the key for me if you wonder) as I became a student of a Finnish vocational school. 

After graduating I moved to Tampere, so if I count the numerous visits and times/weeks/months which I spent before settling down here, it makes about a decade that I’ve spent in Tampere. Usually one’s twenties are a very important chapter, and it has been very meaningful for me too: during this decade spent in Tampere there happened many first’s and many significant milestones of my life: for example first job, our marriage, birth of our 2 kids… So, yes, this place really holds special times in my heart and in my history. 

One of the reasons for wanting to become a Tampere Ambassador was my will to give back to this city. I am honored to be accepted as one of Talent Ambassadors and being able to take a part in projects meaningful for this city’s current and future residents and even for the city’s brand and reputation: it is great that Tampere values equality, accessibility, diversity and sustainability, and I am happy to participate in projects helping to increase the diversity and togetherness in our society.

Currently I am a third-year student at Tampere university, a translator (let me know if you need a translation from Finnish to Russian or backwards, English goes too!) and I also work part-time at the university as an Research assistant/Industry ambassador and HUB’s growth hacker until the end of this academic year. 

The topics of my interest are for example personal growth and entrepreneurship. I love to learn about things through others’ experience, so another reason for joining the Tampere Ambassador programme is that I’d like to gain a wider perspective on life, to get to look at things from others’ points of view, to hear about different experiences – as I think all of this enriches our lives in general, and of course to network in order to make the things mentioned above possible. I consider myself as a very empathetic and understanding person, so I think I’m in a right place. 

As a hobby I do photography and am much into interior decorating – particularly for kids and in general. From time to time I update my Instagram page with pictures and little stories about our life, so feel free to connect with me over there @laa_victoria or via LinkedIn where you can find me by my name. See you around!

THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY

Shruti Mittal comes from India, Delhi. She followed her spouse to Finland 3 years ago, in December 2017. Shruti has an engineering background, currently she is working at Lionbridge as a Scrum Master. She describes her journey in Tampere incredible – she has had some of her best experiences here.

“I wish you all the best, and invite you for an incredible journey here in Tampere!”

On this video, Shruti Mittal shares more about her journey in Tampere. 

TAMPERE TAUGHT ME TO BE ENTREPRENEURIAL

I am from Tomsk, Russia, a half a million city in Siberia with 410-year history, six public universities and a number of private ones.

In Tomsk, I was working as an academic exchange coordinator, sending students abroad, and one day my boss forwarded to me information about the Erasmus Mundus scholarship to check for our students… But I couldn’t resist applying myself! As a result I got a chance to study in three countries: Norway, Finland and Portugal. The fourth semester we could choose where to write our Master’s thesis and I chose Tampere (over Oslo, that was offered to me), because I felt at home here (plus it was closer to Russia and not as expensive as Oslo :).

What would you like to tell about yourself?

During my 14 years in Tampere I have tried several hats: that of  a Master student, a  PhD researcher focusing on international graduate employability, an Erasmus+ project administrator, a planning officer,  a Conference producer and a part-time entrepreneur. I can’t say that my career path is smooth and stable, but due to certain instability of work positions I developed my sisu and learned to be entrepreneurial. I am going to write a research article about the importance of entrepreneurial capital soon.

What advice can you give to international talents planning to come to study in Tampere and stay for work?

As a researcher of  international graduate employability and an international graduate myself, the major advice that I can give is: if you can’t find a job, think of creating one yourself! 

Tampere entrepreneurial ecosystem (Demola, Y-kampus, Tribe, Tampere ES, Ensimetri, Red Brick Accelerator) will help you in this. So join their activities/programs already during your studies.  

And if you are planning to become a PhD student, please keep in mind that these days even PhD students have to be entrepreneurial as they often need to secure external funding for their studies. Grant writing and networking will be very important skills to master.

Why is Tampere the best place to live?

I am in love with Tampere’s nature and the view from Pyynikki tower. I guess, every other Ambassador has mentioned that already, yet it’s just worth seeing once all these lakes and forests! No wonder so many international students want to stay here after graduation (according to my research – at least 60%). 

Tampere is beautiful, safe, walkable, bike-able, fun (just wait for Vappu!) and foreigner-friendly. I am proud that the Mentoring program, Hidden Gems and the Ambassadors Talent Tampere networks were developed here.

Tell us more about your professional activities.

I work at Tampere University as a researcher, doing my PhD on the topic of International graduate employability in Finland and I am also involved in several EU funded projects. As an entrepreneur I organized more than 10 summer schools and professional development trainings for Russian partners in Tampere. 

Beside this, I am promoting the activities of Tampere Center for Russian Culture by organizing cooking/handicrafts and art workshops.

What is your involvement in international activities?

My workplace is quite international and in the EU-funded projects, I cooperate with a large network of partner universities from Europe, Asia, Russia and Ukraine.  In addition, I am glad that Tampere international community is becoming more active and I am trying to support my friends’ projects.

What potential do you see for Tampere in the future?

I believe that there is a huge potential in the international students who come to study here and stay after graduation as they build bridges between Tampere and their home cities and countries; bring diversity and stimulate innovation. And of course, I would like to see the new tram line finished and in action!