Unlocking summer potential
Summer is almost here and so are the iLOQ summer trainees. From the end of April until the second week of May, 15 new summer trainees and students started their summer jobs in different roles at iLOQ, with an additional few starting a bit later.
It’s been an unusual spring this year. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of layoffs and redundancies worldwide because of the Coronavirus crisis. Also, thousands of summer jobs have been cancelled or postponed. Luckily, this hasn’t been the case with iLOQ. The markets in the locking industry have been good, considering the circumstances. There have been some innovative new ideas of making business and our team spirit has grown even stronger as spring moves onwards. We are confident that innovative people will find agile ways to adapt and adjust to any circumstances and make the best of it.
Talking about our summer interns, trainees and students, we had certain qualifications for what kind of teammates we were looking for. We needed trainees to fill summer jobs in several different teams: electronics, finance, software testing, logistics, supplier management, production and engineering. Preferred qualifications mirrored our existing culture: the new people would most likely be, for example, innovative and professionally orientated, they would have initiative, passion, co-operation skills, high energy and courage. And I am proud to say, we managed to find some very good summer iLOQians!
Five of our summer trainees told me about their background:
- Saga is working in the Supplier Management team as a Buyer. This is her second summer at iLOQ. She is studying Economics at the University, and the fourth year of her studies will start after the summer
- Kalle began his Electronics Designer internship this week. He is studying Electrical Engineering at the University and is also starting his fourth year this autumn
- Miika is our Financing trainee. He is a Master of Science in Accounting student and also his fourth year is about to start
- Olli is about to graduate as an Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics already next month, and he is working as a Production Engineer during the summer
- Iiro is part of our Software Testing team. He will also start his fourth year at the University studying Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics.
When I asked about their feelings in general during this spring, they all pretty much shared the same opinion: frustration and disappointment from the lack of interest from companies. Making an interesting CV and application takes time and you put a lot of effort into it. In addition, you may need to fill in some forms, create user IDs or answer some video questions. When you don’t receive any answer or even a thank you email, that is pretty frustrating. Or the process is made too heavy and, after three months, you receive a “thank you, but you were not one of our top candidate from the 3000 applicants”, which doesn’t really make you feel like trying again. Young people appreciate personal and quick responses, updates and simple ways of applying. I think this applies also to any level of applicants for any role. All five of the trainees I spoke to were happy with the agile and easy iLOQ application process. And the team spirit at iLOQ felt welcoming, friendly, and positive right from the beginning.
Miika explained that he started sending summer job applications already in January. He sent about twenty applications to different companies. iLOQ was his number one choice because of several years’ interest in the Company and being an iLOQ key user himself. Actually, he sent his application even before the vacancy was published.
Saga’s persistence was rewarded last summer when applying to iLOQ for the first time. She introduced herself to the manager with a CV and a couple of phone calls, and afterwards got hired for the summer.
Olli told that from day one he felt very comfortable at iLOQ. During an onboarding tour of the office, he met many employees from different sections. Each one talked with him and made him feel welcome.
Iiro was glad that he was able to participate in ongoing projects immediately. He loves the modern technology and was thrilled get first-hand experience already in his first week.
Kalle works in our Electronics team. He was happy about the mentoring process and the fact that you can ask advice from anyone and everybody is happy to help.
Everyone agreed that when doing actual work, and not reading about it, you start to see and understand the complexity and cause-effect relationships that things have in the workplace. It is a great opportunity to learn new things from experienced professionals and to bring fresh and innovative ideas to the team.
I wish you all a warm welcome to iLOQ. It is time to unlock your potential and spread your wings!
Author: Jaana Laitala, HR Specialist, iLOQ
