EBS Helsinki alumna Leena Ahvenjärvi: "Trust yourself and your intuition when making career choices."

Leena Ahvenjärvi
Leena Ahvenjärvi
Leena Ahvenjärvi graduated from EBS Helsinki in 2020. Currently, she works at IKEA as Online Content Specialist. She urges you to try hard until you find your own path and calling in professional life.
  • Name: Leena Ahvenjärvi
  • Graduation year: 2020
  • Study Programme: Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences, International Business Administration / Marketing
  • Workplace: Online Content Specialist, IKEA

 

Why did you choose to study at EBS?

I had been living in the US and taken some courses at the local college. After returning to Finland, I wanted to continue studying in English. My plan was to work here for a year and then move to London to study...until I saw an advert promoting Estonian Business School. For the next months I did some research on EBS and it seemed like a good option. That and several personal reasons eventually led to me applying to EBS and deciding to stay in Finland.

 

What did EBS give you?

EBS gave me a wide professional and personal network, as I was a member of HEBS, our student board, during my studies. The lecturers were very professional and the wide variety of different courses gave us a good foundation to pursue our professional careers in different fields. EBS also gave me a lot of flexibility to pursue my career on the side. Module-based teaching made it pretty easy to combine work and studies. Not to mention that I made a lot of friends and good memories during my studies!

 

To whom would you recommend EBS?

I would recommend EBS to anyone wanting to study in English and to enhance their professional vocabulary and knowledge. Many employers have been pleased by our language skills! I would also recommend EBS to people wishing to be able to combine their current job and their studies.

 

What was your first corporate job?

During my studies I worked as a part-time recruiter and as a Sales Assistant, which was fun! Shortly before graduating I landed my first full-time job as a Marketing Manager at a Fortune 500 company. After nearly 1,5 years there, I wanted to pursue something more creative with less multitasking and started to look for jobs within content creation.

 

What are you currently doing for a living?

I currently work at IKEA as an Online Content Specialist, and I love it! I get to create content for both online and offline channels and handle our social media together with my colleagues. I create inspiring articles, translate different catalogues, create content for multiple channels and much more. My job includes multiple projects and stakeholders and it is a perfect combination of business mindset and creativity.

 

What is your future dream?

My future dream is to keep working in the field of marketing, preferably within inspiring content. I’m not looking to reach any specific position, I just wish to keep working with meaningful and engaging tasks that I enjoy. Apart from professional life, my dream is to own an old wooden house with a big garden!

 

Alumni Career Advice:

Trust yourself and your intuition when making career choices. Try, try and try until you find your own path and calling in (professional) life. Also, don’t forget to be humble and respectful towards other people. You can be the best in your field, but if you lack empathy and humanity, there’s a good chance nobody will like to work with you. :)

 

 

Find more EBS alumni stories here or apply to our bachelor's programmes by 4 August here!