What did I learn?

Neljä ja puoli kuukautta takana. Ennen lähtöä kirjoitin: Uskon, että tämä kesä antaa minulle enemmän kuin uskallan edes toivoa. En olisi voinut olla enempää oikeassa. Tämä kesä antoi minulle uskomattoman paljon.

Opin, kuinka paljon ympäristö vaikuttaa. Jos sinulla on aktiivinen kämppis, joka kannustaa sinua kokemaan enemmän, sinä todennäköisesti teet enemmän. Kun sinut tiputetaan keskellä tuntematonta, sinun on sopeuduttava ja tämä tekee kehityksestäsi nopeampaa, sillä sinun on haastettavatta itseäsi enemmän. 

Olen utealias persoona, olen aina ollut. Välillä olen saanut siitä negatiivistä palautetta, jonka takia yritän paikoitellen hillitä itseäni. Olen kuitenkin täällä oppinut, että uteliaisuus on ominaisuus, jota kannattaa vaalia. Olen ylpeä uteliaisuudestasi ja pyrin näyttämään sen yhä avoimemmin. 

Opin, kuinka erilaista on olla asiakaspalvelija puhelimitse. Ilmeiden ja eleiden puuttuminen tekee kommunikaatiosta erilaista, minun tapauksessani haastavampaa. Mielestäni kuitenkin kehityin asiassa ja saamani palaute olikin pääasiassa positiivista. 

Tutustuin tiketöintijärjestelmä Aquaan (BMC Remedy IT Service Management) ja opettelin tallentamaan, analysoimaan, kategorisoimaan ja priorisoimaan saapuvia tikettejä. Opin, kuinka pitkä prosessi yksinkertaisen ohjelman asennuksen takana voi olla. Opin, kuinka paljon erilaisia tapoja toimia.

Kun opin perusteet, pyrin tietoisesti pois harjoittelija-roolista, sillä se tuntui kovin rajoittavalta. Olin ensimmäisen tason tuki - se joka on yhteydessä asiakkaaseen ja varmistaa, että ongelmat ratkaistaan Kemiran toimintatapojen mukaisesti. Halusin lisää vastuuta ja sitä sainkin. Viimeisen kuukauden vietin auttaen uusia suomalaisia työntekijöitä.

Tavoitteeni harjoittelulle oli kehittää omaa työminääni ja koen tuon tavoitteen toteutuneen. Kunnianhimoni on kasvanut, olen sopivalla tavalla ammattilainen ja minulla on selkeämpi kuva itsestäni työntekijänä. Minulla on kuitenkin olo, että Kemiralla olisi vielä paljon annettavaa minulle. Saa nähdä, mitä tulevaisuus tuo tullessaan.
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Four and half months. Before going to Poland I wrote: I believe this summer will give me more I ever dared to dream. I couldn't be more right. This summer gave me incredible much.

I learnt how much your surroundings affects you. If you have active roommate who encourages you to experience more, you probably do much more. When you are dropped in middle of new environment, you have to adapt yourself to it and it makes your development process quicker, you need to challenge yourself more.

I am curious person, I have always been. Sometimes I get negative feedback about it and I try to hold myself down. Here I have learnt to appreciate it again and I try to show it more.

I learnt how different it is to be in customer service via phone. When facial expressions and gestures are missing, it makes communication different and in my case, it means harder. I believe I made some progress with it and most of the feedback I got was positive.

I became familiar with ticketing tool Aqua (BMC Remedy IT Service Management) and learnt how to record, analyze, categorize and prioritize incoming tickets. I learnt how long process basic software installation can be. I learnt how many different ways of working there are.

After I learnt the basics, I tried to get out of the intern role. The intern role can be extremely suffocating. I was the first line support which took care of the basic incidents, contacted the end-user and made sure everything is handled correctly. I wanted more responsibility and I got it. I spent last month helping the new Finnish employees.

My goal for my internship was to develop my working self and in my opinion I achieved it. My ambition has grown, I'm just right kind of professional and I see myself more clearly. I have a feeling Kemira would still have a lot to offer for me. We will see what happens in the future.

September

Last month here. Completely different month. Everyday has been different. I started September with car crash and concussion, continued by saying bye to all the other interns.

Then my dear friend visited me and we did most of the mandatory tourist stuffs in one week. We visited Stutthof, Old Town and Westerplatte. Tried different foods, mainly sushi though. Partied with my co-workers, talked for hours. 

After she went back to Finland, I started to spend more time with my co-workers. We went to beach, watched movies, partied, went to Oliwa park.. I did almost everything I wanted to do before going back to Finland. 

During this last month my position at work slightly changed. Other interns left in the beginning of September which meant I was only Finnish speaker in the mornings. Oh, the quiet mornings alone, it was beautiful. I am still an intern, but I am not the newest agent in IT Service Desk anymore. Our team got two new Finnish members and one new Swedish speaker.

This month has been full of explaining things and realizing how little I actually know. If I ever thought I have gotten any good at my work, this has taught me to be more humble. There is still lot to learn.

Two weeks left.

In two weeks I will be back in Finland. My internship in Kemira Gdansk will be over and I will go back to my Finnish life. I have so mixed feelings about it. It is lovely to see Kalle ja Marsa and all my other friends. It is awesome to be able to touch my love ones, go to the movies or have basic dinner. All that normal stuff you miss when you are abroad.

But it also means going back to Hämeenmaa and school. I always loved working for Hämeenmaa, I was really good at my job and it was kind of second home for me. Now I have been away almost 5 months and I'm not even sure who is working there. Also my professional ambition has started to grow and I want more, I want different.

Besides working in Hämeenmaa, I will need to finish my studies. I don't have that many courses for autumn semester, but I will have some projects in Neloskerros. 26 ECTS plus thesis left, it's not that much. I have always been bad at studying and motivating myself to study, but I really want to graduate.

Going back to situation where you have to study and work at the same won't be nice. It means I won't have energy nor time to exercise, see my friends or have quiet time for myself. It also means I have to face the reverse culture shock again. At least this time I know what am I going to face so it won't be complete surprise.

Two weeks left. I have to make the most of it. 

August

This month has been crazy. Every week has been different and there hasn't been such a thing called normal day. I have been full of energy and love, everything is so beautiful. Poland has been so good for me and it hurts to know I have only one month left.

August started with kind of hard week. All the tickets seemed to be stuck in my queue and I had no idea what to do with them. It is frustrating to realize I still need to ask for help. I have been here over 3 months now and I should know more. Luckily my team is always ready to help.

Next week I was working from home. First time in my life. And it was awesome. I was listening music all day, dancing in my own peace without getting any comments from my colleage. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get or make any calls since I was having quite bad cough. It helped me realize how much I use phone in my work. Luckily I still managed to solve some tickets.

After spending one week home almost completely alone I was thrilled to come back to work. I had so much energy and I just wanted to hug everyone at work. Apparently being alone does not suit me that well. Third I just enjoyed being back at the office and having all that energy. On Saturday Kalle came visit me again.

Since Kalle was here the final week of August was full of love. Work days flew by since every day I had something to wait. We visited Gdynia, partied, went to movies, ate well, watch whole season of The Returned.. All the stuff you do with your significant other. It was extremely sad to let Kalle go back. My coworker even said I seemed to be more happy when he was here which of course was true.

This month was pure gold, every week was different and special in its own way. It feels so weird I have only one month left.

I just jinxed it.

Juuri kun ehdin päivittelemään, kuinka rauhallista töissä on, työmäärä tietenkin moninkertaistui. Puheluiden määrä kasvoi räjähdysmäisesti, kun suuri osa suomalaisia palasi lomilta. Suurin osa heistä oli tietenkin unohtanut salasanansa, mikä kertoo onnistuneesta lomasta. Osalta tunnukset olivat menneet lukkoon. Onneksi molemmat tapaukset ovat nopeita ja helppoja hoitaa. Vastaavanlaisia piikkejä puhelumäärissä lienee odotettavissa tulevina maanantaina, kun loput ihmiset palailevat kesälomilta.

Työpäivät vain lentävät siivillä. Uusia puheluita ja tikettejä saapuu jatkuvasti ja vain kerran tällä viikolla olen onnistunut saamaan kaikki tikettini "pending"-tilaan. Tuntuu uskomattomalta, kun tekemistä on niin paljon. Se saa tuntemaan itsensä tärkeäksi ja merkitykselliseksi. Se saa arvostamaan täysmiehitystä ja ymmärtämään, kuinka suuri yhden ihmisen panos voi olla. Yksi henkilö tiimistämme on tällä hetkellä lomalla, mikä vaikuttaa yllättävän paljon.

Toivottavasti tilanne helpottuu loppuviikosta.
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As soon as I said we have peaceful time at work, workload multiplied. Amount of calls grew exponentially when a large group of finns returned from annual leave. Quite many of them had forgotten their password which tells me they had pretty good vacation. Some had their account locked. Luckily both cases are easy and fast to handle. I'll be expecting same kind of spike in the amount of calls on upcoming Mondays when rest of the people return back to work.

Work days just fly by, there are always new tickets and calls coming and only once during this week I got all my tickets pending. It feels amazing to have so much to do. It makes you feel important and useful. It makes me appreciate having full crew and understand how huge one person's contribution can be. We have one person on vacation right now which affects surprisingly much.

Hopefully the situation gets easier in the end of the week.

July

Heinäkuu sujahti ohi aivan huomaamatta ja siinä välissä kaksi kuukautta täällä rikkoutui. Nyt on enää kaksi kuukautta jäljellä, mikä tuntuu uskomattoman vähältä. Minusta tuntuu, että tämän kuukauden aikana olen vihdoin synkronoitunut tähän ympäristöön ja kuherruskuukausi on ohi. Olen nyt siinä mukavassa vaiheessa kulttuurishokkia, jolloin kaikki tuntuu olevan mahdollista ja Puola aivan mahtava.

Heinäkuu on ollut täynnä matkustamista, vieraita ja rakkautta maailmaa kohtaan. Se alkoi Kallen kanssa seikkailessa, jatkui äidin vierailulla ja reilun viikon lomalla Suomessa. Matkustamista, ystäväpariskunnan tuparit ja paljon ihania ihmisiä. Parhaan ystävän häät, hyvää ruokaa ja oman rakkaan viereen käpertyminen. Äidin vaatekaapin tyhjennys, mummon näkeminen ja viini-ilta ystävän luona. Laiskottelua kotona, Netflix ja Subway. Mähkijöiden tapaaminen, Pokemon GO ja tonkallinen viiniä. Paljain varpain bussiasemalle ja öiset keskustelut. Näitä on ollut ikävä. Rakkauden täyteinen viikonloppu Kosmoksessa, paljain varpain keskellä metsää parhaiden tyyppien kanssa.

Takaisin Puolaan ja ystävän saapuminen melkein heti. Parasta on, kun juttu jatkuu siitä, mihin se viimeksi jäi, vaikka välissä olisikin pidempi aika. En muista, milloin viimeksi olisin oikeasti viettänyt kahden keskistä aikaa hänen kanssaan. Nyt kuitenkin vietimme ihanan viikonlopun yhdessä jutellen, nauraen ja kierrellen ympäri Gdanskia.

This happens when you leave your computer unlocked..

Tämän kaiken lisäksi olen tietenkin ollut töissä. Olen tietoisesti yrittänyt poistua harjoittelija-roolista, sillä kyseinen rooli voi olla hyvinkin rajoittava. Uskon onnistuneeni tavoitteessani, sillä alkukuusta sain positiivista palautetta, joka sai minut hehkumaan ylpeydestä ja yrittämään vielä paremmin. Haluan syyskuussa pystyä toimimaan täysin itsenäisesti, kun jään ainoaksi harjoittelijaksi. Elokuun tavoitteenani onkin pyytää palautetta aktiivisemmin ja etsiä ne omat kehityskohteeni.

Töissä on ollut rauhallista, koska ihmiset ovat kesälomilla. Kun ihmiset ovat poissa töistä, ongelmia ei myöskään ilmene samalla tavalla. Tällä hetkellä suurimpia ongelmia aiheuttaa sähköposti, johon yli 90% tiketeistä liittyy. Tikettejä on kuitenkin huomattavasti vähemmän kuin alkukesästä, minkä takia töissä on enemmän vapaa-aikaa. Olen päättänyt käyttää tuon ylimääräisen ajan ruotsin kielitaitoni parantamiseen Duolingossa.

Kokonaisuudessaan heinäkuu on ollut upea. Tästä on hyvä jatkaa kohti uusia haasteita.
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July flew by without me noticing and at some point the two months threshold was broken. Now there are only two months left, which feels incredibly short. During this month I finally synchronized with this environment, and the sweet honeymoon is over. Now I am at the comfortable stage of culture shock, when everything seems to be possible, and Poland just awesome.

July has been full of traveling, guests and love towards the world. It started with adventures with Kalle, continued with mom's visit and over a week holiday in Finland. Traveling, friend's housewarming party and a lot of wonderful people. Best friend's wedding, good food, and snuggling with my love one. Visiting mom's wardrobe, seeing granny and little bit wine with good friend. Lazy days at home, Netflix and Subway. Mähkijät-meeting, Pokemon GO and 3 liters of  wine. Walking barefoot to the bus station and late-night conversations. I have missed these. Weekend full of love in Kosmos,dancing barefoot in the middle of the forest with the best people.

Back in Poland and a friend arrived almost immediately. It is the best feeling when the conversation continues like you had seen yesterday even if the time between had been longer. I can't remember the last time I actually spent time alone with her. Now we spent a wonderful weekend together talking, laughing and walking around Gdansk.

In addition to all this, of course, I have been working. I have consciously tried to step outside of the trainee role, as this role can be very restrictive. I think succeeded in this goal, since early this month, I received positive feedback, which made me glow with pride and encouraged me to try even better. In September I would like to be able to operate fully independently, since I will be the only trainee left. In August, my goal is to seek feedback more actively and look for the things I need to development.

It has been peaceful at the work, because people are on the summer holidays. When people are out of office, problems will not occur at the same way. Right now the greatest problems are caused by e-mail.More than 90% tickets are about it. Since there is considerably less tickets than the beginning of the summer, we have more free time at the work. I have decided to use this extra time to improve my Swedish language skills Duolingo.

All in all, July has been magnificent. This is a good start towards new challenges.

No rest for me.

Past few weeks have been crazy.

Photo by Marianne Skurnik

First there was hen party for my best friend.  After months of planning it was finally time for her special day - or in this case, weekend. On Friday morning I flew to Finland and surprised her by showing up. We had prepared different tasks for her and of course she passed all of them! Next day we had amazing brunch, sauna and partying in the nightlife of Lahti. The bride seemed to enjoy every moment and I believe she had the kind of party she wanted.

Next weekend Kalle came to Poland. We partied with my colleagues, adventured around Gdansk and enjoyed each other. We ate really well, went to festival and I shared my world with him, just like I always to do. He was here over a week and time just flew by.

Three days normal week days and then my mom came here. Whole weekend seeing different things, walking and taking Ubers everywhere. Colorfestival, Old Town and Sopot. Villa Vrest and amazing food. Shopping and talking, enjoying the mother-daughter-time.

Soon it was also over and now I have four days to rest before next big adventure.

Countdown.

Reilu viikko sitten sain kuulla, että pääsin työharjoitteluun Kemiralle Puolaan Gdanskin toimipisteeseen. Kemiralla on Gdanskissa Business Service Center, jonne olen menossa IT Service Deskille apuvoimiksi. Kyseessä on loistava mahdollisuus päästä tutustumaan toisenlaiseen asiakaspalveluun ja hyödyntämään koulussa kerrytettyä tietotekniikkaosaamista.

Takana on uhkarohkea päätös hylätä varma harjoittelupaikka, elämäni ensimmäinen videohakemus ja ensimmäinen englannin kielinen haastattelu. Kevät on ollut epävarmuutta täynnä ja hakuprosessi tuntunut ikuisuudelta. Viikossa saa kuitenkin yllättävän paljon aikaiseksi, jos niin haluaa.

Viikossa olen täyttänyt Erasmus+ -tukirahahakemuksen, käyttänyt Learning Agreementin kaikilla osapuolilla ja tehnyt alustavan harjoittelusuunnitelman. Lisäksi olen ehtinyt käymään töissä ja laittamaan opintovapaahakemukseni eteenpäin. Nyt toivon, että hakemus menee läpi ajoissa ja pääsen keskittymään täysillä  lähtöön.

Lähtöön on maksimissaan kolme viikkoa. Aika huisia.
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Little over week ago I got confirmation about my internship in Kemira. I got placement in Gdansk, Poland. Kemira has a Business Service Center there and I'm going there for IT Service Desk. This is perfect opportunity to learn different kind of customer service and make use of all the IT know-how I have learnt in school.

I have made daring choice to turn down sure internship in other company without any guarantees of another job, I have experienced my first video application and first interview in English. Spring has been full uncertainty and the application process has felt like eternity. Luckily it is possible to get surprisingly much done in one week, if you truly set your head up to it.

In one week I have filled my Erasmus+ application, run my Learning Agreement through all participants and made training plan. I also went to work and applied for my study leave - again in one year. Now I just hope I get the answer soon and get to focus on the preparations.

The departure is in three weeks. Kinda crazy.