I’m Roosa Mannonen and from the beginning of March, I took the lead of a Swedish coffee start-up called Nybryggt. Before that, I was working in the Supply Chain and Operations department at Oatly in Sweden, where I was responsible for the fulfilment of the Finnish, Norwegian and Icelandic markets.
I started my bachelor’s in Aalto Mikkeli in 2014 after which I did my master’s degree in Lund University in Sweden, where I studied Service Management/ Supply Chain Management.
It’s been a very colourful mix. Looking back at it there’s no clear path. From burgers to pharmaceuticals, banking to retail, machinery to food industry –honestly, I could’ve ended up anywhere, and still can. Also, little did I know that the student struggling to present herself in the Swedish Business Communication course would in three years’ time be working in Sweden, in Swedish.
I got my job at Nybryggt thanks to my network. I knew the owner of the company from before, and he knew that I was looking for new opportunities. He had started the company as a hobby aside of his other businesses, but it had now grown too much for him to have the required time for it. Hence, I was granted an opportunity to take holistic responsibility of the company.
I was quite lost with what I wanted to do, so I think studying business bought me time. Cliché, but it opened my eyes to the opportunities that are out there. Funnily enough, I thought that I’d eventually narrow down to just one focus area and work at that one specific department but instead, I have worked very cross-functionally with sales, planning, quality, logistics and accounting teams on a daily basis. It’s quite interesting to see the role and impact that different departments have on a business.
Roosa Mannonen, BScBA Program alumnaStudying business opened my eyes to the opportunities that are out there.
Working with projects/assignments with tight deadlines and with different teams gave good prerequisites to hectic work life. Even before entering work life, a lot of companies nowadays have long recruiting processes where you might have to quickly solve a case study and present your results with confidence. So, the confidence you’ll gain from those numerous presentations done in Mikkeli might just make you land that job.
Aside from the above, I believe the network created throughout Mikkeli studies has been the most valuable thing I gained. You might not end up working with your best friends, but what you can get is a group of ambitious and likeminded individuals as lifelong friends. Most of us have chosen very different career paths but my Baba-friends are still the ones who I always turn to for advice.
During my bachelor’s I worked in a bank, as a track and field instructor, and as a marketing coordinator for a running event. I’ve always been open to any kind of work and I believe I’ve gained valuable experience by not declining any opportunities in the early stages of my career. The work that you do during your studies does definitely not define your career path, but surely gives you perspective to different industries and might well be useful at some point in your career. Most of all, you’ll learn to work with a variety of different people and deal with stress.
I asked this in our Baba friend group and got plenty of suggestions. One quite memorable moment was from my first midsummer in Mikkeli (Möbba) when lightning hit our sauna building. Oh, and the year after there was a boat that sank in the middle of the lake and we rescued the people on it. Never a boring day.
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The Bachelor’s Programme in International Business provides students with a comprehensive range of skills and knowledge to build, develop and lead companies on a global scale. A bachelor’s degree in business with an international focus opens up a wide variety of career opportunities across all industries and continents.
