Finding your feet in the sound of silence
When Mubeen came to Finland, the first thing he learned to love was the sound of silence. “I come from a hustling and bustling city called Karachi. Seeing forests and experiencing the silence was almost surreal and certainly one of my favourite parts about studying in Lappeenranta.”
Coming to LUT felt like the world had opened up, and Mubeen fondly remembers the people and cultures on campus: “Studying at LUT was a really international experience and taught me how to communicate in a global environment.”
Planting the seeds for sustainability consciousness
Something else that has fundamentally impacted Mubeen to this day was the focus on sustainability, which is part of LUT University’s DNA. Sustainability was not only the core of LUT’s academic programmes but a part of everyday life on campus.
According to Mubeen, “coming to LUT planted the seed for my sustainability consciousness. I do small things like recycling or giving up my car, and I learned a lot about resourcefulness from my Finnish friends.”
Life lessons between freedom and responsibility
With great freedom comes great responsibility: students in Finland build their own schedule, and a lot of work is done independently in individual and group projects.
Mubeen learned valuable lessons in time management the hard way: “I was struggling for almost a year before I got the hang of managing my courses. This reflects in my work now. Managing multiple tasks on a sprint* board is a little like organizing the different courses and tasks of your studies.”
International students experience the professors at LUT as approachable, and Finnish culture works on a first-name basis. The lack of hierarchical structures, however, does not imply a lax attitude when it comes to the standards of the students’ work.
“The professors were quite strict: there were absolutely no shortcuts , and they were really trying to improve our skills. As frustrating as failed courses or multiple feedback rounds for assignments might have been at the time, looking back, it taught me a lot and prepared me for the high standards of the working world.”
Hands-on learning – expanding education from theory to practice
Mubeen had trouble finding work in Lappeenranta, which led him to take on a variety of odd jobs. This experience inspired him to help create a community platform that connects people who need services with people who offer them.
Hard work pays off: the project born out of resourcefulness won the Microsoft Imagine Cup Software Design Competition Finland and catapulted Mubeen to the Microsoft offices in Helsinki. There, he got to meet Finnish President Tarja Halonen.
The rest is history: after graduation, Mubeen has built a successful career as a software engineer and only recently came back to visit his alma mater during Homecoming Day.
The leap from familiar Pakistan to a foreign country on the other side of the world did not come without a steep learning curve: “Moving and studying abroad completely changed me as a person. Back home, I could always rely on my parents for food and housing, but having managed to build a life here makes me proud. I organized all of this, and the plan is working.”
On top of gleaning valuable professional skills, Mubeen made lifelong friends and learned life lessons at LUT.
