Ever since an early age, I have known that I want to work in the field of IT when I grow up. LUT came into the picture during career orientation in high school, when I met a woman who studied in Finland at the time, and I instantly fell in love with the country and its higher education system. Upon further investigation, I found that LUT has a software engineering programme, and I was ecstatic when I got my acceptance letter.
Discovering community and support systems
After starting my studies, I was greatly surprised by the number of social functions, hobby clubs, sports opportunities, and the low hierarchy between students and teachers. It was a shock to me that it is completely normal here to call professors by their first names! Not only that, but Finland – and LUT itself – puts great emphasis on mental health, and I was happy to see that they try to make everyone’s study experience as stressless as possible. For example, I really love the continuous evaluation of courses, because it truly makes the exam periods easier. The fact that I can retake an exam twice without any charges also helps me enter the exam room with a calm mind.
However, even if you do struggle with stress and mental health, there are always people you can turn to – either friends or professionals. I have noticed that both my peers and professors are very open and understanding about mental health, and it is not a taboo at all to seek medical help.
Honing in on the vision
As a third-year student, I have completed most of my courses, and I am happy to say that I have gained knowledge about various fields in software engineering. Even though I knew I wanted to study programming, I was not sure what part of it would interest me the most. Fortunately, I have had the chance to take courses of some amazing and highly skilled teachers who guided me along the way. Three years and many, many courses later, I have a clear vision of what I would like my future career to be as well as what paths are not meant for me. My current dream is to become a web developer, and after graduating, I will be proud to start my career in the working world as an LUT alumna.
