Graduate's point of view

“I am studying international marketing management on the master’s level at Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) and working in LUT’s research centre as a research assistant. My task is to research small and medium enterprises in Russia. The research is called JIID2: A Joint Study of International Infrastructure Development of Small and Medium-sized ICT Enterprises in North West Russia - 2.

We are now researching the ICT training needs of small and medium enterprises in St. Petersburg. Our aim is to create special training for those enterprises to support their internationalisation, especially to the Finnish market. Fortunately, my skills and knowledge of the Russian market help me a lot.

I like my work because it makes me learn something new. In addition, I need skills and knowledge that I obtained at Saimaa University of Applied Sciences. I really like the educational system at Saimaa UAS, because it helps to learn all the necessary things that you need to be a professional in working life. I believe that business is impossible to learn by reading books and that theory alone is not enough for a business student.

At Saimaa UAS, all theoretical parts were supported by practice. If a teacher was speaking about theory, he or she provided examples from the business world and in most cases examples were from his or her own experience. Such way of teaching supports better learning, because it is easy to understand and remember concrete examples rather than just dry theory. Mainly, we needed to analyse real companies or we had cases that were similar to real work.

I like the atmosphere where everyone is sharing his or her opinion. There are no right or wrong choices, but you must justify your opinion or decision. I miss my classmates, which were all from different countries and I don’t often have the possibility to get in touch with them. But, I really appreciate our work together, because this experience made me a person without any stereotypes about any nation and provided me with a huge cultural knowledge and language skills, especially Finnish.

Learning Finnish has been on my agenda already for two years. I have studied it by completing several language courses and I use Finnish whenever possible. However, I still need to improve my skills, so that I’m able to communicate on a professional level. It is an ongoing, incremental process and I’m already happy with my success.

I would like to continue my professional career in an international company where there is a mix of cultures and an innovative vision, because of my strong commitment to international atmosphere. In the future, I would like to be a marketing manager, specialised most probably in the Russian market. Branding is the most interesting thing for me at the moment.”

Alexandra Ijäs from Russia, research assistant at Lappeenranta University of Technology
Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA)

Alexandra Ijäs studied as a double-degree student at the Saimaa University of Applied Sciences. Her home university was St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University.

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