Giant Leap Blog Series 3: Challenging Projects and Great Atmosphere

In our previous blog posts we have heard about Giant Leap from an HR perspective and from the supervisors' point of view. To give you even more insights on what our Giant Leap internship really is like, we interviewed two Giant Leapers from last summer. Dani Nummikoski, a computer science major at the University of Helsinki, who worked with Vaisala's software development, and Valtteri Vulkko, industrial engineering and management student at Aalto University, who worked with Vaisala's transportation business.

What made you interested in the Giant Leap program?

"For me, it was ultimately the slogan 'come as you are, as long as you are curious' that caught my attention when I was looking for an interesting summer job", Dani explains. "Vaisala's values resonated with me immediately even though I was not too familiar with the company's line of work. During the recruiting process I got the feeling that Vaisala is genuinely open to new people and fresh perspectives."

"I had heard very positive experiences from other students who had either been employed by Vaisala or had participated in company visits", Valtteri continues. "I decided to apply for Giant Leap after seeing the project topics, as actually more than one matched my interests and educational background well."

What was your summer project about?

"I worked on a project concerning Vaisala's legacy software's interoperability features", Dani says. "The project was challenging enough, and the enthusiastic support (and patience!) of my colleagues was the most important part of the whole experience. Getting to work with such talented and passionate people was a privilege. I got to utilize my skills and expertise to a great extent, and even more importantly, pick up new exciting skills."

"The aim of my project was to enhance the company's understanding of the air traffic business. The findings of the project should improve Vaisala's communication with the airport business customers, as well as serve in further strategy and business development", Valtteri says.

"It was very interesting to learn how the air traffic business works, and to understand something about weather, too. Managing a huge project in a completely new topic in just three months is something I believe has taught me useful skills for the future as well. In addition, conducting interviews and discussing with people in different functions in Vaisala and other organizations has been a valuable experience", Valtteri continues.

How would you describe Vaisala and Giant Leap?

"Vaisala is an employer that understands the value of investing in employee wellbeing. In addition, the Giant Leap program offers a great support network of other interns, alumni and HR personnel. I think that the Giant Leap Internship is a great fit for any student who wants to take a strong initiative and lead their own project. I would especially suggest applying if you're not quite sure if you're ready for the challenge, but still curious", Dani says.

"I would definitely recommend Giant Leap to other students seeking an internship" , Valtteri continues. "The working atmosphere in Vaisala is welcoming, and interns are treated like everyone else in the organization. The project assignments originate from real business needs and are truly meaningful, which is highly motivating. You are fully responsible for your own project, but still get great support from other people whenever needed."

Read more about the Giant Leap Internship.