ContactExpo 2019

We are delighted to have participated in ContactExpo 2019 that was held at Turku school of Economics. During the day, four of us had the chance to represent our company and introduce ourselves to students from all over Turku. Two IT students from Tampere also came along to speak with us. We had the opportunity to meet many young and motivated people who would perfectly fit in our ATR world.  Although most of the students were economics students, there was a valuable amount of IT students also. Many of the economics students were also interested in IT and were already taking programming courses. We encouraged and advised them. 

ContactExpo was a great experience for me personally as I got the chance to meet and speak face-to-face with many different people from different backgrounds. From enthusiastic students to more quiet ones, from Finnish to international, some of them were already at the end of their study-journey while others were on their very first year of studies. It is fascinating that even on their first year, the students have the drive to search for workplaces and are ready to get a summer or part time job along with their studies.

I was impressed with the amount of people who came to talk to us. We engaged with them in conversations about what we do as a company and what it is like to work at ATR Soft. We also asked them about their studies and gave them our contact cards. The mostly asked question from the students’ part was “What programming languages do you use”.  We use many programming languages but most importantly it doesn’t matter which programming languages or technologies you already know, but that you are willing to learn and adapt.

I met students that study at the same university as I did and it was fun talking about familiar teachers and courses.

We arranged a drawing where the students could answer a few questions online or on paper and win prizes. “What do you value most in a potential employer?” was one of the questions that we addressed to the students. Some of the students’ answers were:

• To give the possibility to the employee to learn more things and don’t stop at one thing you are good at
• Flexible hours and employee benefits
• Supportiveness and understanding
• Good management skills
• Helping employee to get better at their work

Many of their answers relate to the values that we have at ATR, like having low hierarchy, valuing everyone’s opinions and having opportunities to take courses and developing new skills. What I like the most about ATR Soft is that I get to choose the projects that I work with and that I am never alone thanks to my awesome coworkers.

Contact and career exhibitions are a perfect way for both companies and job seekers to grow their network and to connect potential employees with work places.