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International talent day for the first time in Oulu – “Perfect opportunities for networking”

International talent day for the first time in Oulu – “Perfect opportunities for networking”

Yinan Li from China and Iqra Khan from Pakistan both enjoy life in Oulu. In October, they came to find out more about MediaTek’s operations. “It’s important to find out what employment opportunities Oulu has to offer,” Iqra says.

During the international talent day, Oulu Talent Hub organized a visit to MediaTek for international students living in Oulu.

Senior Department Manager Esa Romppainen welcomed a crew of 10 students with some cinnamon buns and coffee for a presentation of the company, followed by some product demos and a chance to network and ask questions at the end.

MediaTek is the world’s fourth largest fabless semiconductor company. Its only Finnish office is based in Oulu, where there are currently 140 permanent employees. In Oulu, MediaTek focuses mainly on the development of 4G and 5G modems.

MediaTek is already an international company. In Oulu alone, there are employees from eight different countries. “In addition to the permanent employees, we have trainees and diploma workers as well as subcontractors”, Romppainen says.

“We have very positive experiences of international employees and students,” Romppainen continues. “Keeping them in the region and supporting employment is of paramount importance for the competitiveness of Oulu and Finland as a whole.”

Romppainen believes that the experience from different cultures, work tasks and training that the international employees bring to the company add value, enrich and offer insights into your own work. “And, of course, international employees quite simply add a skilled workforce to the company,” Romppainen adds.

“At the moment,” Romppainen continues, “we are looking for both fresh graduates and seasoned software engineers specializing in embedded systems or telecommunications to add to our DSP, L1, RF, IMS and radio protocol teams. MediaTek is in a period of reasonably strong growth now that the 5G business in particular has got off to a good start, enabling new business and at the same time bringing strong revenue growth,” he adds.

Romppainen stresses that the general impression that the work of a coder consists solely of coding is false. Depending on the job, there can be a lot of coding or none at all. When you sit at the computer, you do much more than just coding: requirement analysis and definition, design, unit testing, etc. And all these work phases are documented in English, so that colleagues around the world can access the same information.

“In addition, we have engineers specializing in testing who are not developing the actual modem code but code related to test cases and environments”, Romppainen adds.

Esa Romppainen and MediaTek-visitors. Pictures and text: Anna Nordman

“Oulu – my second home”

One of the guests, Iqra Khan from Pakistan, a doctoral researcher at the Industrial Engineering and Management Department of the University of Oulu, joined the event, as she will be graduating soon. She finds such events perfect opportunities to network and, of course, find out what employment opportunities Oulu has to offer in her field.

Having created her own comfort zone here during the five years she’s already lived in Oulu, Iqra loves it and considers it her second home. She finds the calmness of nature soothing and enjoys long walks in the woods.

Iqra would definitely like to stay here after graduating, which is common among many international students studying in Oulu. For this plan to work, they need to find employment.

Iqra Khan.

Mushroom and blueberry picking

Yinan Li from China moved here six months ago with her husband and two kids. Yinan’s husband worked for Nokia in China for over 10 years, and they relocated to Finland because of his work. Once they settled in Oulu, Yinan commenced her studies at OAMK with a major in IT. She chose IT because she finds that it offers the best career prospects in Oulu. Most Chinese friends she has made here work in IT.

Yinan wanted to take part in this event because she wants to get to know her new environment better, including companies and the labour market. “It’s good to be well prepared,” she says.

Yinan enjoys life in Oulu. Compared to China, the pace of life here is slower and quieter. There are fewer people and, overall, it’s not as competitive.

Yinan and her family have already been doing the traditional Finnish things, such as mushroom and blueberry picking in the forest. The long winter doesn’t scare Yinan, as she comes from a similar climate and knows there are a lot of fun activities you can do in the winter, like ice skating and skiing.

Yinan Li.


Have you heard about Oulu Talent Hub?

Oulu Talent Hub (OTH) offers activities for international researchers and degree students. OTH will also help international talent and companies with a labour shortage find each other faster than before. The project is funded by The European Social Fund, ESF.

The project is implemented by BusinessOulu, the University of Oulu, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Educational Consortium OSAO and the Oulu Chamber of Commerce.

For more information, please visit www.oulutalenthub.fi