Superiors must have perseverance and ability to keep their eye on the ball
I have worked as department manager at Pinja’s Mikkeli office since its establishment. My work includes office administration responsibilities, but I also administer projects related to structural design of industrial plants, etc. I have a lot on my plate simultaneously.
Our work is so diversified that you have to be patient and learn five to six years before you can lead design projects yourself. Fortunately, we have now good people growing for project management and I believe that I can soon concentrate more on HR and sales.
I try to teach our new people, as if unnoticed, in the areas that I myself have learnt about designing. How to make plans and practice match. Teaching requires perseverance. Things can be done in different ways and people are different.
The best thing in my job is when you see that a project succeeds well and young people develop in their work.
My career path
Achievements to date
I was just about to graduate in mechanical engineering and material technology from the Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences when a classmate of mine and current colleague Jimi Pulkka gave me a tip on a job. In the following five years, I worked as a design engineer at the construction department of CTS Engineering in Kouvola. My colleagues were experienced design engineers and I learnt a huge amount from them.
Kimmo Kerttula, Jimi Pulkka and I had been considering the idea of our own engineering office for some time and then we founded Descal (currently Pinja) in Kouvola. I worked as a design engineer, however, without an actual job title. As the demand increased, we hired new designers.
We built a pulp mill in Santa Fe, Chile, and this experience placed me in quite a good position to step to the world of engineering design and installation. At the end, I worked as the worksite supervisor for four and a half months. In the morning, you would check that employees had arrived and safety was in order. We monitored the progress and that reports matched with the work done. The working culture was slightly different and it was therefore a very educative period of time.
I worked remotely from Mikkeli for some time before I suggested that I would like to move to Mikkeli and start an office there. As the office manager, my responsibilities included ensuring daily routines and day-to-day business, including procurement of software and furniture.
The company merger in 2013 increased our knowhow in plant and process engineering design. My area of responsibility included structural projects, in which I was the project manager, so my job did not change much after the merger.
With the merger, the engineering office grew again. We got new expertise and could carry out large projects as total deliveries including plant, automation and electrical engineering design. Office manager and project manager duties in the area of structural design were still under my responsibility. It is nice to have versatile skills around you.
I try to teach our new people, as if unnoticed, in the areas that I myself have learnt about designing.
