Graduate with us – Supporting Niko's final degree

Niko Ohvo, Jidoka: ”Learning new things by doing”

For many years, student internships have been one of Jidoka Technologies Oy's most important recruitment channels. For example, out of around 30 Jidoka employees, about half are former or current TAMK students who have gained employment after completing an internship as part of their degree. Currently, we have several TAMK students, three of whom will graduate in June and one in September. Three started their internships at the beginning of May.

Practice is real, hard work that matters

When a potential intern comes to meet us (we gave up traditional ”exam interviews” a long time ago), we make it clear to them that from day one they will be working hard on our R&D projects, which are of great importance to our company. We also emphasise that we are interested in long-term cooperation. We take on students for internships who have a strong intention to be employed by us. The intern will be able to develop professionally enormously within the first few months.

From internship to thesis completion

Typically, a student begins with a summer internship and from autumn onwards, they undertake paid hourly work with us alongside their studies, as and when they are able. Towards the end of their studies, the student completes their thesis with us. As a responsible and caring employer, we are heavily involved in and supportive of the student's studies and graduation. Sometimes this takes a year, sometimes several. However, we do not leave students to face their challenges alone, but ensure that their studies and work proceed smoothly together.

^{From top left to right – Henri (2nd-year student at TAMK), Alex (Business Director). From bottom left to right – Joni (2nd-year student at Tredu), Niko, Teemu (4th-year student at TAMK).}

The employer cares about and is interested in the student's well-being

TAMK's Niko Ohvo began his summer internship at Jidoka in May 2018. By June 2019, he will already have graduated.

– I went to Jidoka for an interview for a third-year work placement. It was made clear that you have to work hard here, but there’s always the rest of the team around to help out if any problems arise. I thought this sounded like a good place to work, as I enjoy being challenged and learning new things by doing. Working at Jidoka can indeed be described as challenging, but rewarding. My career at Jidoka has involved many different projects and languages, primarily Java, C#, JavaScript and HTML. As the second half of my final year began to approach, my managers asked me what topic I was thinking of for my thesis and what my timeline was. I chose the use of message queues in Android app development as my topic. The topic was closely related to my own project at the time. Initially, I thought I would graduate as early as May 2019, but due to a heavy workload, it looked as though my graduation would be postponed until June 2019. That’s when I started to feel quite stressed about my responsibilities. Jidoka’s Business Director noticed this and asked what was causing it and how Jidoka could help. I explained the situation and we agreed that on Fridays at the office I would work solely on my thesis and would not be disturbed by work matters at all. Thanks to this thoughtfulness and care, I was able to significantly reduce my stress levels and complete my thesis on schedule in June. At Jidoka, therefore, caring for one’s colleagues and a strong ”no one gets left behind” attitude are clearly emphasised as core company values.