UPM Graduates Life: Embracing learning – from sales to sustainability and beyond

Kaisa Raittila

UPM Graduate, Sales

I have always been interested in everything. In university, my biggest challenge was choosing what not to study. I decided not to decide, completing credits from various majors, universities, and even crossing country borders. This strategy served me well until it was time to graduate and apply for jobs. I thought I had to settle. Little did I know that, first, I was wrong, and second, I was about to hit the jackpot.

In May 2024, I began as a Sales Graduate in Communication Papers, initially in the Nordic Customer Service team at the Tampere office. In this position, I got to know the paper business and sales organization from a very hands-on perspective, and almost as importantly, got to spend one last summer in Tampere, my hometown at the time.

Fall 2024 saw a change of gear when I moved to Helsinki and joined the Marketing, Sustainability, and Communications team at the head office. Here, I focused on developing sustainability communications, commercialization, and organizational capabilities. Remember how I felt that some of my skills needed to be pushed to the side to land an entry level position after graduation? That’s exactly what I thought of Sustainability Communications, a field I thought was too niche and would require more experience. This rotation was a career-dream come true for me.

Improving skills

Another dream, this time of working abroad, came true at the turn of the year when I began my next rotation in the local Inhouse Sales teams first in Augsburg, Germany and then in Manchester, UK. Different sales development projects allowed me to achieve my goal of improving my data analysis and reporting skills. As of right now, I have one more rotation ahead of me, and maybe you already guessed it, it ticks another box off my interest list. When I return to Finland, I will join Biofuels to work on market analysis, where I can once again challenge myself and develop a whole other set of skills.

Sometimes, we limit ourselves to fit into what we believe is expected of us. This programme is a big investment both ways, and going into it, I decided to be 100% myself to really see if it would be a match or not. From my experience, I can say that UPM is a company that truly encourages learning and creates an environment where I feel genuinely welcomed and valued. This programme has not only allowed me to follow my diverse interests but also to grow both personally and professionally, and for that I am very grateful.

To wrap this up, I would like to quote a comment made on a late Wednesday evening at Munich airport, as my fellow graduate and I, both drained, were waiting to board our flight back to Helsinki after finishing our rotations at the Augsburg office: “This is a pretty good programme.”

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