If someone had told me 16 years ago that one day I would be teaching media in Finnish, a language I had not even heard of at the time, I would have laughed.
Yet here I am.
Some days, when I am standing in front of a classroom teaching media and print design to future professionals, I still have to pause and appreciate how unlikely this journey has been. I did not arrive here through a carefully planned career strategy. I arrived here through reinvention.
Over the years, I have worked across different corners of the media industry starting in audiovisual production, moving into graphic design and photography, then into print media. This year, I added another chapter to the story by becoming a qualified teacher.
But if I am honest, the most challenging part was not changing careers. It was finding a place in the Finnish job market.
Like many immigrants, I spent years trying to prove that my skills, experience, and willingness to learn had value. There were more than 300 job applications, countless rejections, and many moments when I questioned whether I was moving forward at all.
I learned Finnish. I enrolled in courses. I upskilled, reskilled, relearned, and unlearned. And then I did it all over again.
Looking back, three things made the biggest difference:
• Learning the language, even when progress felt painfully slow.
• Being brutally honest about my skill gaps and developing the skills the market actually needed, not just the ones I enjoyed.
• Building relationships and having conversations, even when stepping into a room full of strangers felt uncomfortable.
And yes, luck matters too.
Someone eventually took a chance on me. That is something I think about often.
Because when I sit in meetings today, surrounded by colleagues, I sometimes realise that I am the person I was looking for when I first arrived in Finland. Someone with a different background, a different accent, and a different path, occupying a space that once felt completely out of reach.
Representation matters. Not because it solves everything, but because it quietly expands what feels possible for someone else.
I also recognise that this journey would have looked very different without the support of my husband, whose stable job gave us the security to keep going when things felt uncertain. Not everyone has that privilege, and I don't take it for granted.
If you are currently sending applications into what feels like a black hole, wondering whether all the effort is worth it, I understand.
I have been there. Keep learning. Make the phone call. Attend the event. Send the message. Apply anyway.
Persistence does not guarantee success, but giving up guarantees you will never know what might have happened.
And to those in positions to hire: please don't overlook people with unconventional journeys. Potential, resilience, adaptability, and determination rarely fit neatly into a CV.
Finland is often celebrated as the world's happiest country. My hope is that more immigrants get the opportunity not just to live here, but to contribute, grow, belong, and be seen.
Sixteen years ago, I couldn't have imagined teaching media in Finnish. Today, that's exactly what I do.
Sometimes all it takes is one opportunity, one person willing to take a chance, and the determination to keep going long enough to meet it.
