In retrospect, it seems as if everything in my career has happened by accident – yet I feel that all of those coincidences have brought me to where I needed to be. Also, looking closer, I recognize that alongside luck there has been a lot of effort, since it is not usual to be in our 30s and reconsider what we wanna do career-wise – it does take a lot of courage.
Just a few days ago I realized that I’ve been living in Finland for 15 years, and I was surprised: it’s such a long time! Actually, I am originally from Germany. I currently work at Vaisala as a Computer Vision Instructor – essentially, I train AI.
I started at Vaisala in December 2021. I was studying Business Administration, so Vaisala felt like a perfect place to complement my studies. I can say I had little to no experience in what I am doing at the moment, since I started with a part-time position annotating pictures of road damages to support my studies. But fast forward two years, and here I am, fully working with AI.
Stephanie Sammek, Computer Vision Instructor, Vaisala
From Germany to Finland, looking for new directions
I wouldn’t say that during my studies I was lost, but looking back at that time – in a way I was: at lower secondary school back in Germany, I remember everyone expected students to have life figured out: at sixteen years old! So, as I finished school in Germany, I obtained a degree in and worked for a while in tax administration – processing tax returns and handling other tax-related matters of taxpayers. Afterwards, I moved on to working at the airport for a couple of years, and then made the big decision to change countries and start a life in Finland.
Like many other foreigners, I took a job outside my field, at a German restaurant, to ‘have a foot at the door’ here in Finland – I felt I needed to start somewhere. I held the job for around twelve years, until I realized I wanted to go back to school: my degrees were not recognised in Finland, so I needed to start from scratch.
I did my matriculation examination and I was accepted to Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, at MUBBA or the Degree Programme for Multilingual Management Assistants, basically focusing on business administration and languages.
COVID-19 hit during that time and despite it all, I was able to take it as an opportunity: since I couldn’t attend lessons on campus, I decided to take as many courses as possible. I think that in one semester I had up to 60 credits, which you usually have in a year… but I had nothing better to do than study! At the time of writing my thesis I was already done with the rest of my studies, and an ex-colleague, now a coworker, gave me the tip to work at Vaisala in order to support my studies.
A new journey at Vaisala
My beginning at Vaisala went really smoothly: from having a part-time job to increasing my hours and having more responsibility, to actually having the encouragement from coworkers and supervisors to move on to more complex tasks.
Perhaps this is the most amazing part of my journey here: to feel as supported as I have felt. I have not only discovered new interests, but I have also reconnected with old ones like programming; all of this has led me to some big professional growth that has been one hundred percent supported by colleagues and managers who have my back, encourage me, and have been willing to help me improve.
At the moment, I work with a SAAS product, called RoadAI, that is used by government organizations, cities, municipalities, etc. to assess street conditions. A user can attach a smartphone with the RoadAI app to the windshield of their car and drive the to-be-inspected routes. The collected video data is then automatically processed and made visible to the user for evaluation. My job is to process and revise the training data for the computer vision model, which can detect various road defects, traffic signs and other road assets.
Two years ago, when I started, I couldn’t have imagined that I would be working this extensively with artificial intelligence, so there’s no way around it: it is amazing. Yet once again, I love the people here at Vaisala. The tech industry has proven to be very inclusive for me: there are all genders, backgrounds, and nationalities. This brings forth so many inputs and strengths, while also helping me grow as a person, thanks to the heterogeneity forcing me out of my bubble of comfort.
As every professional out there, I struggle with impostor syndrome. I think it is important to be open about it and have this conversation candidly: I am not stepping back from any challenges as they bring growth, but there are moments of doubt in myself. And how do I handle those insecure bits? It has been of invaluable help to talk with other colleagues, to see and realize we all have doubts – no matter how experienced or secure we seem on the outside. It’s given me a lot more compassion for myself.
Bringing more female talent onto tech: it’s possible, and it’s happening!
As it is obvious by now, I am fully in love with this career move. It has not only been the right decision for me. Whereas we believed years ago that we needed to have life figured out at sixteen years old – that is not true anymore. My career move has confirmed it: change is the only constant – and I have to be with it, move with it.
Everything changes constantly in our society and at a really quick pace. So, to all of those considering stepping onto tech: be bold. Go for it. Put hard work in; if this is what you want, there’s space for you here. Take it, own it, make it yours.
