Antti Pikkanen got interested in journalism at the young age of fifteen, when he had a working life programme at the Helsingin Sanomat’s weekly insert magazine NYT. He got the job himself by sending the magazine’s director an email.

‘I asked if I could come and they said yes. There wasn’t much else to it.’

At the time Pikkanen was living in Ypäjä, a small town between Forssa and Loima. His sister offered to let him live with her during the programme.

‘After the programme I was so excited and I knew that I wanted to do this for a living.’

Angst set in while he was at Kallio upper secondary school because it seemed like everyone was trying to get in to the media business. But Pikkanen’s journalism career set off in the spring of his first year there when he got a position at the City paper.

‘I thought I would apply just for laughs because I didn’t have any experience or qualifications. But I thought that with the right kind of mind set I could manage.’

The City paper ceased publication suddenly in 2012 and the whole staff was let go. Pikkanen was not bothered by the situation. He focused on his studies and worked as a freelancer and a part-time editorial assistant for Aino, the student union’s newspaper at Aalto University.

In the summer of 2013, Pikkanen returned to a familiar place, a working life programme at NYT magazine. He spent time there in the early part of autumn and the following summer.

‘I did all kinds of stuff there. It was good for me. I don’t understand why freelancers are so often spoken about as being poor and victims. My time as a freelancer was free and wonderful.’