In the autumn of 1977 my tutor took me to the dean’s Welcome to the University event. I was shocked to hear that 87 per cent of us humanities students would end up as teachers, 3 per cent in other jobs and 10 per cent as housewives. So it was wise to get a teaching qualification as back up. I nevertheless set myself the goal of getting some other work.

I remember telling my study mates that I’d got a job at Nokia. Their first question was: “When are you moving?” Nokia was a conglomerate back then, with half of its revenue coming from Finland and the other half from abroad. The company was known mostly for toilet paper, boots and tyres. They were produced in the town of Nokia.

In the 1990s, the old traditional Nokia was transformed into a modern telecommunications company that began to conquer the world. After the financial crisis of the 1990s, mobile phones and networks caused the company to grow rapidly. We were at the forefront of telecommunications, and I got to experience how Nokia and its phones spread to all four corners of the globe. Nokia became an excellent calling-card for Finns.

In 2011 I joined the blue-and-white ranks of Finnair, right in the middle of structural changes in air traffic. Over the past five years there has been more than enough work in communications, due to the changes in the industry. Now we are building new growth and brainstorming how to offer our customers the best Nordic flight experience.

I remember one particular occurrence that later had a big influence on my attitude to work and achievements. We were queuing up to get our exam grades entered into our report books after a Finnish history course taught by Martti Ruutu, director of the National Archives. The student in front of me did not want the exam grade marked in the book because it was an A 1, the lowest pass mark.

There was once a young Scottish communications officer in my team who had learned palmistry and read our fortunes at a party. I was told that I would work for a long time.

I would like to continue to live and work, learning new things and challenging the old. My…