Kiana Montazeri has a bachelors’ degree in Electrical Engineering from her home country Iran. She was also going for the master’s degree, but then life happened. Immigrating to Finland through marriage, she thought it best to start from the scratch.
– I’ve seen myself working with renewable energies before, but then again, I think the field of IT has better job opportunities, explains Montazeri.
– My husband encouraged me to take on some open university studies in IT first to see if I like it, and I did.
The IT courses at Aalto University, Tampere University and Åbo Akademi gave a good overview of the field. Alongside studying, Montazeri was taking Finnish language lessons and her citizenship exam. She heard about Haaga-Helia through friends and acquaintances.
– Everybody was saying university of applied sciences is ideal when you’re eager to start working as soon as possible, as opposed to traditional academic studies.
Enrolling on the Business Information Technology degree studies and starting to work as a BI developer for a Helsinki based company happened pretty much at the same time. According to Montazeri, it’s been hectic at times, but all the same gratifying.
– Once you get organized and learn to prioritize, it is possible to combine working and studying. Plus, it is a huge advantage to be able to immediately put your learning to work.
Choices choices
Business Information Technology degree studies at Haaga-Helia provide students with practical yet professional Business IT skills combined with an extensive theoretical base. The program consist of orientation studies which are followed by a specialization path according to one’s preference. The four IT specialization areas to choose from are Software Development, ICT and Business, Digital Services, and ICT infrastructures and Cloud Services.
– It was difficult to decide which courses to take into my study program and what to leave out, since everything on the curriculum sounded so interesting, says Kiana Montazeri.
– And based on the courses I have taken, they all are indeed excellent.
A funny and kind of life chancing incidence took place when Montazeri was refusing from the course on Innovation.
– I tried to convince the teacher I do not need to take this course, she recalls back laughing.
– But he wouldn’t have it, and as it happens, it was on that particular course I met my current co-worker.
Montazeri and her fellow student were discussing data analytics and how they both found it fascinating. Based on that discussion, her then-fellow-student now-co-worker persuaded her to apply for an open position at Eltel, the company he himself was working for.
– And so here I am, rejoices Kiana Montazeri.
– Oh, and the course on Innovation was actually nice too!
Montazeri is currently putting the final touches on her Haaga-Helia studies, working on her thesis and planning to graduate by the summer of 2025.
What would you like to say to new Haaga-Helia students?
– If you find it difficult to find your specialization path, pay attention during orientation period and take a nibble on everything, courses of all sorts, to find it. And you will.
– The final goal is to find a good job, right? So be active, at school, events, everywhere. Mine is a good example on how your dream job is not necessarily found through LinkedIn.
