"I’ve always felt at ease here knowing that I’m in control of my career path and decisions when it comes to my education"

Business Information Technology studies at Haaga-Helia provide students with a diverse range of expertise and inspire to create unique career paths.

Parmis Kazemi
31.01.2023
Student testimonial

Parmis Kazemi studies Business Information Technology at Haaga-Helia. She ended up choosing Haaga-Helia, because she wanted a degree in IT or business and to study in Helsinki. When making the decision Kazemi also considered International Business, but ended up choosing Business Information Technology, and says that she has been very pleased with the decision.

– I’ve always felt at ease here knowing that I’m in control of my career path and decisions when it comes to my education. I really enjoy the flow of the studies at Haaga-Helia and have never run into serious issues during my studies, Kazemi says.

Kazemi has always gravitated towards more creative career and study options, which has led her to have the Digital Services path with Business and ICT as her major. She says that the mixture of the studies has helped with her job as it has given expertise for both website design projects as well as the business-related matters.

– I would absolutely recommend applying for BITE as you have 4 different career paths that you can choose from or even mix them. I personally managed to expand my knowledge on many different topics thanks to this degree program, Kazemi says.

New perspective from exchange studies

Kazemi knew from the beginning of her studies that she wanted to do an exchange period, since she had heard such great stories from others that had gained new and unforgettable experiences abroad.

For her exchange destination, she chose the University of Reutlingen, located in Northwest Germany. The city is small with only 200,000 inhabitants and it is in the state of Baden-Württemburg.

Studying at the University of Reutlingen was challenging but rewarding.

– I had a selection of Business and free choice studies, language courses, and workshops. We usually had semi-long lectures there, plus individual assignments we had to submit on Moodle. Some courses also required group presentations which were done at the end of the semester, Kazemi says.

Although Kazemi studied mainly in English, was it a great advantage to know German.

– I had already started studying German before going on exchange which came in super handy. The language of the studies there was English, but I also took an advanced German course to boost my language skills, Kazemi recalls.

Positive experiences help significantly to grow confidence when speaking another language that you are still learning. One of Kazemi’s most memorable experiences during the exchange period happened when she first moved to Reutlingen, and had a nice encounter with a local.

– I went in to buy some bread and spoke in German to the owner of the bakery who was a lovely middle-aged German lady. She complimented me on my German and encouraged me to keep learning as I had a nice accent. She also gave me lots of freebies which really warmed up my heart. Her words defiantly encouraged me to keep working on my German.

Although the language barrier was not a challenge in a new environment, something that came as a surprise was the fact that everyday affairs still work pretty traditionally in Germany.

– Things need to be mailed and cash is still very much used. Some places don’t accept contactless card payments. These aren’t necessarily flaws, just things you need to adapt to, Kazemi says.

In addition to the cultural knowledge and language skills that exchange studies improve, it also enhances over-all life skills and independence when adapting to a new environment and being responsible for everything. This also applies to the academic life, where you quickly learn to work in a new and different education system and teaching style.

For students planning on going on exchange or doubting if it is worth doing Kazemi sends her support and greetings.

– I would say to absolutely go for it, it is an amazing experience from which you truly learn so much and grow as a person, Kazemi encourages.