Choos­ing the North: An Engineer’s Leap into Life in Oulu

Fatema Jan­nat trav­elled 6,000 kilo­me­tres to Oulu, Fin­land seek­ing chal­lenge – and found a home where safe­ty, equal­i­ty, and curios­i­ty shaped her new begin­ning.

Hi, my name is Fatema Jan­nat – but almost every­one calls me Mow. In Bangla, Mow means hon­ey. I like to believe I car­ry that sweet­ness with me wher­ev­er I go.

I come from Bangladesh, a coun­try vibrant with col­ors, sounds, and end­less human ener­gy. Before mov­ing to Fin­land, I had already spent around eleven years work­ing in large, tech­nol­o­gy-dri­ven orga­ni­za­tions such as Sam­sung Mobile, Telenor Nor­way, and VEON Nether­lands.

My career moved across tech­nol­o­gy, busi­ness strat­e­gy, train­ing, brand­ing, and mar­ket­ing. I was com­fort­able. Estab­lished. Secure.

And yet, some­thing inside me want­ed a new chal­lenge.

Four years ago, I packed my life into suit­cas­es and trav­eled 6 000 kilo­me­ters north — from the col­or­ful chaos of Bangladesh to the calm, snowy silence of Oulu.

And what a jour­ney it has been.

Why I chose Oulu?

When I received six schol­ar­ship offers from dif­fer­ent Finnish uni­ver­si­ties ‚includ­ing Tam­pere Uni­ver­si­ty, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Jyväskylä, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Vaasa, and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu — many peo­ple assumed I would choose a big­ger or more “famous” city.

But I chose Oulu. Why?

Because Oulu is known as a tech­nol­o­gy hub of Europe, with strong research infra­struc­ture and deep roots in elec­tron­ics and telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions. I received both a Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu schol­ar­ship and a Nokia schol­ar­ship for my Master’s stud­ies in Elec­tron­ics, spe­cial­iz­ing in elec­tron­ic design and micro­elec­tron­ics. For an engi­neer like me, Oulu felt like pos­si­bil­i­ty.

But I will be hon­est: before com­ing here, many peo­ple tried to dis­cour­age me.

“Too cold.”
“Too dark.”
“Too small.”
“Noth­ing is there.”

I have always believed some­thing: if every­one is afraid of a place, maybe that’s exact­ly where growth is wait­ing. Instead of fear, I felt curios­i­ty. I want­ed to test myself. I want­ed to expe­ri­ence the extreme north with my own eyes.

The moment I arrived, some­thing unex­pect­ed hap­pened. I fell in love!

I land­ed in Oulu expect­ing sur­vival mode. Instead, I found seren­i­ty.

The air felt clean, like some­one had washed the sky. The streets were qui­et but not lone­ly. The snow didn’t feel harsh; it felt poet­ic.

First Impres­sions: Break­ing the Myths

What is the biggest sur­prise of Oulu? The peo­ple.

I had heard stereo­types about Fin­land that peo­ple don’t talk much, that they are dis­tant, that they are over­ly pro­tec­tive of their per­son­al space.

My expe­ri­ence was com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent.

Yes, Finnish peo­ple respect bound­aries. Yes, they val­ue silence. But beneath that calm sur­face is warmth, sin­cer­i­ty, and deep loy­al­ty. If you approach them gen­uine­ly, they wel­come you with open hearts.

Finnish peo­ple are not loud, they are sin­cere. They don’t talk unnec­es­sar­i­ly but when they do, they mean it. They may not smile at strangers con­stant­ly, but if you need help, they appear imme­di­ate­ly. Warmth here is sub­tle but it is deep.

A City That Trusts Its Peo­ple

One of the first things that tru­ly amazed me was inde­pen­dence.

Anoth­er thing that amazed me is how self-suf­fi­cient peo­ple are here. I have seen elder­ly indi­vid­u­als liv­ing inde­pen­dent­ly, man­ag­ing their dai­ly lives with­out depen­dence; shop­ping, com­mut­ing, exer­cis­ing.

I have seen infra­struc­ture designed thought­ful­ly for peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties. The city is high­ly acces­si­ble and sup­port­ive of peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties. There is dig­ni­ty in inde­pen­dence here. The sys­tem empow­ers peo­ple rather than mak­ing them depen­dent.

And despite its size, Oulu is cul­tur­al­ly alive. Con­certs, fairs, hob­by class­es, art events,something is always hap­pen­ing. Many activ­i­ties are free and open to every­one. The city invests in well-being, cre­ativ­i­ty, and com­mu­ni­ty.

Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Calm

Oulu may not be a mas­sive metrop­o­lis, but it is beau­ti­ful­ly diverse.

Walk through Lin­nan­maa or Rotu­aari and you will hear dif­fer­ent lan­guages with­in min­utes. You will see peo­ple from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Amer­i­c­as | Chris­tians, Mus­lims, Hin­dus – all liv­ing side by side in har­mo­ny. Dif­fer­ent reli­gions, iden­ti­ties, lifestyles ; liv­ing peace­ful­ly side by side. It feels peace­ful. Bal­anced.

What I appre­ci­ate most is the absence of loud judg­ment. Peo­ple are not over­ly con­cerned with how you dress, what you believe, or whom you love.

There is space here, social­ly and phys­i­cal­ly.

Stud­ies, Research, and Rein­vent­ing Myself

Aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, Oulu pushed me to rein­vent myself.

At the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, I deep­ened my exper­tise in elec­tron­ics and micro­elec­tron­ics. I worked as a Research Assis­tant and explored areas such as nan­otech­nol­o­gy, lithi­um-ion bat­ter­ies, and micro­elec­tron­ics.

I worked in the R&D unit of iLOQ Oy, a Finnish tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny known for its dig­i­tal lock­ing inno­va­tions. It was here that I expe­ri­enced one of the most refresh­ing aspects of Finnish work cul­ture: equal­i­ty and trust. I expe­ri­enced some­thing beau­ti­ful­ly Finnish: hier­ar­chy with­out ego.

My line man­ag­er at iLOQ was a woman. She was approach­able, kind, and sup­port­ive. Some­times she would sim­ply come to my desk and say, “Let’s go for cof­fee.” We talked about life, fam­i­ly, hob­bies ; not just dead­lines and projects, not just tasks and KPIs.

One day, she orga­nized a team sauna event in our office build­ing. It was my very first sauna expe­ri­ence in Fin­land — with my female boss and team. It felt sym­bol­ic: I had tru­ly stepped into Finnish cul­ture.

As an inter­na­tion­al woman in tech, I remem­ber think­ing: Only in Fin­land does your man­ag­er dis­cuss semi­con­duc­tor chal­lenges with you in the morn­ing and invite you to sauna in the after­noon.

That day, I felt inte­grat­ed ;not as a for­eign­er, but as a col­league.

I have now worked in four dif­fer­ent roles in Oulu, and in each place, work-life bal­ance was not just a con­cept but a prac­tice. Hier­ar­chies are min­i­mal. You call your boss by their first name. You can have cof­fee togeth­er and talk about hob­bies. Fam­i­ly and per­son­al growth are respect­ed.

Today, I work at Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu under the City of Oulu. I have two super­vi­sors, and both treat me with respect, trust, and gen­uine human warmth. Work-life bal­ance is not a buzz­word here, it is prac­tice. You call your boss by their first name.

You leave work on time. You are encour­aged to grow, not burn out. They pri­or­i­tize com­fort, bal­ance, and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment. It feels col­lab­o­ra­tive, not author­i­ta­tive.

Learn­ing Finnish – Through Joy

I am cur­rent­ly study­ing the Finnish lan­guage. What I love most is that lan­guage edu­ca­tion here is holis­tic. We don’t just mem­o­rize gram­mar; we learn about sports, cook­ing, careers, health, and dai­ly life. We play games in the class­room. We laugh. We some­times attend con­certs, opera per­for­mances, fairs, and sports events orga­nized by the school.

Learn­ing here feels like being a child again – curi­ous, play­ful, fear­less. It feels like learn­ing through liv­ing. And maybe that is the Finnish way – seri­ous about qual­i­ty, play­ful in process.

Lan­guage was not a major bar­ri­er for me because I am flu­ent in Eng­lish, and many peo­ple in Oulu speak excel­lent Eng­lish. Still, learn­ing Finnish feels like unlock­ing a deep­er lay­er of con­nec­tion.

For two years, I had the hon­or of serv­ing as a Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu Ambas­sador, rep­re­sent­ing the uni­ver­si­ty inter­na­tion­al­ly. With my back­ground in brand­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion, I proud­ly shared the sto­ry of Oulu with the world.

It felt mean­ing­ful because I was not just study­ing here; I was becom­ing part of the sto­ry.

Free­dom and Mid­night Forests

One of the most pow­er­ful gifts Oulu has giv­en me is a sense of safe­ty. As a woman, I can walk alone at night. I can dri­ve to a for­est at mid­night to watch the stars.

I can walk on dark, qui­et roads with­out fear. I have nev­er expe­ri­enced traf­fic con­ges­tion here. Rules are respect­ed. Chil­dren roam freely and safe­ly.

That lev­el of secu­ri­ty changes you. It allows you to breathe dif­fer­ent­ly.

I used to think I was more of a city per­son. But Oulu changed that.

Here, nature is not sep­a­rate from urban life , it flows into it. Forests, sea, snow-cov­ered paths, cycling routes – every­thing is close. The silence of win­ter nights, the bright­ness of sum­mer evenings, the rhythm of sea­sons ; they shape your inner world.

Nature is not an escape in Oulu , it is inte­grat­ed into dai­ly life. For­est trails start near res­i­den­tial areas. The sea freezes in win­ter. Autumn paints every­thing gold. Sum­mer refus­es to sleep.

One of my favorite mem­o­ries is sim­ple: dri­ving.

Dri­ving through snow-cov­ered roads, music play­ing soft­ly, wide open land­scapes ahead no traf­fic, no chaos, just me and the hori­zon.

In those moments, I feel both small and infi­nite.

What Oulu Gave Me That I Didn’t Expect

• Oulu gave me courage to step out of com­fort.
• A sense of safe­ty I nev­er expe­ri­enced before.
• Work envi­ron­ments built on trust, not fear.
• A deep­er appre­ci­a­tion of silence.
• Space to grow pro­fes­sion­al­ly and per­son­al­ly.

What Else Has Oulu Taught Me?

• Oulu has taught me resilience.
• It has taught me patience dur­ing long win­ters and grat­i­tude dur­ing bright sum­mers.
• It has shown me that silence can be pow­er­ful and that inde­pen­dence can coex­ist with kind­ness.
• It has shown me that hap­pi­ness does not always come from noise and speed – some­times it comes from bal­ance.

Advice to Any­one Con­sid­er­ing Mov­ing to Oulu

• If you are think­ing about mov­ing to Oulu, come with an open mind.
• Do not let stereo­types define your expec­ta­tions. Yes, the win­ters are cold. Yes, the city is not huge. But what you gain is depth ; qual­i­ty of life, safe­ty, equal­i­ty, and space to grow.
• Learn the lan­guage if you can. Join hob­by groups. Accept invi­ta­tions to cof­fee. Expe­ri­ence sauna. Go to the for­est. Ride a bicy­cle in win­ter at least once.
• Oulu rewards those who embrace it.

My Future

As an engi­neer and a cre­ative soul, a tech­nol­o­gist who paints, I see my future at the inter­sec­tion of inno­va­tion, research, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and cul­tur­al con­nec­tion.

I want to con­tin­ue con­tribut­ing to tech­nol­o­gy and soci­ety while also inspir­ing oth­er inter­na­tion­al pro­fes­sion­als, espe­cial­ly women, to believe in bold deci­sions. I see my future at the inter­sec­tion of tech­nol­o­gy, research, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and cul­tur­al bridge-build­ing.

Mov­ing to Oulu was a bold deci­sion. And it became one of the most beau­ti­ful chap­ters of my life.

Four years ago, I arrived as an ambi­tious pro­fes­sion­al seek­ing a degree. Today, I am still ambi­tious. But I am also ground­ed.

Some­times, when I dri­ve through the qui­et north­ern roads, I smile and think:

Maybe hon­ey belongs in the north after all. And that home is Oulu.

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