Oulu – the City of Work-Life Bal­ance

In this arti­cle, we inter­viewed a Brazil­ian – Beat­riz Rocha – liv­ing in Oulu, Fin­land. We were curi­ous to know what brought her here and ulti­mate­ly made her stay.

Oulu is a city locat­ed in North­ern Fin­land, graced by the north­ern lights in win­ter and the mid­night sun in sum­mer. Dur­ing win­ter, Oulu becomes a true win­ter won­der­land, cov­ered in snow that glis­tens under the faint sun­light beams, not to for­get the danc­ing auro­ras at night. In sum­mer, Oulu trans­forms into a per­fect par­adise, with sun-kissed lakes and forests that become everyone’s favorite place to be.

True that Oulu is a gift of nature, but that’s not all. Oulu is a major tech­no­log­i­cal hub in Fin­land, and some might even argue that Oulu is the Sil­i­con Val­ley of North­ern Scan­di­navia. It com­pris­es 1000-plus com­pa­nies, 25 000 plus high-tech tal­ents, high-tech research cen­ters and as well as the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu; the birth­place of 6G wire­less com­mu­ni­ca­tions.

Beat­riz Rocha, 25, moved to Oulu in the fall of 2021, when she start­ed her master’s degree in Learn­ing, Edu­ca­tion and Tech­nol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. But before that she had been an exchange stu­dent in Fin­land dur­ing her bachelor’s stud­ies, and she liked the coun­try so much that she decid­ed to come back for fur­ther stud­ies. She has com­plet­ed two intern­ships in the field of mar­ket­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tions so far, and cur­rent­ly, she is in the inte­gra­tion pro­gramme for immi­grants aim­ing to gain bet­ter pro­fi­cien­cy in the Finnish lan­guage and open more doors in her search for pro­fes­sion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties.

Com­ing from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Beat­riz par­tic­u­lar­ly enjoys the calm­ness of Oulu.

– I come from a very big city, I do appre­ci­ate the calm­ness that small­er or medi­um cities can pro­vide. I believe Oulu is not too small nor too big – it has basi­cal­ly every­thing you need for dai­ly life, but you can still enjoy the calmer pace of not being in a metrop­o­lis. Oulu is also a very safe place to live in, which I high­ly val­ue.

Accord­ing to her one of the aspects that makes Oulu stand out is the work-life bal­ance.

– The equi­lib­ri­um between work and free time fos­ters a very healthy dai­ly life, and I believe that hav­ing time for post-work activ­i­ties can make peo­ple hap­pi­er and more pro­duc­tive in work. This kind of lifestyle allows you to explore new inter­ests and hob­bies, which is very impor­tant for new­com­ers who aim to join the com­mu­ni­ty sur­round­ing them.

– Hav­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty to work in a hybrid mode was great for me, as I could shape my days accord­ing to both the team’s needs and my own. I could also enjoy some flex­i­bil­i­ty to shape my work­ing hours, which was some­thing I real­ly liked. The very flat hier­ar­chies also made me very com­fort­able inter­act­ing with the whole team, Beat­riz fur­ther says.

Nature plays a big role in the Finnish cul­ture, if not the biggest. Almost every Finn has a great con­nec­tion with nature. Oulu is also known for its acces­si­bil­i­ty to the near­by forests and lakes, which are reach­able in just under 10 min­utes. Sea­son­al out­door activ­i­ties are high­ly val­ued in Fin­land, and Oulu has got every­thing cov­ered for you!

– I absolute­ly love see­ing the sea­sons change, too, and how nature can look so dif­fer­ent through­out the year. I love spend­ing time out­doors in sum­mer, going for walks and swim­ming in the lake or the beach, but I also love tak­ing a walk dur­ing autumn and enjoy­ing the crisp air and the beau­ti­ful col­ors.

– And of course, win­ter has its own par­tic­u­lar­i­ties. I love see­ing how beau­ti­ful the sur­round­ings are after a snow­fall. The win­ter is also the peak time to see the north­ern lights. In Oulu, it is not that hard to spot them, which is so awe­some! I have seen them many times since I moved here, and I still feel in awe every time I catch a glimpse of them, Beat­riz says.

“I absolute­ly love see­ing the sea­sons change.”

In addi­tion, Oulu has a lot to offer for any­one who is con­sid­er­ing mov­ing to Oulu. The range of ser­vices the city pro­vides is com­mend­able. For any­one from the field of ICT and tech­nol­o­gy, Oulu can be a safe haven con­sid­er­ing the job secu­ri­ty and oth­er facil­i­ties such as qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion for chil­dren and high-qual­i­ty liv­ing stan­dards. Beat­riz men­tions why Oulu is a rec­om­mend­ed des­ti­na­tion for for­eign tal­ents, espe­cial­ly in the field of ICT.

– I believe that a lot of Brazil­ians who move abroad are look­ing for bet­ter pro­fes­sion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties, safe­ty, and a more bal­anced and health­i­er work-life. Oulu scores points in all these cat­e­gories, with a wide range of pos­si­bil­i­ties for ICT pro­fes­sion­als, a very safe envi­ron­ment with a calm and sta­ble lifestyle, and a good and healthy lifestyle for pro­fes­sion­als. To peo­ple who make the move with their fam­i­lies, Oulu can also be a good choice – with, for exam­ple, good schools avail­able for those who move with kids.

As I men­tioned, Oulu has the advan­tages of not being either a very big city, nor a small one, mak­ing the lifestyle here a good com­pro­mise for those who look for a peace­ful place while not miss­ing out on ser­vices and oppor­tu­ni­ties. Oulu can also be afford­able when com­pared to oth­er Euro­pean, and espe­cial­ly Nordic, cities.

Last­ly, the oppor­tu­ni­ty to live in such a dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ment is def­i­nite­ly excit­ing and fun and fos­ters per­son­al growth along­side the pro­fes­sion­al one.

Final­ly, Beat­riz has got some tips for you who intend to move to Oulu.

• Mov­ing to Oulu can be a big change, but don’t let it scare you!
• Be open to new oppor­tu­ni­ties and start active­ly search­ing for them.
• Try to learn the lan­guage – even if your job doesn’t require it!

Oulu is a city of peace and respect diver­si­ty. Oulu always wel­comes skilled tal­ent with open arms appre­ci­at­ing their con­tri­bu­tion to the Finnish econ­o­my while try­ing to hon­our them by offer­ing a high­ly sat­is­fac­to­ry lifestyle.