Embrac­ing Cul­tur­al Exchange: Paul’s Jour­ney as an Entre­pre­neur in Fin­land

Meet Paul Fairchild, an enter­pris­ing indi­vid­ual, orig­i­nal­ly from Lon­don, Eng­land who has called Fin­land home for the past 24 years.

With a pas­sion for lan­guage and com­mu­ni­ca­tion, Paul Fairchild start­ed his entre­pre­neur­ial jour­ney 21 years ago in Seinäjo­ki, estab­lish­ing a suc­cess­ful busi­ness that spe­cial­izes in pro­vid­ing Eng­lish lan­guage train­ing to adults as well as com­pa­nies. Through his experiences, Paul has not only wit­nessed the growth and devel­op­ment of his busi­ness but also the remark­able cul­tur­al exchange that takes place in Fin­land’s dynam­ic busi­ness land­scape.

Nur­tur­ing Cul­tur­al Exchange

Being an entre­pre­neur in Fin­land has allowed Paul to under­stand the dif­fer­ence of cul­tures. As he inter­acts with indi­vid­u­als from var­i­ous back­grounds, both with­in his client com­pa­nies and in the broad­er Finnish busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, he gains a deep­er under­stand­ing of dif­fer­ent cul­tur­al per­spec­tives.

Accord­ing to Paul, the valu­able lessons that oth­er coun­tries can learn from Fin­land’s approach to work are its impact on employ­ee well­be­ing, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and trust. He stat­ed, “The hap­pi­er the work­er the more suc­cess­ful the busi­ness”.

As Fin­land is at the fore­front of tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ments, Paul has embraced inno­v­a­tive tools and dig­i­tal plat­forms to deliv­er lan­guage train­ing pro­grams more effec­tive­ly. He uti­lizes inter­ac­tive online plat­forms, to engage his clients and cre­ate an immer­sive learn­ing expe­ri­ence around Fin­land. How­ev­er, he also works at the office locat­ed in Seinäjo­ki.

Paul will also be one of the pre­sen­ters in the Mega­Match­mak­ing event!

The Mega­Match­mak­ing event is the biggest recruit­ment event in Oulu in which brings local job seek­ers and employ­ers togeth­er. The event will take place on 14th of Sep­tem­ber at 9:00–15:00 in Tullisali, Oulu.

Paul’s pre­sen­ta­tion is on stage 2, 10:30–11:15. Make sure to be there!

Paul chose to be one of the pre­sen­ters because he finds it an inter­est­ing sub­ject to share. Such top­ics include direct and indi­rect com­mu­ni­ca­tions, hier­ar­chies, small talks, behav­ing in meet­ings and inter­views, and a lot more!

If you are look­ing for work, then it is impor­tant to be matched up because net­work­ing is an essen­tial part of for look­ing to work in Fin­land and he is hap­py to be a part of it and make new con­nec­tions.

“Peo­ple should par­tic­i­pate in the event to gain new ideas which can make a big dif­fer­ence in their career paths and gain­ing new net­work­ing and oppor­tu­ni­ty to look for posi­tions so come along and make new con­nec­tions”

Free time and friend­ly advice

Besides the entre­pre­neur­ial life, dur­ing Paul’s free time, he is a foot­ball couch for men in Seinäjo­ki, due to the work­ing life bal­ance. He also enjoys the space and the Finnish nature.

Paul shares a few friend­ly tips for the new­com­ers or those who plan on mov­ing to Oulu:

“As soon as you get to Fin­land start learn­ing the lan­guage. You don’t under­stand the peo­ple you don’t under­stand the cul­ture if you don’t under­stand the lan­guage. Most peo­ple say the Finnish lan­guage is not the eas­i­est lan­guage to learn so do not put too much stress into it just a lit­tle bit day by day, a cou­ple of words every day and build it slow­ly.”

”You do not lose any­thing by learn­ing the lan­guage, it is good men­tal exer­cise.”

“Even if you come here with the inten­tions of stay­ing 1 or 2 years, you don’t know how things are going to turn out. You do not lose any­thing by learn­ing the lan­guage, it is good men­tal exer­cise.

Not every­body is a lan­guage per­son but it’s a marathon not a sprint, you have to real­ize it takes time.”

Text: Nada Abass