The inc­re­dible jour­ney of Chia­ra Boset­ti

Oulu Talent Hub Ambas­sa­dor Chia­ra Boset­ti, ori­gi­nal­ly from Ita­ly, came to Oulu one year ago. “I had great expec­ta­tions, and I cer­tain­ly got what I was loo­king for”, she says.

Who

My name is Chia­ra Boset­ti, I’m 27 years old, and I am an Oulu Talent Hub Ambas­sa­dor.

One year ago, I came to Oulu from Ita­ly to begin this inc­re­dible jour­ney. I had great expec­ta­tions, and I cer­tain­ly got what I was loo­king for. In fact, I’m cur­rent­ly wor­king as a doc­to­ral researc­her at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu in its Pro­tein and Struc­tu­ral Bio­lo­gy Research Unit.

Why

Back in Februa­ry 2021, I was about to gra­dua­te with my Master’s degree in Molecu­lar and Medical Bio­tech­no­lo­gy. I was in beau­ti­ful Vero­na, the Ita­lian city of lovers, and deep insi­de me was a fee­ling that I nee­ded somet­hing new.

I wan­ted to start a career as a researc­her abroad, living in a count­ry that I had never even visi­ted, one whe­re I would expe­rience eve­ryt­hing from scratch. This was when I rea­lized that I could find this type of free­dom in won­der­ful Fin­land – a count­ry whe­re the natu­re is pris­ti­ne and wild, whe­re you can live com­for­tably and whe­re the most cut­ting-edge research is done. Who could ask for more?

Whe­re

The next step was to choo­se my new city. Having lived in Kyoto, Japan, I’ve alrea­dy expe­rienced living in a big city. And as much as I loved living the­re, this time I wan­ted to be in a less bust­ling place. I was eager to sett­le in a peace­ful town, but one which also had a tru­ly cos­mo­po­li­tan feel. A qui­te deman­ding request, you would think, but I wasn’t disap­poin­ted when I found out about Oulu.

First of all, Oulu is a fasci­na­ting place which offers the urban com­forts of a modern city whi­le at the same time giving you a tas­te of Arc­tic natu­re.

Second, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu is a top-ran­ked, inno­va­ti­ve inter­na­tio­nal uni­ver­si­ty whe­re people’s well-being is of utmost impor­tance. I also simply love wor­king the­re because it’s the place whe­re I’ve met won­der­ful people who ins­pi­re me eve­ry day.

What

I would have to say that Oulu is not only natu­re and wor­king oppor­tu­ni­ties. What makes Oulu real­ly unique is its people. The envi­ron­ment is dyna­mic and inter­na­tio­nal, and the people are friend­ly, open and since­re.

I disagree with the typical ste­reo­ty­pes that depict Finns as anti-social and clo­sed people, somet­hing that I belie­ve may have risen from the fact that they value pri­vacy, qui­et and per­so­nal space. From my expe­rience, con­ver­sa­tions here are fran­ker and more genui­ne.

Here you can tru­ly be your­self. In Oulu, I can pur­sue the same hob­bies I was used to in my home count­ry. For example, I enjoy acry­lic pou­ring pain­ting, board games, video games and hiking. On top of all that, I recent­ly star­ted poly­mer clay sculp­ting.

How

When I first moved to Oulu, what was bene­ficial for me was to keep myself cons­tant­ly out of my com­fort zone.

My advice? Talk to new people eve­ry day, enga­ge your­self in new acti­vi­ties and never sett­le down. In this way, you can expe­rience the wide ran­ge of expe­riences this city has to offer, and you will be surpri­sed at what you can achie­ve!

This article was ori­gi­nal­ly publis­hed at oulutalenthub.fi

Oulu Talent Hub

• Oulu Talent Hub brings toget­her and deve­lops regio­nal oppor­tu­ni­ties and ser­vices for inter­na­tio­nal rec­ruit­ment.
• Oulu Talent Hub offers talents, for example, con­tacts with local com­pa­nies, match­ma­king events and info ses­sions, com­pa­ny visits, a tan­dem model for interns­hip pro­gram­mes and career coun­sel­ling. For Oulu Talent Hub, inter­na­tio­nal talent is defi­ned as inter­na­tio­nal specia­lists, emplo­yees, researc­hers and stu­dents.
• Oulu Talent Hub aims to pro­mo­te inter­na­tio­nal talent emplo­y­ment to com­pa­nies in the Oulu region and open up emplo­y­ment paths for inter­na­tio­nal talent.
• Pro­ject part­ners are Business­Oulu, Oulu Cham­ber of Com­merce, Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sciences and Oulu Voca­tio­nal Col­le­ge.
• The pro­ject is fun­ded by The Euro­pean Social Fund, ESF.
• Learn more about Oulu Talent Hub at oulutalenthub.fi.

Talent sto­ries you may be inte­res­ted in:

Vik­tors Sobo­levs: “If you want to work in Oulu, belie­ve in your­self and push hard”

Débo­ra Oli­vei­ra: “During my first walks in Oulu, I felt like I was in a fai­ry tale”

Doris Yue belie­ves her dreams will come true in Oulu

Jun­naid Iqbal: ”You must come to Oulu with an open mind and a big smi­le”

Tama­ra Louis: “Oulu is a per­fect envi­ron­ment for fami­lies”

Shar­min Farah: “Nort­hern Lights – the best thing to expe­rience whi­le living in Oulu”