Doris Yue belie­ves her dreams will come true in Oulu

Doris Yue, 35, is an arc­hi­tect living in Oulu and wor­king at Uki Arc­hi­tects. She is from Hong Kong and has stu­died her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in arc­hi­tec­tu­re the­re. She has wor­ked as an arc­hi­tect in Hong Kong for seven years befo­re moving to Fin­land. Oulu Talent Hub inter­viewed Yue about her thoughts on living and wor­king in Oulu.

”I am Doris Yue, 35, and I come from Hong Kong. I star­ted wor­king at Uki Arc­hi­tects as an arc­hi­tect a year ago.

I’ve stu­died arc­hi­tec­tu­re for five years in Hong Kong and obtai­ned both Bac­he­lor’s and Mas­ter’s degrees the­re. I’ve been wor­king as an arc­hi­tect in Hong Kong for seven years befo­re I moved to Fin­land.

I’ve mar­ried with a Fin­nish man and I moved to Oulu about two and a half years ago. To start out my life here, I took lan­gua­ge cour­ses first for a couple of months.

I applied for this job by sen­ding an email direct­ly to the boss of the office. Toget­her with the help of my hus­band who knew the boss per­so­nal­ly.

I got a reply email a few days later and I was invi­ted for an inter­view. The inter­view went well and I was wor­king as an intern for three months. After the interns­hip, I success­ful­ly got a per­ma­nent cont­ract with the office.

I am hap­py with my situa­tion. As the pan­de­mic has star­ted last year, fin­ding a job is even har­der than befo­re. I was luc­ky to get the cont­ract.

Oulu is a place to dream, belie­ves Doris Yue.

My first impres­sions about Oulu were: it is small and qui­et.

Fin­nish people may look cold, but it’s just a faça­de, but in rea­li­ty, they are very friend­ly and warm.
The­re are lots of open-min­ded people in Oulu.

You do not have to be panic when you express your opi­nions. Fin­nish people love to hear dif­fe­rent opi­nions and they apprecia­te them.

I live near the city park, Aino­lan Puis­to. So for me, that park is the best place in Oulu. I love han­ging around the­re, especial­ly in the sum­mer.

The best Fin­nish acti­vi­ty is pic­king mush­rooms and ber­ries in the forest. It’s so amazing that I can pick tho­se direct­ly from the land and eat them right away. I can’t expe­rience that in my home city.

I like dancing and I take dance les­sons regu­lar­ly here, too.

Natu­re is a source of ener­gy for Doris Yue.

I’m very ins­pi­red by the “break” cul­tu­re (tau­ko in Fin­nish) in my office. We have two official cof­fee breaks during the day. One is star­ting even befo­re work and anot­her one is after lunch­ti­me. Eve­ry­one is encou­ra­ged to take a break whe­ne­ver nee­ded. It’s Fin­nish wis­dom.

The office life is qui­te infor­mal in Oulu as well. My col­lea­gues are just like my friends more than my work­ma­tes.

Anot­her ins­pi­ra­tion is the lear­ning cul­tu­re here. Less is more. Fin­nish kids do not have exces­si­ve homework and don’t have to spend hours and hours eve­ry day stu­dying. They have a lot of free time to play or focus on their own hob­bies. They also have a long sum­mer holi­day wit­hout sum­mer homework. On the cont­ra­ry, kids in my home city usual­ly spend their spa­re time pre­pa­ring for the exams all year round inclu­ding sum­mer.

”Oulu is a place to dream.”

My advice for get­ting a job in Oulu is, you may lay­out a few options which you’re hap­py with and are impor­tant for your career. My first option was to offer an interns­hip to a poten­tial com­pa­ny right after my lan­gua­ge cour­se. It was impor­tant to immer­se myself in a real envi­ron­ment as quickly as pos­sible.

The second option was to con­ti­nue to stu­dy Fin­nish in a lan­gua­ge school. It was also equal­ly impor­tant to equip myself so that I’m able to pre­sent my ideas in Fin­nish.

Even­tual­ly, I took the first option and it went well as I hoped.

Oulu is a place to dream. Yet it’s a small city but the more impor­tant is people’s mind­sets and men­ta­li­ty. Oulu people are very open-min­ded and crea­ti­ve. This gives many oppor­tu­ni­ties for foreig­ners as well. I’m very exci­ted to see and explo­re how my dreams are to be rea­lized here in Oulu.”

This article was ori­gi­nal­ly publis­hed at oulutalenthub.fi

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