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

Sharmin Farah came to Oulu from Bangladesh. Her life has changed sig­nif­i­cant­ly dur­ing the five years she has lived in Fin­land. Though it has been a roller­coast­er ride, I am enjoy­ing this jour­ney, Sharmin says.

Who

I am Sharmin Farah. I am orig­i­nal­ly from Bangladesh. It is almost five years since I moved to Oulu.

Why

I came here to study master’s pro­gramme at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. My major was Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness Man­age­ment.

While work­ing as a teacher in Bangladesh, I searched for a good master’s pro­gramme in Europe. I realised that Fin­land has the best edu­ca­tion sys­tem in the world. Also, one of my friends told me that I should apply to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu.

When I asked him why, he told me that Oulu Busi­ness School is the sec­ond-best busi­ness school in Fin­land and that Oulu itself is a fam­i­ly-friend­ly city where life is easy and relaxed and recre­ation­al oppor­tu­ni­ties are close at hand.

Where

After grad­u­a­tion, I active­ly applied to sev­er­al com­pa­nies for a job. Oulu Tal­ent Hub sug­gest­ed to me that I should apply for the posi­tion of Mar­ket­ing Man­ag­er at Visidon Com­pa­ny. I applied and after a great recruit­ment process, I got hired.

Now, I am work­ing as a Mar­ket­ing Man­ag­er. This is my first pro­fes­sion­al full-time job.

At Visidon, I am respon­si­ble for dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing. I also col­lab­o­rate with our Sales and HR team. I love my job because I learn new things every day and it encour­ages me to do bet­ter at work. More­over, the mul­ti­cul­tur­al and col­lab­o­ra­tive work­ing envi­ron­ment moti­vates me not to be afraid to make mis­takes and ask for help from oth­ers.

I have also worked vol­un­tar­i­ly at AIESEC as a Vice Pres­i­dent of Tal­ent Man­age­ment for over a year.

What

My first impres­sion about Oulu was that it is a very qui­et city. One can find only a few peo­ple on the streets, and peo­ple main­tain much dis­tance while wait­ing for the bus. I had had a long desire to see snow from my child­hood, so one of my favourite moments here is see­ing snow­fall.

Peo­ple are quite shy to ini­ti­ate dis­cus­sions. How­ev­er, when a con­ver­sa­tion starts, I feel like I am talk­ing with some­one from my home coun­try. I feel com­fort­able and attached when we get into deep dis­cus­sions.

Oulu is an active city full of cul­ture. Sev­er­al fes­ti­vals and exhi­bi­tions occur through­out the year — food fes­ti­vals from around the world, the Lumo Light Fes­ti­val, con­certs dur­ing the sum­mer, and so on. In 2026 Oulu will be the Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture, and I hope there will be more fes­ti­vals to observe and cel­e­brate.

In my spare time, I cap­ture pho­tographs and videos, ski, and trav­el. I knew about the North­ern Lights while in Bangladesh. It was mag­i­cal when I first saw it! I feel lucky to see the North­ern Lights quite eas­i­ly in Oulu. Peo­ple from oth­er cities are not always get­ting the chance to see it. This is the best thing to expe­ri­ence while liv­ing in Oulu!

I love Kuiv­asjärvi; it is close to my house and is a peace­ful area here in Oulu. I can go for a walk in the win­ter or for a bike ride in the sum­mer.

How

My life has changed sig­nif­i­cant­ly dur­ing the five years since I have lived in Fin­land. My jour­ney has been a kind of roller­coast­er ride.

I lost my father after I came here; he was always my inspi­ra­tion. Dur­ing that time, I was shat­tered. Since then, on some days, I am excit­ed about my achieve­ments, such as par­tic­i­pat­ing in dif­fer­ent events – Social Storm, the fes­ti­val of cul­tures, the Uarc­tic con­gress, and my grad­u­a­tion as well.  Some­times, I am frus­trat­ed – for exam­ple, when I had chal­lenges with get­ting a real job. I have had so many jobs dur­ing these five years – news­pa­per deliv­ery, berry pick­ing, fundrais­ing and clean­ing. Though it has been a roller­coast­er ride, I can say I am enjoy­ing this jour­ney.

Here in Fin­land, there is a say­ing that if one has sisu (inner strength), then one can han­dle any sit­u­a­tion. I think I have already obtained sisu.

Any­one think­ing of work­ing and liv­ing qui­et­ly can move and work in Oulu. I feel life here is relaxed. Job oppor­tu­ni­ties are still a chal­lenge for inter­na­tion­al stu­dents because of the lan­guage bar­ri­er and prop­er guide­lines, but the work­ing sit­u­a­tion is improv­ing year by year.

Also, I would like to request that all com­pa­nies in Oulu, and in Fin­land, please pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for inter­na­tion­al tal­ents. We won’t dis­ap­point you!

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.

This arti­cle was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished at oulutalenthub.fi

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