Jenny Lauronen, Meyer Turku
“Over the years the world changes and it's ok that your interests change too, it's not worth staying in a place that doesn't feel meaningful.”
What have you studied and what influenced this choice back in the day?
When I was young, I studied product development and industrial design at Häme University of Applied Sciences, it was an interesting field and I enjoyed the works related to my studies, for example as a product development engineer and project manager in an industrial design office very much. As more and more products and services became digital, I became interested in user interfaces, games, and virtual reality. I founded my own gaming start-up and together with my team, we developed game-based wellness services. I applied to study interactive user interfaces and game design and studied for a Master's degree in IT while working. Life, learning and work have taken an interesting path in my life, learning and development are important sources of motivation for me, much more so than career or money.
How did you become a project manager?
When I quit working for startups, I thought carefully about what kind of working life I wanted. I knew that virtual learning and user interfaces were interesting to me, and I wanted to learn more. Through my hobbies, shipping was close to my heart, and I applied for a position as a researcher and project manager at Aboa Mare, the Maritime Academy of Novia University of Applied Sciences. There they wanted to utilize simulation for product development. Maritime automation and even autonomy are developing at a fast pace, and I worked at Aboa Mare for six years on various projects developing intelligent maritime solutions. I am currently working at Meyer Turku shipyard as a project manager for the Green Transition research program.
What is the best thing about your job?
Versatility and the opportunity to learn new things have always been the driving force behind my work, and I'm good at getting things started and thinking up new solutions for the future. I've also had the opportunity to work on many topical issues that interest me, such as driving the green transitionin the shipbuilding industry.
What have been the highlights and most important lessons of your career?
Entrepreneurship is a great way to spread your own wings and try your own ideas. It's great to see people getting excited, helping you and pushing your ideas forward. You learn the power of teamwork, leadership, proactivity and responsibility. I have used these lessons to build many large development programs, and I find it rewarding when, after a lot of hard work, an idea that was once a dream becomes a viable solution!
What do you expect from the future?
I expect that by working together we can solve human-induced climate change and that biodiversity, clean water, fresh air, education, safety, and food will be available to all people in the future. I think these are multidisciplinary phenomena that engineers are involved in solving. We in Finland are particularly well placed to produce sustainable development solutions. I also look forward to travelling in the future and that my children also finding a good place to build their own kind of life.
For whom is this a suitable career option?
In the product development and research sector, it is quite common for people to work sometimes as researchers and sometimes for companies, maybe as researchers, entrepreneurs, consultants, and teachers. A career as varied as the one I've had so far, is perfect for people who are curious, excited about new things and want to be part of creating the future!
What message would you like to send to a young person pondering their career?
I like development work and I want to encourage you to have an open-minded approach towards topics that interest you. Eventually, all things will start to support each other. Over the years the world changes and it's ok that your interests change too, it's not worth staying in a place that doesn't feel meaningful.