Throughout our history, Bilot has succeeded in recruiting the best talent in the market. This year was no exception, we on-boarded both seasoned experts as well as young talents – a total of about 30 new ‘bilots’.
Part of our mission to locate new talent is also to meet future young professionals before they graduate and try to paint them a realistic picture of our changing industry which they are likely to join once they graduate. It is important for them to connect their academia to a true business context. This helps boost motivation, helps choose their areas of expertise and also assists them navigate the sea of countless potential employers.
We have had the privilege to having been regularly invited by various schools and universities to be spokespersons for this important cause. I have been doing this a couple of times back in the day and now again just recently at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. Aalto University is up next in a month or so.
The key messages we convey relate to how ICT is an enabler of business, how ICT is often in the nucleus of business transformation and how this makes this industry a really exciting employer for a large variety of different skill-sets. In Bilot’s case, the true-life examples are often found really interesting because of their technological innovativeness and topical relevance. Depending on the audience, we either apply broader optics and discuss industry trends or emphasize a specific area of our own strategic focus areas e.g. BI & Analytics, Mobile solutions etc.
It is recent statistical fact (Federation of Finnish Technology Industries) that the software industry is doing well what comes to continued increase in job vacancies. But the industry is in the midst of massive transformation.
The Ministry of Employment and the Economy has set up a high-level expert committee chaired by Chairman of the Board Pekka Ala-Pietilä (ex-Nokia SVP) to evaluate structural change and growth potential of the ICT industry. The committee is expected to come up with innovative ideas on driving employment of surplus staff, drivers for entrepreneurship, and attracting foreign investment to Finland.
The students we meet are naturally part of this same equation and we are proud to be part of this transformation. It is largely about giving real-life examples and showing how the skills they learn can be applied. And we genuinely believe that sustainable competitiveness in the ICT industry and Finnish “innovation acumen” are one of the most important future assets we have – and it is the responsibility of us “veterans” to help those who are just starting their careers.
