JYUnity

Minna Hillebrand’s career in the field of programming has been an interesting one. She has not regretted her decision to study information technology at the University of Jyväskylä. Her transition to working life and to different jobs has been smooth, and she has no complaints about her colleagues, either.

Having grown up in Jyväskylä, Minna Hillebrand chose JYU for simple reasons: Moving away from her hometown was not an attractive option, because her friends and boyfriend lived here. After upper secondary school, mathematics and information technology interested Minna the most, since she knew that the employment possibilities were really good in the field.

“Although I liked many subjects at upper secondary school, it was difficult to figure out what careers studying those subjects would lead to. Several relatives of mine were working in the IT field, so career models were readily available. I wanted to go for a field that offered the best prospects for employment.”

Minna’s studies in the Faculty of Information Technology started in 2000. “The brand new facilities in Agora were awesome,” Minna says. The study conditions couldn’t have been better. Minna was most interested in coding, and she chose mathematics and multimedia studies as her minors.

“Before the studies, I didn’t know how to program at all, so I took plenty of those courses. The programming projects were directly applicable to the world of work and the algorithms were nicely concrete in comparison to mathematics, which is often more abstract.”

Minna Hillebrand completed her master’s studies at a quick pace. She graduated in three years, although she did encounter difficult courses along her study path. At the end of her studies, she also started in a job at the university.

“Our tutor group developed into a core team, who completed basic studies together. I didn’t invest in student life otherwise at all but wanted to graduate as soon as possible and find a job.”

Minna worked at the university in software application projects, mostly on the development of Korppi. In 2007, she left the University for a job in Tieto, where she has worked on different programming tasks for 13 years. In the IT field, job descriptions stay fresh due to the rapid development of platforms and technologies.

“In projects, the palette of instruments is changing really rapidly. I have had to learn plenty of new things, but fortunately, I am interested in so many things. My interests have also changed over the years.”

In 2020, Minna changed to her current job at Polar. Her work tasks include development of marketing and online commerce. The work tasks also include a lot of content management, working with various stakeholders, and the planning and implementation of various integrations. Of course, one needs to know the Polar products well.

“In the IT field, many kinds of people and different types of expertise are needed. Everybody cannot deal with everything. This makes work teams well rounded and pleasant, which contributes to job satisfaction. It has also been extremely nice to come across old acquaintances in new jobs.”