My experience as an international trainee at Valmet by Kasimir Jolkkonen

I had a great opportunity to do my internship at Valmet after my second year at JAMK as a customer service specialist trainee. Valmet has a very long history in Finland as the name Valmet was first established in the 1940s. Valmet then manufactured products as the war reparations for the Soviet Union but soon found out that the product line was to be changed after the reparations were paid. After multiple different mergers and acquisitions, Valmet now has a completely new product line. Currently, they are a developer and a supplier of process technologies, automation systems, and services for paper, pulp, and energy industries. After starting its journey from Finland, Valmet has been expanding its operation to over 30 countries. 

As a trainee, I was responsible for sales and quotations of spare parts for paper and pulp-making equipment to domestic and foreign customers. During the practical training, I learned how to use multiple different IT services that were unknown to me before as well as the company’s ERP system. In my day-to-day work, I formulated quotations and sales orders for the customers and kept in contact with the customers via email or phone in case of more specific requests.  

I was fortunate enough to get an internship in a company and a position that taught me a lot about business in general. For the first time, I was able to work in B2B sales as my previous work experiences had been mainly B2C. Additionally, I learned many cultural differences when it comes to business behavior and how in some countries for example you would need a completely different approach than in Finland. As my responsibilities were the Finnish market and multiple other European markets, I was able to see different variations in the way of doing business.

Author: Kasimir Jolkkonen