A rising star

“Today I sent spare parts to Thailand for the first time,” says Veera Leskinen excitedly. She is working at Black Bruin’s Jyväskylä factory and seems to like it a lot. “Spare parts go all over the world, to Black Bruin’s distributor NAHI in North America, to South Africa, all over Europe and Asia… For deliveries in Europe, I personally take care of all transportation orders and freight documents, and outside the EU they are mainly managed by other Black Bruin team members. Sometimes the customers arrange transportation entirely themselves, and then we don’t deal with the transportation and freight documents,” Veera elaborates.

The secrets of success in a summer job

Veera is studying for the third year at the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences to become a logistics engineer. She has always been a keen summer job applicant. Way back in December, she started thinking of an interesting place and to check out her options on the internet. Black Bruin was a perfect match for her, since they, too, were on the move in good time, recruiting summer employees. The company seemed interesting because Veera is interested in production and intralogistics – and indeed in all the various forms of logistics. She promptly applied and the rest is history: she got a great job.

Personal growth

After school Veera didn’t really know what she wanted to do, so she joined the Finnish Defence Forces for a gap year. There she ended up being a vehicle driver and that really got her interested in logistics. Veera applied to study logistics at the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences, where the vast range of job opportunities in the field soon became clear to her. ”Logistics is so much more than transportation, Veera sums up. ”You need it wherever goods and information are on the move.”

As a subject of study, logistics at the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences is divided into modes of transportation, purchasing, logistics economics, circular economy and intralogistics – a truly wide field. No wonder that Veera’s original dreams of becoming a transportation manager have changed into a growing interest in intralogistics and circular economy – one of the school’s main specialization modules: That is also what Veera has chosen. ”Environmental issues are of growing interest in the business world at large, and logistics is one of the most important ways to influence it,” Veera declares.

Inside Black Bruin products

In Veera’s eyes, Black Bruin products are a range of different parts, and she has come to realize how many different components and parts are needed to produce one hydraulic motor or rotator. ”It’s been highly motivating for me to learn not only which of the scores of shelves a certain component can be found on but also what products they go into. By now, I have a pretty good overview of the different Black Bruin models, too.”

Spare part orders are of particular interest to Veera, because they entail several steps, each of which Veera can manage independently. ”Every order is one of a kind and goes to a different location,” Veera explains. ”It’s empowering to see that you can do it and to use your creativity.”

Black Bruin as an employer

Veera has been mentored by Warehouse Manager Eetu Mäkinen, who has made her aware of some differences between what’s in the textbooks and real-life logistics. ”In my studies, the factories have been bigger stereotypes, whereas at Black Bruin it’s been surprising and also nice to see that the jobs and responsibilities are wider and not so limited,” tells Veera. ”The atmosphere at Black Bruin is really good and everybody is ready and willing to help and provide guidance.”

Summer job applicant: Remember this

What would be Veera’s advice to summer job seekers? ”The early bird catches the worm,” Veera underlines. ”Timing is crucial and it is best to start looking at the very latest at the turn of the year – and also at places you don’t know much about beforehand. You will learn hands on. I didn’t know anything about motors before joining Black Bruin either, and nobody expected me to. But now I do because they have taught me and it’s been absolutely great.”

Veera points out one more thing: ”In a medium-sized company like this, it is easier to see the different functions and get to understand what might be of particular interest to you in the future. Also, you get to see the whole process and learn about many different aspects of it. Maybe you can even suggest what might be some potential development targets.”

Perhaps one of those could be the topic for Veera’s Bachelor’s thesis final thesis – who knows? That we may learn in the future.

Read more about career opportunities at Black Bruin.