Summer internships offer a great possibility to gain valuable work experience and develop professional skills. Each year ABB provides versatile summer internship roles in both production and office sites around Finland.
The application period for ABB’s summer internships will start in the beginning of January, 2021. In the meanwhile, we introduce to you Toni, Maria and Juho who started their ABB career as summer interns.
Toni Kontkanen, Production Line Manager
Toni studied Industrial Engineering and Industrial Economy at Aalto University and started his first summer internship at ABB in 2011. It was a role in assembly of frequency converters for wind power. The position was recommended by a friend: “A classmate told me that there were assemblers needed for the production line and after a call I got to an interview.”
“The following summer I continued working on the same production line as a foreman trainee. I also started working part-time in logistics development. Then I worked two more summers as a foreman trainee and did also my master’s thesis for ABB. In 2014 I got a permanent position as Development Engineer and the next couple of years I worked as Production Planning Engineer. The years of 2017–18 I was responsible for the processes of Sales & Operation Planning and Inventory Management at System Drives. During that time, I was also responsible for local and global production ramp-up-projects”, Toni sums up his working history at ABB.
By the end of 2018 Toni started in his current role as Production Line Manager at System Modules production unit. In his role he guarantees smooth operations for the production line covering safety, quality, deliveries, staff and development.
When applying for a summer internship Toni wants to emphasize the importance of being active and expressing your motivation towards the job: “Any possibility to contact the recruiting manager for example at ABB Summer Job Festivals is worth utilizing. Also, when filling out an online application, a video is a great addition!”
Maria Haavisto, Marketing Communications Manager
As a BBA of Foreign Trade and Marketing and M.Sc. of International Marketing, Maria started her career at ABB in the spring of 2002 as she got an internship from ABB HR Center. This position turned into a summer internship with the same job description: “I participated for example in planning of information events and summer parties for our summer interns. Additionally, that summer we started the football game tradition between the interns from ABB and Wärtsilä.” And now, for nearly two decades, the football games have offered wonderful moments and network opportunities to the players and audience.
“The following summers I worked as Sales Assistant Intern for Motors and Generators unit in Vaasa. My responsibilities included for example handling stock orders for specific standard motors and organizing customer visits. My last summer internship was in the marketing communications team. As the next step I got offered my first permanent employment in the Smart Power unit where I worked as an Area Manager for German speaking countries. However, I was still interested in marketing and I joined later a marketing communication team within the same unit”, Maria sums up her working history at ABB.
In her current role as a Marketing Communications Manager, Maria is responsible for marketing communications at ABB Finland for the third year in a row. She has switched from working with one product group and its global markets to boost the full ABB product portfolio in domestic markets.
In her current position, she is making marketing plans and planning webinars, newsletters, customer events and trade fairs. In addition, the whole marketing communication of Motion business area in Finland and the cooperation with various marketing groups are under her responsibility.
Maria encourages to apply for a summer internship at ABB because the interns are given responsibility and possibilities to work with very versatile tasks. “The summer interns are also well inducted: proper orientations to the job are given especially highlighting the safety practices. Also, there will be shared activities for the summer interns which are a great way to build networks and learn from each other.”
Juho Mustonen, Sales Engineer
A year ago, Juho graduated as a Bachelor of Engineering from Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in Electrical Power Engineering. At ABB Juho started in 2017 working as Procurement Intern at the then Solar unit. Alongside his studies Juho worked both as a summer intern and part-time until his graduation. His tasks covered versatile procurement duties, such as making requests for quotations, preparing cost analysis for R&D -projects as well as selecting suppliers with the support of the CPO. “Afterwards, I feel like I couldn’t have gotten into a better learning environment”, Juho comments work experience he gained in the area of procurement.
“In the spring of 2019 I did my final thesis for ABB focusing on the approval process of critical components. While working on it I also started as a Sales Engineer for ABB Domestic Sales in the Motion business area.”
Now Juho has been working as Sales Engineer for a year and a half. In this role, he works with sales support for global OEM customers manufacturing cargo handling gear and machines as well as a project manager for Motion energy business customers.
For anyone applying for a summer internship, Juho would like to share his most valuable lessons learnt from his experiences: “Producing results is the most important factor steering actions. Therefore, aim to do your job efficiently and with high-quality while being curious to gain more knowledge. Set your targets high and systematically develop yourself towards them. I would also encourage to study the fundamental mechanism of business, for example via equity investments!”
