Sauna, swimming and startup life – Bob has found much to enjoy since moving to Finland

For Bob Ruiken, the path to Finland was paved with swift decisions — and a little help from Cupid. Hailing from the small Dutch village of Gaanderen, Bob was searching for a master's thesis topic in software sciences a few years ago. The search led him to a university in Gothenburg, Sweden. He had studied a bit of Swedish, and the country seemed like a natural ideal choice for continuing his academic journey.

The following steps happened quickly. While studying in Gothenburg, Bob crossed paths with a Finnish woman who would soon become his girlfriend. A casual visit to Finland during the following Christmas holidays turned into something more significant. By the end of that trip, Bob had made the decision to move to Finland.

Once the decision was made, there was no hesitation. Bob made a goal of moving after graduating by March 2023 and immediately began job hunting. He stumbled upon a Finnish startup developing innovative software to manage sustainable energy sources, an area he was passionate about. Bob reached out to the company, and, in just a week, he was hired as a software engineer for the Helsinki-based startup.

Today, a year and a half later, Bob has embraced his new life in Finland. He has adopted an outdoorsy lifestyle and even tried ice swimming. At the same time, the startup environment, with its flexibility and forward-thinking ethos, has proven to be a great fit for his career ambitions.

I’m very interested in the energy sector… and when I started looking for a job [in Finland], I had just finished a project on optimising power, which I did for myself. I wanted to find a job where I could have a say in what we were doing. Not feel like a robot working, but be able to voice opinions and be part of decision-making.

I wasn't specifically looking to work in a startup. Still, those things came together when I applied for my job at Synergi. I joined a five-person team, so I knew there would be a lot of responsibilities and a high level of ownership in the work I would be doing, which aligned with what I wanted. The entire process went super-fast for me. I found the company on a Friday, and by the following Friday, I was signed and ready to move. It was a very exciting point in time for me.

The moving process was… quite an easy experience. The administrative stuff did take some time, and in the first months, I needed to get some papers sorted in person [in different places], but nothing worse than that. [Because of free movement in the EU] I was allowed to come here and work, and only after that I had to sort out other things. It made the process easy.

Flexible work culture

The Netherlands and Finland are… quite similar countries. However, how people communicate in the Netherlands is perceived as arrogant because people are very direct. It isn't the same here, and that's something I've had to get used to, but it just requires a bit of a different communication style.

It's tough to compare work cultures between the two because now I'm in a startup and before I worked in a legacy company, so the companies are very different. The differences between the companies are pretty big, but it's hard to tell what is due to the company style and what is because of the country.

The one significant difference [between working in a startup and a big corporation] is the consensus of wanting to remove all unnecessary bureaucratic processes. That is also the main thing I enjoy about being in a startup, being able to question things and have an influence on decisions.

Our team is quite international, around fifty-fifty. The company language is English, which is also a big difference compared to my previous workplace.

I work in a product team… as an engineer. So, some level of programming is part of my work almost every day, but I also try to make it that way because it's something I enjoy and am good at.

We have a lot of discussions [in the team] on how to solve certain problems. If I feel something has to change, we can talk about it, and everyone is free to try to solve the issue. It's not just taking one task and solving it, taking the next and solving it, but looking at what is coming up and what is being discussed. There are different things to do daily and that makes it very interesting for me.

I used to go to the office daily, but I've recently enjoyed working from home more. Everybody's free to work where they want, there is a high level of flexibility.

There haven't been any real culture shocks… I was pretty well prepared for the move. Because my girlfriend is Finnish, I got insider information before moving.

There have been mostly positive surprises. There are so many people outdoors and so much nature, even in the city, which is different to what I'm used to back in the Netherlands. Every square meter of the country has been designated for some specific use, which isn't the case here. Even for things like biking to work, I have a nice scenic route and not only boring buildings.

Helsinki feels very… non-big-city-like to me. I enjoy having easy access to different places and not needing to travel far to get what I need. I'm not a person who needs to live in a big city; I could also easily live in a small place. We live in Kumpula, and it's very nice, not in the city centre. 

Sauna, swimming and libraries

There’s a lot of solar power… in The Netherlands. That's also why I did those projects [on power optimisation] myself because people are very interested in how much energy they produce and use themselves.

There are more challenges here [with solar] because of the country's location. The temperatures are lower, so heating is more important. There is less sun in the winter, so solar power may not be as interesting, at least at that time of the year. But there are a lot more heat pumps, if I'm correct, a much higher number than in the rest of Europe. I think it just comes down to balancing what are the possibilities in the countries.

I moved from a small village of 4 000 people to Helsinki, which is, of course, a much bigger city, so they are hard to compare. For example, I've noticed that the number of EVs [electric vehicles] driving around is much higher here. But it's hard to say if it is because this is a bigger city or because of differences in the countries.

I want to learn, and I'm trying to learn… Finnish. I feel like I’m in a relatively easy position to do so because my girlfriend can help. If I have any questions, I can just immediately ask. Although sometimes the answer is “I’m not sure, just accept it”.

I've taken some online courses because I work well autonomously. I like to plan my time so I can watch the lectures and do some exercises whenever I want to. It's not an easy language to learn, but so far I haven't faced any major obstacles while studying it.

I do speak some Swedish. [A few years ago] I downloaded Duolingo when I was bored. It asked what language I wanted to learn, and I randomly picked Swedish. I also did my master's thesis in Sweden. I use Swedish here to read signs and information [Swedish is an official language in Finland], but I'm trying to get it out of my head and replace it with Finnish.

I’ve started to spend more time… outdoors. When I lived in the Netherlands, I was indoors a lot so that has really improved for me here. It's a positive change, being able to visit nature. I also think nature is more interesting here than in the Netherlands, the flattest area you can find on the map.

Now I like being outside and doing different sports, mainly together with my girlfriend. Some running and biking. Of course, as a Dutch person, I needed to get a bike here, and I enjoy biking to work. It's really easy to bike around. I also like to swim and have the opportunity to do it outside in open waters here. At least in the summer, I'm not the best cold-water swimmer yet, but I've tried it.

I've also picked up reading as a hobby. Libraries here, at least in Helsinki, seem better than in the Netherlands, where they are mostly closing down.

I used to be active in astronomy and shipped my telescope here, but I have yet to spend the time on it. That's something I really want to pick up in the coming months.

We have a weekly… sauna shift in our apartment building. I tried the sauna for the first time when visiting my girlfriend here; she pretty much forced me. I can be hesitant to try new things, but I've gotten better at that while being in Finland because there are so many new things around. I'm definitely enjoying the sauna now.

The winters here are quite long… but the weather has not really affected me. I think all the warnings have been worse than the actual winter. I knew what I was signing up for.