“My summer job at OP was truly an instructive experience, and I learned a lot. At the beginning of the year, I asked a friend who works at OP whether there would be interesting summer jobs on offer there. After the application process, I ended up working with teller services. The interview went well, and soon I started working.

It felt strange to be in a bank, on the other side of the counter. I was thinking about what goes through peoples’ minds when they come to a bank and meet me. The thought seemed somehow impossible. However, the personnel at the training bank branch accepted us summer workers with open arms, and we got off to a flying start. Before I noticed it, the summer was coming to an end, and customer service and system use ran like clockwork.

The best thing about the summer has been the personnel at the Malmi branch. The summer workers became immediately part of the gang, and we became an amazing team where everybody pulled together. In addition to teller services, we also got to perform other duties for customers, and so we got a taste of service advisor duties, too. The variety of duties made the job meaningful, and I could learn new things every day.

Before the summer, I thought that working in a bank would be stiff and old-fashioned, all about wearing a suit with a sour look on your face. However, the summer proved me wrong completely. For most of the day I had a smile on my face, either with a customer or co-worker. I’ve always had a humorous approach to things, and I was glad to notice that approach also works in the “serious banking world”. Of course you should always be businesslike, but it was nice to see that the working atmosphere was open and relaxed.

I warmly recommend OP as an employer to all students interested in the financial industry. A lot of young people work at OP, and OP is also continuously hiring more young people. So the co-workers are likely to be like-minded, open and relaxed. OP cooperative banks also have numerous options for get ahead in your career to take up jobs that interest you, and supervisors actually aim to be active in providing employees with advancement opportunities by arranging various kinds of training, courses and coaching for different jobs. Taking initiative is embraced, too. You can talk to your supervisor about duties that interest you, and about the most sensible path towards them.

Finally, a summary of my summer job experience: At OP employees are open-minded and positive, there are plenty of career opportunities, and everybody is welcome. When applying for a job at OP, one should be open-minded, energetic, a good mixer, and willing to do a good job and learn. With these characteristics you should have no problem fitting in!”

Patrik, teller / OP Helsinki