The Life of the Corporate Relations Coordinators
Greetings KY! If you are reading this, it would appear that the position of Corporate Relations Coordinator at KY interests you. You are right to be interested, as this role is one of the most career-preparing and wonderful positions that KY has to offer. In this post we, Aino Hakkarainen and Peik Berg, the two current Corporate Relations Coordinators here at KY will be giving you some insights regarding this intriguing position. If you are too busy to read this but would like to hear more about the position, you can contact us directly, our contact details are below.
Aino: 040 353 8282 & aino.hakkarainen@ky.fi
Peik: 050 088 1616 & peik.berg@ky.fi
We would be happy to talk to you and answer any questions you may have. Please do not hesitate to contact us, if you have any questions regarding this position. However, if your thirst for knowledge can’t wait and you want to learn more NOW, then we strongly encourage you to read on!
What do Corporate Relations Coordinators do?
Put shortly and simply, a lot of things. The main aspect of our job, however, is to coordinate the corporate relations of KY, i.e. take care of the relationship between KY and its corporate partners (firms). By doing so, we make sure that you, our members, have an even better chance of landing your dream job now and in the future. It’s a win-win situation, as by doing this, we also ensure that our partners are able to recruit the smartest and most talented business students that Finland has to offer here at Aalto University.
This responsibility is carried out in various ways. A large part of our work is performed in our team of three, the “love triangle” of us two Corporate Relations Coordinators and the KY Board’s Corporate Relations responsible Miko Mariapori. Day to day work consists of fulfilling our contracts with our corporate partners, meeting them as well as finding new partners and negotiating new contracts with current ones. However, our tasks vary quite a lot day by day, which keeps the job interesting. Whether it is brainstorming on new event concepts or performing a sales pitch to a possible corporate partner, the job challenges you positively every day.
We organize events with CORE (Corporate Relations committee), where companies have a chance to meet you face-to-face (or screen-to-screen), and through social media we make sure that our partners’ recruitment announcements reach our members and our members have seamless access to them. Some examples of the events that CORE has organized are Trainee Night, Summer Job Night, Business Crawl and Hartwall Game Night. All in all, it is extremely rewarding to know that by doing our job we are working for a good cause which has vast benefits for the community and all stakeholders involved.
What can you learn here?
Just as there’s a lot to do, there’s also a lot to learn. We’ve tried to highlight some of the most important skills we have learned during our year. KY is an amazing environment to learn new skills, as the people around you are incredibly supportive and want to help you succeed!
Time management: As a Corporate Relations Coordinator, there's always something to do and many different projects and meetings to participate in each day. The job has encouraged us to put all those time management tips and tricks to good use!
Confidence: Interacting with others is a significant part of this job. From making sales pitches over the phone and having meetings with companies' representatives to training volunteers, it sure can feel quite intimidating in the beginning. Luckily, the environment is supportive and the people you interact with are pleasant enough that learning these skills becomes rewarding and fun!
Communication: Be it over the phone or through email, you keep in touch with the companies continuously. We have both developed our own distinct styles of business communication and answering those emails has become a welcome diversion from more serious matters. Knowing how to concisely communicate the key points is a very valuable skill to have in our free time as well!
Leadership skills: The other Corporate Relations Coordinator acts as the Vice Chair of our Corporate Relations Committee, CORE. In addition, there have been a lot of other projects where we have been the ones to plan and lead sales efforts and train others, usually our wonderful volunteers. To mention a few, arranging the Original Student Festival and supporting KUJ on the overall project. These experiences have given us ample opportunities to practice and improve our leadership skills and learn new things about ourselves in the process.
Other useful and fun skills: We could continue this list pretty much forever, but to list a few more, project management, drafting contracts, making sales materials, managing a budget, using tools such as Procountor, modifying websites and so on. There’s something to learn for everyone!
