My journey with TYS began in August 2015 as I moved into my first own apartment as a new student. Almost six years later, in May 2021, I started my summer job at the TYS office as a customer advisor. It is always a bit exciting to start at a new job, but at TYS I quickly realised that the atmosphere was open, the co-workers were nice, and I was given ample time to properly learn my new duties. Coronavirus is another factor in the office operations – most of the staff are working remotely and at the office we provide service to customers through windows and the entrance intercom – but this has worked well too.
I have found myself liking the monthly rhythm that the office has. People moving in, people moving out. There are freshers and students who are already getting ready to leave with their degree close at hand, and all sorts in between.
At the office (or in these corona times, mostly over email or phone), we get to meet a lot of exchange students, both foreign and Finnish, some arriving and some leaving. Among other things, my duties have included preparing keys and contracts for students arriving in the country. For those leaving Finland, I have made changes to rental contracts, including tenancy suspensions and subletting agreements. I have been to France as an exchange student myself, and I enjoy helping and following the process that must be both stressful and inspiring to each exchange student. I recently graduated as Master of Arts in the French language, and have great interest towards languages in general, so I find it a lot of fun to be able to put my language skills to use and hear different languages during the workday.
I have found living at TYS very comfortable and it has been interesting to see how these things work from the Lessor’s perspective. Providing quality student housing is a sum of quite a few things, but luckily together we can join all those pieces with one another to form a successful whole. The work has been diverse, and I have gained valuable customer service experience that I am sure will benefit me in the future. In this work I have also learned to react to situations where no single, universal solution necessarily exists, but one must take multiple variables into account and cooperate to arrive at a solution.
So, the summer is already behind us, and I will stay at the office to work as a temp for the autumn. I wish a nice autumn to all students and encourage you in your studies – these corona times have been especially rough for many, but it is starting to look like we might finally be ready to get back to normal.
Rebekka Pesola
Summer employee/Customer advisor
TYS
