My Career - Kirill Lukin

Decisions...

People are making decisions daily. Some decisions are very basic and don’t have an impact on their lives, but some are long-lasting and extremely important. I do remember how I took such a decision in my early 20s.  Back then I was studying my first academic degree in the  business school in State St.Petersburg University in Russia. I guess it was the end of the spring-summer semester 2009 when I applied to become an exchange student in KAMK for the upcoming autumn-winter semester 2009. 

I'm pretty sure that I'm among a very few students to experience KAMK from both perspectives - exchange and full time student; moreover I'm also among the few who had a chance of experiencing two international degrees - business and tourism. 
From the very first day I was surprised at the way the whole process was arranged in KAMK - from greeting the newbies to arranging the introductions to studies- everything was relaxed, personal yet very efficient. 

The exchange semester ran too quickly and I guess that another important decision was made - I have decided to apply for a full time degree. I have applied, been accepted and took an academic leave for one year in order to finalize my studies in St.Petersburg State University. 

I'm emphasising on all of those aspects for a simple reason - I had a chance to compare the academic degrees, the way the studies were arranged and the impact it all had on me as a student and as a professional.

Practical oriented KAMK - Opportunities to communicate, explore and see more viewpoints

I can generally describe the program in KAMK as very practical-oriented. Sometimes, when I was sitting in the classroom I was not able to understand the implementation of all the cases and studies, but once again,  this is something that is shaping you as a professional and you have to learn it, maybe without realising the reasonings behind the material.  A fine example of such a practical oriented approach might be group projects. As a student I was always thinking that it could have been easier to do the project on my own; I could have done it more efficiently, better time-managed my tasks and have a better control of the project. As I clearly see now - I was missing the point that the team work, intercultural communication and team time management was the actual task. 

Yet, those types of tasks were refreshing compared to my previous educational experience. In comparison to classical education, the university of applied sciences is giving more freedom in the way you study and once again, gives more opportunities to communicate with fellow students, teachers and explore the subject of studies from more viewpoints. 

When referring to the viewpoints it is extremely important to pay extra attention to the way students are working on their thesis. Unlike many educational organisations KAMK and the KAMK professors are actually giving students freedom and flexibility in exploring the topics of their interest in the final and most important Academic work. 

Telling from experience - all of those aspects have shaped me as a professional and gave me a good start to my career in IT. 
It is pretty fascinating to note that my first full time job, my thesis and KAMK have one thing in common - it all happened at the same time & spot.

Implementing ideas into practise

I was always an active student and I wanted to implement my ideas into practice. This is how I learned that KAMK was (and I hope is still) funding some of the most creative students' ideas. Mine was - something like a local version of TripAdvisor for the Kainuu region.

Probably you are questioning yourself now - how that idea could have been a thing , but back in the 2010s the services you know today were not so popular and some were not even existing.

In a nutshell - I was working, studying and developing my own thing while being a student in KAMK. It was a great experience that helped me to launch my career and understand my own skills and professional interests.

KAMK gives you an opportunity to become a better version of yourself!

Today I'm a Business Development Manager in the leading POD (print on demand) platform where I plan and execute the business vision for companies products, manage the team and help my colleagues to be more successful in their daily work and life.

I guess you could have noticed that my job has something to do with the tasks and set of skills that KAMK professors were presenting to me and my classmates, while I was inexperienced enough to understand the actual value of the lessons they were giving to me.

If you are reading this article while making your research for choosing the place to study and you are an explorer by nature - believe me, you found a perfect place to become a better version of yourself; if you have graduated from KAMK - I really hope that you would agree with my words; if you are working in KAMK (and especially if I had a chance of being your student) - I really thank you for the life lessons you gave me!

Kirill Lukin

Bachelor of Hospitality Management and Tourism 2014
Business Development Manager, Printify