"The work is challenging and very rewarding” – Meet Sami and Joonas

Hi, I’m Joonas Karppinen

I am currently finishing my master’s studies at the Copenhagen Business School with a major in Finance and Investments. I returned my thesis at the beginning of the internship, and one last thing before graduation is to fly to Copenhagen to defend it during the summer.

As Future Finance Professional intern, I currently work as an Assistant Dealer in Nordea Markets Equity Derivatives Trading. Our team specializes in making markets for clients on equity derivatives and managing the risk ensuing from these trades. Essentially, this means providing contract quotes for a wide variety of client types ranging from private persons to hedge and pension funds and managing these positions profitably over the life of the derivative contracts. In addition to these tasks, the team acts as an electronic market maker in Nasdaq Nordic, Euronext, and Eurex derivatives exchanges.

Although, I am nearly finished with my studies, the days of learning and doing tests have not ended. For example, I had to pass a trader exam to be allowed to trade in one of the exchanges. Furthermore, the learning curve has been steep, and I have learned many practical things about derivatives that are not covered in university courses.

For instance, I have spent time on understanding the risk management metrics (called the Greeks) in practice. Although the Greeks are taught in university courses covering derivatives, the continuous management of these risk metrics differs a lot from the problems with given parameters that students usually face during their studies.

All in all, I find the world of derivatives extremely interesting, but gathering the knowledge and mastering the complex products will take time. Fortunately, I have experienced senior colleagues to help me with all of my questions and accelerate the learning process.

So far, the internship has been challenging but rewarding. During the first 1,5 months, I have been given a lot of responsibility, and I am already doing many of the same things my senior colleagues do. I believe that the responsibility and challenges make the FFP programme an excellent start for a career in finance. However, there is still a lot to learn, and I am excited to see what the rest of the internship has in store for me! 

Hi, I’m Sami Vähämäki

At present, I am one thesis away from graduating with a master’s degree from Lappeenranta University of Technology, majoring in Industrial Engineering & Management and having Software Engineering as my minor. I have worked for Nordea before in a business support and operations team, and having joined the FFP program, I now got an opportunity to work in the exciting world of financial markets.

I work in the Structured Investments team. The team creates and issues complex pre-packaged financial instruments known as structured products with various underlying assets, payment features and product structures: credit linked notes, boosters, accelerators, and autocallables just to name a few.

My responsibilities in the team include developing and maintaining the platform that is used for automating processes, product documentation, data flow and stakeholder communication, as well as reporting and analysing product performance, creating product performance simulations and performing various ad-hoc tasks, reporting and data analysis.

The work is very rewarding. I feel like I am an integral part of the team and its operations, and have been given a lot of responsibility from the very beginning. In addition, the working environment is fun, friendly, and supportive. The learning curve might seem rather steep initially but it’s not something to be intimidated of. You learn constantly as you go and senior colleagues here are incredibly knowledgeable and happy to share their expertise.   

Outside of work itself, the FFP program includes all kinds of fun spare time activities, whether they are the monthly FFP events organized by our Fun Managers or all the after-works and other get-togethers organized by ourselves.

My fellow FFPs have made a big impact on what has already been a great experience. Really excited to see what the rest of the summer has in store for us!  

Stay tuned for more insight to the FFP life. Coming up is a blog featuring fellow FFPs letting us in on what the Fun Managers had in stall for them at the most resent social event.

Meanwhile, have a look at some of the previous blogs from the FFP 2022 program; like meet Joonas in e-Trading, and check out our Meet our Talents blog featuring students, graduates, managers and senior leaders from various parts of the LC&I organisation.