Kevin Grankull’s first contact with VEO came through the industrial engineering thesis he was writing at the Novia University of Applied Sciences in Finland. Later, a colleague hinted about an open position for a project engineer at VEO. This happened just as Kevin’s graduation was approaching and he knew he had to apply for it.

“I was very excited about the subject of my thesis, so I decided to apply for the open position to be able to put my education to good use. To my delight I was accepted for the job. I started at VEO as a permanent employee in 2020, and I’m still benefitting from the same career path I chose today. As a project engineer, my job included acting as the right hand and support of the project manager. In other words, I was a kind of ´jack of all trades´,” Kevin explains.

During his first few years, Kevin worked in Vaasa, Finland, while the rest of his team were based in Sweden. As a bilingual Finn, it was natural for Kevin to act as a link between the two countries. “Since our own factory is located in Vaasa, it was very convenient that one of our team was also in Finland. But when I was offered the chance to spend two years abroad in Sweden, I immediately became very excited.”

What finally encouraged him to grab the chance to work abroad was his strong aspiration to develop not only his career but also as a person. Kevin feels that from time to time you have to get out of your comfort zone in order to learn something new. “Experience and know-how accumulate through time and new challenges. That’s why I immediately saw the move to Sweden as a fantastic opportunity to develop myself, and I was grateful that this was offered to me.”

Everything moved rather quickly once the decision to leave had been made, and soon Kevin was on the way to his new hometown of Västerås, Sweden. Kevin, who had long dreamed about living abroad, says he has enjoyed both the new city and his new work environment. “VEO’s rather new Västerås office is quite a lot smaller than our headquarters in Vaasa. Now that I’m sitting in the same place as my team, it’s certainly smoother working together. I find that this is very important, especially because sales responsibilities were also added to my job description when I moved to Sweden,” explains Kevin, who now holds the title of Project & Sales Engineer.

Kevin appreciates the atmosphere of trust at VEO, where responsibility is given and everyone is encouraged to think and make decisions. “VEO is a place for doers. The people I work with have an astonishing amount of information, and they are also willing to share it openly. I’ve never been left alone with my challenges. That’s why my aim in the future is to be able to give the same back mutually, perhaps by taking on a bigger role to help us to achieve our common goals.”

“I’ve already been allowed to do a lot of new things here in Sweden, for example on-site work, and learned a lot from it. I have a strong belief that as long as I learn into the ´Swedish Fika culture´, I will enjoy my time here,” Kevin laughs.