Platform Owner Timo Blomqvist’s employment history is colourful. Before joining OP, he earned degrees in three different fields and worked at a theatre, an institutional kitchen and a go-karting shop. What have the different fields taught the IT expert?

Timo Blomqvist has been working at OP for seven years, being in charge of the SAS platforms in various tribes. He works in platform maintenance, focusing on continuity planning and instructing various parties in platform-related matters.

Even before joining OP, Timo had accumulated know-how in SAS software for 16 years. His love for information technology started at a young age.

‒ My first computer was a Spectravideo SV-328. Before that, I had learned to use my friend’s VIC-20 and a Kaypro10 with a monochrome display. Its CPU weighed a tonne. I have been passionately tinkering with information technology for 40 years.

Still, Timo’s path to becoming an IT expert was not straightforward, but he has seen the world of work from different angles.

Vicious dogs and Bearnaise sauce

As a young man, the motor sports enthusiast gained work experience in a go-karting shop and worked in property maintenance in Kerava. In property maintenance, work shifts could be quite eventful.

‒ I got to see both vicious dogs and heated quarrels between neighbours in buildings. Luckily, I had a Mobira Cityman, so I could call the authorities, if needed.

In his twenties, Blomqvist was hard at work at an institutional kitchen that prepared more than 2,500 meals per day. Timo managed the ingredients inventory, and assisting the kitchen’s cooks kindled his love for cooking. However, Timo found himself studying accounting, and as soon as he completed his degree, the fresh business college graduate was hired to the position of finance director at a theatre in Kerava.

Stage confidence for IT training

The job behind the scenes of drama and comedy provided an exciting vantage point. Blomqvist was in charge of the financial transactions and was equally comfortable meeting with the local cultural director and the execution authorities.

‒ I counterbalanced all that by hopping onto the stage to play character roles. At the theatre, each day was different, which I enjoyed.

Timo praises his stage experience, which has been useful in his role as a trainer in the IT sector.

‒ Thanks to the experience I gained in being on stage, it feels natural to be in front of people. I don’t get that nervous about it.

According to Blomqvist, his time at the theatre taught him a lot. In an artistic community, reason and emotions tended to collide in financial matters, but the conflicts honed one’s discussion skills. Timo feels that his diverse experience has provided him with perspective in IT jobs as well. Encountering different kinds of people comes naturally to him, and it is possible to find something in common with everyone.

– The absolutely best part of my current job is getting to work with people in different parts of the organisation and on a wide variety of tasks, because SAS is widely used at OP.

The best innovations are based on intuition

Blomqvist’s current job includes providing suppliers with guidance related to SAS platforms, conducting licensing negotiations and establishing policies. He gained experience in the role of a trainer as early as in the 1990s, when he taught classes on basic computer skills to older people. Timo remembers how he once asked one of this students to click on an icon on the screen.

‒ The senior citizen grabbed the mouse and tapped the monitor glass with it. Keeping a straight face was a bit difficult. In retrospect, the student simply predicted the emergence of touchscreens – the best innovations are based on intuition.

Returning to his first love

When the recession at the beginning of the 1990s had Timo at a crossroads about his future career, he took up IT studies. After graduation, he worked as an IT manager at a company manufacturing refrigeration devices.

‒ We worked on developing a wireless connection system for forklifts which helped locate containers in the high warehouse. Sometimes equipment would break down due to heavy use while trucks were waiting at the loading docks. Situations like that taught me that there is no point in losing one’s nerves under pressure.

A couple of years later, Blomqvist was headhunted for SAS duties in the IT sector, and the rest is history.

Career-long competence development

In addition to his degrees in accounting and IT, Timo also has a degree in photography.
Currently he is supplementing his know-how in a cybersecurity study module at the JAMK University of Applied Sciences. For Blomqvist, being an all-rounder is a purely positive thing, and he believes that learning will continue throughout one’s life. He praises OP’s competence development culture, which enables personnel to expand their skills to match the changes taking place in the world of work.

– Employees must update their professional skills, and OP provides excellent opportunities for this. Challenging oneself is rewarding, so being open to new things pays off. Adopting new skills will be increasingly important in the future.