In August 2019, a group of six international top talents and their families arrived in Turku, Finland as winners of the Talent Call Turku 2019 competition. Over the course of five days, the group toured Turku and met representatives of Finnish companies and city government in order to showcase how Finns manage the work-life balance. One of the winners was Lithuanian service engineer and physicist Andrius Dvinelis.
Andrius visited Turku with his wife Viktorija and their son Vainius. During their stay, Andrius, Viktorija and Vainius took part in numerous activities ranging from 19th century sailing ship restoration to sauna and swimming. The numerous company excursions to businesses in the Turku region served to highlight the innovativeness of the region. Andrius and Viktorija were immediately at home in the high-tech worlds of companies like Silo.AI and PerkinElmer.
Andrius’ background is in physics and he now works as a service engineer. The puzzle-like work of being an engineer is a perfect fit for his solution-oriented thinking. This is probably why, during his visit to Turku, he was most impressed with Clewer Ltd. and their engineered solution to the little-known but global problem of water recycling.
It’s not all strictly business, though. Both parents were enamoured with the Finnish nature, especially the sea and the parks. For little Vainius (now much more grown-up), it was a special occasion as well, as he received a birthday present from the mayor of Turku, Minna Arve.
For more about their backgrounds and experiences during the Talent Call Turku visit, check out the video below:
It’s now been slightly over a year since Andrius was selected as one of the Talent Call winners. Lots of things are different now, and we caught up with Andrius to see how he has fared over the last year. Right now, the main thing for them is that both of the adults are working, and Vainius is busy with entering the entirely new world of kindergarten. Looking back, Andrius recalls being one of the Talent Call winners having a definite impact on him and Viktorija:
– I think it gave us both a boost in personal and professional confidence, since our personal traits, skills and experience got us a chance to go to Finland over the other thousands of applicants.
Not only a boost confidence, the visit was also a bit of an eye-opener in terms of working life and work culture.
– Lithuania has still ways to go before we have strong unions at work and the employees have more power and influence to be on a level with the employers.
Despite COVID-19, Andrius and Viktorija have managed to make the best of an unfavorable situation. According to them, while it hasn’t been as engaging as previous years, 2020 has still by no means been a slump, neither professionally nor personally.
– Viktorija got a promotion offer and went back to work early, so she’s had a lot of new skills, projects and experiences. I’ve only had some new experience with a few new products and installations. As for skills, hopefully I’ll get some more new ones after the pandemic blows over.
Andrius has stated that new challenges drive him forward. Of course, due to COVID-19, much of past adventuring has been put on hold, and most new challenges have to do with their son growing up:
– It was very challenging to spend whole days or even weeks indoors at the beginning of the quarantine but we’re still here to tell the tale. My latest challenge was building Vainius a wooden playhouse!
Wooden playhouses and quarantines have not been the only center points of life since being a Talent Call winner. Travel plans have been drastically altered, but there is yet hope for more freedom and the ability to plan ahead.
– Up until the pandemic hit, we were making plans for the future – some vacations or trips abroad, visiting relatives and friends, but after the quarantine we’re just waiting for it to be over. Thankfully we’ve had a chance to travel to Latvia and within Lithuania, too.
Planning during a pandemic is hard, but if there is something looming in the crystal ball, it’s the idea of post-pandemic freedom.
– We’re hoping the pandemic blows over and there’s a vaccine within the next half a year and then things will get back to “normal”, whatever that will be now. Hopefully we’ll be able to travel the world again and maybe Vainius will have a sibling in a few years.
The Talent Call Turku campaign was one of the highlights of 2019 for the Talent team. With the onset of COVID-19, the campaign has been reimagined and will return next year. Follow us on social media for more news, or click here and we’ll email you with the latest about Talent Call Turku 2021!