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From medical science to data science – Meet Anna

Meet Anna Hakala, a Data Scientist in our Tampere office.

Anna Hakala, a Data Scientist in our Tampere office discusses her switch from medical school to Data.  “After two years in medical school I got quite a lot of perspective on what I want and what I don’t want in my career.  Medical school seemed like a good way to make things happen, but in the end, I realized that the real potential for me was behind the scenes. Using my time to solve individual people’s problems one by one didn’t seem meaningful for me, I wanted to make things better on a larger scale.”

Making people’s lives better

After medical school Anna joined a startup which made a computer vision monitoring system for epilepsy patients.  For Anna this felt like a step in the right direction, “instead of being the person to meet the patient, I could develop tools for multiple doctors that are meeting the patients. This way I could have an impact on a larger scale.  I feel that it’s the same here in Basware. “We are building solutions that are used all over the world, and we are making people’s lives better, freeing up their time so that they can concentrate on more meaningful tasks while we automate the boring ones.”

Opportunities to be whatever I want to be

Anna is enjoying life at Basware, “I now have a clear vision of data being my true passion and since joining Basware I have had the feeling of belonging.  I have had a lot of opportunities to be whatever I want to be. People all around me are open to my ideas and let me try new approaches, whether it’s about establishing a Data Guild in Basware, running workshops to identify problems that can be solved with data or trying to create value from procurement data.  And I was able to work with Tampere’s City youth worker to find two summer interns as part of the summer job voucher program, Kesäseteli.”

In addition to all this Anna has a ‘day job’.  “I work in SmartCoding, where we have made a world-class solution for automating nonPO invoices with machine learning.  I have been lucky to have a great R&D team working on the machine learning & advanced analytics scripts that I have developed.”

Supporting my growth

Anna is also a member of our Young Professionals Program which supports our young employees to grow their careers and build their network across Basware and our industry, “this is a great initiative, I’m enjoying how it supports my growth.  I get to meet all sorts of interesting people and have interesting discussions.  I like working with experts, and in my experience that’s what we have here, a lot of professionals that are willing to improve things together.  It’s one of the many things that make Basware a great place to work.  I’m proud that Basware nurtures young talent and is also encouraging more women to make tech their career.  There’s a lot of pressure on girls to choose ‘caring professions’ and it’s important to remember that this isn’t right for everyone.  A career in tech opens up endless possibilities and girls should have that choice.”

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