Nokia is Finnish and having worked for them for a fair number of years I have some experience of their country and its culture. Finns work hard but at the end of their working day they go out and enjoy themselves. None of this ridiculous breakfast meeting or burning the midinight nonsense, for them life is for living. Finnish companies like Nokia are successful because they value their staff very highly and look after them well. In return staff do their job well and effectively knowing that they will benefit greatly if the company succeeds.

For a lot of the year the place is covered in snow and bitterly cold and when their short summer arrives nobody but nobody parties like the Finns. On mid-summers day, fires or beacons are lit throughout the country in celebration of summer and as daylight is practically 20 or more hours a day at that time of year it becomes one long 24 hr. party nationwide. July is more or less a public holiday and Finns everywhere will have downed tools and scattered far and wide for a month or so.

Being a relatively small nation there simply is not enough work to utilise all the brilliant brains the country produces and as such Finns are well travelled and in great demand in the global workplace – English is second nature to them.

I couldn’t honestly say that Finland is a beautiful country but it does have a lot of trees, yes lots and lots of trees. Is it worth visiting? Well anywhere is worth visiting just to experience a different culture to your own but unlike Demark, Sweden or Norway it does not have the same instant charm and you should visit with an open mind.