“I had two choices: submit to complicated surgery on my entire arm or change my career; I chose the second option,” he laughs.
No one knows what life has in store
A family man and lover of fly fishing, Jani made the move from the store to the lab some way into his working life.
Switching careers at 40 can be a tough ask, but a positive attitude and willingness to apply yourself goes a long way in these types of situations. “I’d spent almost 20 years working in grocery stores, mostly on meat and fish counters, where I was using my hands and arms most of the day,” Jani says. “Me and my wife also ran our own small store for a little over six years. Although it was a tough life sometimes with long days, it taught me a lot about the value of teamwork and taking care of your people.”
Problems with his hands forced Jani to make a stark choice between major surgery and a change of career.
I’d always loved chemistry, so in 2018 I decided to go back to school and study to become a laboratory technician.
"In 2019 my teacher suggested I applied for a summer trainee position at Metsä Board’s mill in Äänekoski, Finland. Had it not been for that teacher, who knows where I would be today!"
On a roll with a great team of colleagues
As a summer trainee Jani spent his shifts as a process inspector, collecting samples from the board production process for testing in the lab. The results of these tests are used to verify online readings from the board machine and provide critical information for the mill’s quality control processes.
“I started Metsä Board's apprenticeship training in early 2020 and graduated in spring 2021. During that training, I got to work on the board machine side as what we call a ‘roll man’ in Finnish and also had the chance to work at the cutting station. Now I work as a shift inspector. The board machine is running all hours so we work morning, evening and night shifts,” Jani explains. “My job is to test things like the board thickness, roughness, smoothness and grammage with the help of automated testing procedures as well as to test the raw materials, in other words the chemicals, that are used to produce it.”
Since his first day on the job, Jani has enjoyed the warm, welcoming environment at work and the opportunity to learn something new every day.
My colleagues are fantastic and we all look out for each other.
"It’s like a second family for me, and even though I might be doing the same tests for the same kinds of products over and over again, I’m always learning and discovering something new,” he points out.
Never bored with board
Looking ahead, Jani sees the world of board production featuring heavily in his future. “I found working on the board machine itself during my apprenticeship very interesting. Metsä Board is a company that really encourages people to follow their interests, and I’m really keen to learn more about the whole production process. Who knows what the future holds!”