Last summer, Jonna Yli-Torkko worked as a presenter for Lakea’s Housing Fair house Mäihä. The job well done brought her more work from Lakea.

Who are you and what do you do at Lakea?

I’m Jonna Yli-Torkko and I work at Lakea’s Seinäjoki office as a rental agent and sales negotiator. I began in April, and for now, it seems as if my job here is going to continue until the end of August.

How did you end up working at Lakea?

I have a BBA degree in business economics. The degree prepares you for a lot of things and I’ve always been interested in living and housing. Last summer I applied for a job as a fair presenter for Lakea’s Housing Fair house and got chosen. Although I mostly worked at the fair, I learned that people working at Lakea are nice and easy-going.

After my interesting summer job, I decided to pursue a certified real estate agent qualification and I also worked as a real estate agent for a while. When that job ended, I send an e-mail to Lakea asking if they needed me. They said yes very quickly. It felt nice to come here and join the people I already knew. Usually, when you start a new job you are nervous about a lot of things but now there was no need for any of that.

Tell us about your work as a rental agent at Lakea.

Big part of my day goes into answering e-mails and phone calls. Quite often people also stop by our office as it is in the middle of the city. I take care of our residents’ affairs like apartment searching, rental agreements, moves –  and all the communication and paperwork involved. Spring is a busy time as there’s many residents leaving and new ones coming in for example when schools end.

In the summer, I will also work as a sales negotiator for a while and I’m quite excited about that.

What is the best thing about your job?

It takes quite a lot of balancing every day to get everything done at the right time. You have to tolerate the fact that you have many things going on at once. I like it when there’s a lot happening and you have to figure out how things get done on time. Challenging job motivates me. My desk and screen are often full of post-its which I then scrunch one by one and toss into the trashcan when the job gets done. There’s no dull moments in my job.

 

What do you plan to do in the future?

I’d like to keep on working in the housing sector. There are a lot of opportunities at Lakea: here you can do almost everything involved in the business. It would be nice to be able to continue working at Lakea.

 

How do you relax from work?

 

I like to decorate our house. I’m very interested in decorating, and now that we have moved to a new home with my partner, there’s plenty to do. I even liked to go around the Housing Fair area and explore the houses on my time off although I worked there.