I created my first web page in 2000 as a course exercise for the University of Jyväskylä. My first web-related job was helping develop an xml-based personalization method for an electronic newspaper, in 2000.

The First Web Related Activities (2000–03)

A year later, I worked for the Jyväskylä Summer Jazz, a festival organisation in my hometown. From this web project — which was supervised by the university — I learned the basics of designing and developing websites in a team. I also learned more about html, css, php, xml, web audio, and graphics.

In summer 2001, I did a traineeship at a real-estate agency in Chamonix Mont-Blanc, France. I worked on their website and helped creating their client database (MS Access). This experience reinforced my interest in web development, communications, and database design. In fact, the second incarnation of my website dates from that summer. That version was still heavily based on the use of tables for layout, but the site was standards-compliant — I coded it myself with php and MySQL.

In 2002, I graduated with a degree of Master of Economic Sciences, majoring in Information Systems Science. I started looking for a permanent, full-time job. By this time, I had already decided to pursue a career related to the web. As I felt the opportunities in Finland were quite limited, I decided to move to the heart of Europe, Brussels, in spring 2003. I stayed with a friend who helped me settle down the first weeks.

The Brussels Years (2003–)

My first year in Brussels was not easy: change of culture, language problems and so on. To start building my career and to make connections, I worked on b2b technical support for custom applications (including web) in English, Swedish and Finnish for the first year after my arrival. Obviously, this was not what I wanted to do for an extended period of time, so I left the company in April 2004.

The following month, I began a new phase of my career by designing the new website of the European Cockpit Association. This was the first website which I have made with a layout and presentation done exclusively in css. I was responsible for daily management of the website, creation of a monthly newsletter (for desktop publishing we used Scribus), and front-end and database development (on lamp platform) for the association.

In January 2008, I started working at a Belgian company as Web Designer/Developer. Currently I work as a Web Integrator Consultant in another Belgian company.

So there you have it. One could summarise that I started earning my living as a musician with an interest in audio software, but then made the gradual transition from music circles to being a “web guy”. I possess many skills, but my true passion lies in the arts (music, cinema, visual arts), languages, open source software development, web design, and css. My working languages are English, Swedish and Finnish — sometimes I try to manage in French too, and I know basic German and Dutch.

Past years I’ve been active reading and searching for information on various topics, including newest web technologies, and listening to some good music. Sometimes I go out too.