From Travel to Architecture to Cyber Security

To commemorate F-Secure’s 30th year of innovation, we’re profiling 30 of our fellows from our more than 25 offices around the globe.

Pilvi Tunturi values change at work and pace in her free time. True to the words of Roman poet Ovid (43 BC-17 AD), “the bold adventurer succeeds the best.”

“I used to be a travel agent in the biggest travel agency in Finland serving both business and leisure travel customers. It was a dream job as I was able to travel and see the world, but I decided to take a different path and went to study information systems. I saw that travel agencies in that form would cease to exist in few years’ time,” she says.

A business architect at F-Secure, Pilvi became interested in Information Security while studying Information Processing Science at Oulu University.

Pilvi got a scholarship at Oulu and applied for an internship at F-Secure as it had an R&D unit. She was offered a permanent job as quality engineer in 2004.

“I was fresh out of university and knew pretty much nothing about R&D work other than what I had learned during course lectures. So I started working on a mobile anti-virus product for the Symbian platform. We had a very close relationship with Nokia at that time. How the products that protect people are built intrigued me,” she comments.

Skills gained in the travel industry have also been useful. These fit in well with F-Secure’s desired modus operandi.

“I apply the ‘serve the customer’ principle in my job on a daily basis. I was really good at this when working in travel. As a result, relating to customers is easier, even though I don’t meet them in person,” explains Pilvi. “Another thing is to ‘share more and learn fast.’ The travel industry was changing so rapidly that it would have been impossible to serve the customer if you weren’t up to speed on the latest changes.”

Since joining F-Secure, she has been boldly exploring different roles and locations – from quality engineer to scrum master, product owner, project manager, and now business architect.

“I have also been sent to our Kuala Lumpur office on two occasions, where I have spent three years in total. I have been blessed with very good managers who have known how to build on my strengths and have empowered me to grow in all my roles,” she says.

Her current responsibilities include heading up F-Secure’s consumer direct-sell product infrastructure, and line manager within the company’s business development team. E-commerce, marketing automation, and customer relationship management are some of the areas she works with.

Pilvi mentions that networking and patience are important in her job.

“As is domain knowledge. And colleagues have got the best know-how within their area of expertise. You should take advantage of that and put yourself out there. Ask questions and make sure you really understand the topics.”

Things don’t always go smoothly, of course. Building new features or capabilities sometimes takes a long time.

“It’s frustrating when priorities are not working on your favor. But there is room for innovation, just like with children when they are bored. You have to improvise if you can’t get what you need,” she explains.

Loving a challenge, Pilvi neither stands still, nor is all about work. She balances these in what some would see as being an indigenously Nordic way.

“I go to the gym three times a week and have run several half-marathons. There is no better way to relax than going for a long run and having a dip in the river afterwards.”