Corporate relations

Corporate relations have always been important to Prodeko. Prodekoians enjoy challenges and many of us want to learn specialities of many industries during their career. Possible employers are companies from management consulting to new startups and non-profit organizations. You can send all questions to our Head of Corporate Relations, yrityssuhteet@prodeko.org. If you have questions about excursions, please contact our Minister of Excursions, excumestari@prodeko.org.

Below are a few tips on how to build strong, mutually rewarding relationships with Prodeko students and create a strong employer brand:

Start early

The Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) program at Aalto University prepares students to tackle a wide range of business challenges with a mathematical-analytical approach. Our students are smart, driven, and are interested in working in a large variety of industries. As a result, Prodeko members are in high demand, and recruiting a student in their third year or beyond can already be challenging. That’s why reaching students already earlier in their academic career is an important way of standing out as an employer. Besides hosting an excursion for the freshmen, sponsoring the annual gala held in October, or the annual Prodeko Seminar in spring are all great ways to get involved. Every Prodeko student takes part in organizing the annual gala during their first year, and the seminar brings together the entire Prodeko community.

Create a good image and maintain it

Prodeko collaborates with many companies, so raising awareness of your company and maintaining a positive image significantly increases the effectiveness of recruitment announcements and participation in excursions. Effective ways to promote your company include:

• Sponsoring the Annual Ball: Prodeko’s annual celebration, Diskonttaus, takes place around mid-October. This formal event is attended not only by students but also by alumni, faculty from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, and other invited guests. The ball offers excellent visibility among students at Aalto University and helps us organise the event.

• Sponsoring the Prodeko Seminar: The largest annual Prodeko event, the seminar is held every April and brings together faculty, students, and alumni of the IEM department. It provides a unique opportunity to gain visibility within the Prodeko community, especially among alumni, more than any other event.

• Sponsoring domestic and international annual trips - HalfLong Excursions 

• Sponsoring Prodeko facilities, such as contributions to the gym or providing coffee, tea, or pool-related amenities for the guild room. New ideas are always welcome, and our board can help fine-tune them to maximise brand impact.

• Advertisements on our overalls 

New events and ideas are constantly emerging, and no year at Prodeko is the same. Therefore, it’s also worth inquiring about other opportunities not listed above.

Participate in project courses

If you'd like to work more closely with students, your company can participate in one or more of the IEM program’s project courses. These course projects are a unique aspect of IEM studies at Aalto University. Each course is under an area of IEM, typically within broader topics such as strategy or operations, and more specific keywords may include competitive analysis, business environment analysis, market research, procurement, logistics, supply chain management, or optimization. Within the course framework, you can offer a project to a group of 4–5 students to carry out for your company. The project topics are largely up to the participating company. You can request a more detailed list and descriptions of the courses from our corporate relations representative at yrityssuhteet@prodeko.org.

These project courses offer a way to build a closer employer image with students, stand out from other companies, and learn about current trends in education and university studies. Companies gain fresh perspectives, concrete results, and improvement suggestions for their operations – and, of course, they gain a great opportunity to see potential future hires "in action." Students, in turn, get valuable work experience alongside their studies and build important contacts with potential future employers. If your company is interested in utilizing skilled students for development or research projects, the corporate relations representative at yrityssuhteet@prodeko.org is happy to answer questions and help coordinate!