5th October 2006

Vesa Vainio

Address: Kuminakuja 2 E 37 • 00840 Helsinki • Finland
Mobile phone: +358-40-563 6966 • Email: Email address

Objective

A position in a successful company where I will be challenged and inspired. It is my desire to work in a social setting where there are people from diverse backgrounds and I can constantly learn something new from my co-workers. I am looking forward to applying my combination of cognitive science understanding, computer science understanding and people skills in my future position.

Summary of Skills

Good Java programming skills, especially for data manipulation, data visualization and user interfaces
Experience in managing international projects
Master's degree in Cognitive Science, including broad perspective on different behavioural and social studies and specialization in the study of design behaviour and mental models
Experience as Computer Science teacher
Exceptional creativity in creating novel concepts and designs in the field of software, demonstrated by several independently created programs
Excellent interpersonal skills
Excellent teamwork and team leadership skills, acquired in numerous software projects and also in voluntary work as summer camp instructor
Experience in international and cross-cultural environments

Education

Master of Arts (Cognitive Science), 2006
Long minor in Computer Science
Master's Thesis: Students’ mental models about program execution on a first programming course.
Topic related to novice programmer education. Work included theoretical review of psychology of programming and qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews, 119 pages, in Finnish.
As part of Computer Science studies, participated in a distributed cross-cultural Software Engineering Project, spring 2004. Project produced software to visualize and animate the workings of data communication protocols. Contribution for the Visualizer part was design of overall architecture and programming of an important visualization UI component.
High School graduate in 1995, Leppävaaran lukio, Espoo, Finland. Top overall grade.

Awards and Achievements

March 2005: Shared 1st place in software engineering contest for students in St. Petersburg, Russia. Contest name was "Microsoft technologies in software engineering and software development". Participated in 2 person delegation to represent the Finnish part of the distributed project. Project homepage:
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/group/dacopan/index.html
Venture Cup Finland 2003/2004 business idea competition: Participated in an awarded 3-person team in 1st phase of the competition. 10 teams awarded out of 250 contestant teams.
Single-handedly created and released a shareware application to create www slide shows from digital photos. Includes software application with sophisticated UI, Windows installation package, JAR package and JavaScript obfuscation, online registration mechanism with strong cryptography. See homepage:
http://www.jshowbuilder.com/
Created several advanced programs that demonstrate ability for creative and original software design, application development and problem solving. See:
http://vesavainio.fi/pro/progr/

Work History

Computer Science Teacher
9/2002–4/2006
Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki: Part-time teacher working as exercise or project instructor on numerous courses. Course details listed under Teaching Experience.
Private Entrepreneur
since 4/2001
Registered as a private entrepreneur. Infrequently accepting assignments for freelance translation or consulting.
Project Manager for a Software Localization Project
9/2000–4/2001
Mendez: Manager for several subprojects of localization of the Finnish version of Microsoft Office XP. Managed subprojects together comprise about 40% of the total volume of Finnish Microsoft Office. Responsibility of project schedules, financial economy and organization of tasks all through the project's life span. Responsibility of contact with freelance subcontractors. Able to meet profitability goals and highly appraised by the customer.
International Project Manager for a Software Localization Project
6/1999–9/1999
L&H Finland: Localization of Microsoft Works 2000 for five major languages. International Project Manager of the project, coordinating work in country offices and coordinating customer communications. Project included software localization (with testing), help localization and printed material localization (with DTP). Succeeded in quickly stabilising the project in a challenging situation.
International Project Manager for a Software Localization Project and a Web-content Production Project
12/1998–5/1999
L&H Finland: Simultaneously managed two large multilingual projects with more than 10 languages each. Conducted negotiations on a new pricing structure for a pilot Web-content project. Co-operated with senior management on other negotiations. Responsibility of contact with subcontractor offices.
Localization Engineer
7/1995–1/1996 and 11/1996–8/1997
Trantex: Project work in several projects, with tasks including software localization, localization testing, help engineering, technical review of translations and project management.

Mendez, L&H Finland and Trantex are different names for the same company. Name changed because of mergers or acquisitions. Currently this company is part of Lionbridge Technologies.

Language Skills

Working languages: English and Finnish
Some studies in: Swedish, German, Japanese, Spanish
Knowledge of individual phrases in: Chinese, Russian etc.

International Experience

Participated in a distributed cross-cultural Software Engineering Project, spring 2004. Project was distributed between University of Helsinki, Finland and Petrozavodsk State University, Russia. The 6-member project group in Helsinki included international students and worked in English.
Worked as International Project Manager for three different projects in 1999. Providing the customer a single point of contact for localization services in multiple languages. Coordinating work in multiple subsidiary offices.
Independent travel in Europe in 1999: Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
Independent travel in Asia in 6/1998–8/1998: Helsinki to Beijing by rail using the Trans-Siberian railroad. Four weeks in China, in several locations. Two weeks in Thailand, several locations.
Other countries visited in adult age include: Ireland, Estonia, Russia, Latvia and Croatia.

Teaching Experience

Worked as a part-time teacher at Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki, from 09/2002 to 04/2006, as exercise or project instructor on the following courses:

Spring 2006	Scientific Writing, group topic: User Interfaces
Fall 2005	Programming Graphical User Interfaces (exercises + solo projects), 2 groups, environments: Java + Microsoft .NET with C#
Fall 2005	Software Engineering (exercises), 2 groups
Summer 2005	Software Engineering Project (team project), topic: scientific computation
Spring 2005	Software Engineering Project (team project), topic: web-based customer record system
Fall 2004	Software Engineering Project (team project), topic: algorithm visualization
Fall 2004	Programming Graphical User Interfaces (exercises + solo projects)
Fall 2004	Introduction to Programming (Java), 2 groups
Summer 2003	Introduction to Programming (Java)
Spring 2003	Programming project, 2 groups
Fall 2002	Programming project

Activities

Instructor at a Prometheus camp, ideologically independent "coming of age" camp for young people 14–15 years of age. Three camps, years 2002, 2004 and 2005. See: http://www.protu.fi/english/
Student Member of the Board at Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, years 1998–2000.
Computer programming as a primary hobby in youth. Languages studied at early age include Basic, Pascal and C.

Military service

Obligatory military service from 1/1996–12/1996 as a Medical Non-Commissioned Officer. Leadership training and experience acquired during the service.

Personal interests

Physical and mental exercise
Reading (news, literature)
Cooking
Listening to music and attending concerts
Socialising with friends
Creative programming
Strategy and board gaming
Travelling