Originally from Munich, Germany, Sophia Hauswurz moved to Finland in March last year without ever having visited the country before. The courageous move had its roots on the global pandemic; being confined into her small apartment, Sophia craved for a change of scenery.
She’d been working on project with KPMG Finland and in order to improve the collaboration between our two countries, her performance manager suggested that maybe Finland could be option to consider, and Sophia jumped at the opportunity.
Sophia’s career at KPMG started while she was still a student. She attended a seminar organised by KPMG Germany on the lessons learned from the great financial crisis, which caught her interest in financial risk management and especially in recovery and resolution planning.
After the seminar, Sophia started her career in recovery and resolution planning at KPMG, first as a trainee and then as a full-time employee. During her time working for KPMG Germany, Sophia had the opportunity to work with a lot of clients around Europe, one of the most memorable being a project that took place in Paris.
Initially, ending up in Finland was a pure coincidence more than anything else, but from the start Sophia quickly found her feet and realised she enjoys the Finnish working atmosphere quite a lot and in her opinion the work-life balance is great.
This combined with her personal life led her to officially become a permanent employee of KPMG Finland from the beginning of 2023. Her German colleagues were very sad to see her go, but luckily her career at KPMG continues as do her joint projects with KPMG Germany.
“Since my specialty topic, recovery and resolution planning for financial institutions, is still quite new in Finland, I have been able to share the knowledge I’d already gathered in Germany.
I am passionate about my work and my vision is to make us the market leader - hopefully I can help us to succeed with my experience.
What has surprised me the most in Finland has been how friendly and caring the people are. For example, when it was my first day in Helsinki I returned to my desk after everyone else had already left the office to find a note from my colleague. The note had her private phone number and encouragement to contact her should I need any help or if I simply wanted to hang out over the weekend. This really warmed my heart, and it also shows how welcoming everyone has been.
For me KPMG is all about the people – it has been through my whole KPMG experience so far. I am still in touch with my colleagues from KPMG Germany and get to work with them on different projects and my team here in Finland is equally wonderful. Without the KPMG network and the opportunities it offers I would not necessarily be in Finland today, but I am very happy I am here.”
