Unemployed, Again

After the trip to Hawaiʻi, life continued as usual, including work, lots of softball, and hanging out with family and friends. Check out some picture highlights below.

In September 2025 I began a second master’s degree in Biorefineries at LUT University, where I previously attended and the reason why I came to Finland. After a few years of deliberating, I finally decided to apply due to my interest in developing the bioeconomy. I got pretty lucky with my timing because this was the last year new students were admitted to this degree program, after which it will be discontinued.

In this chemical engineering master’s programme, you will specialise in biorefining and related industries in the circular economy. Biorefineries implement a wide range of technologies and materials, and this programme examines them with an open mind and a wide scope, including the opportunities they offer in terms of new competences, solutions and critical assessments. During your studies, you will learn about the production of materials and to design and develop processes based on modern biorefining technologies. You will specialise in biorefining and related industries in the circular economy.

Though the program takes place in Lahti, an hour by train from Helsinki, the studies can be completed in blended mode, i.e., mostly remote with some on-campus presence required. I planned to leisurely carry out this flexible master’s degree alongside work. Little did I know what was to come…

After working for three years as a sustainability consultant, I became unemployed, again, in early 2026. Currently Finland has the highest unemployment rate, a little over 10%, in the European Union. Without a new job lined up, this felt daunting at times. While no one wants to be unemployed, I tried my best to stay positive and take advantage of the situation. I did a lot during this time and sometimes joked that I was busier than when I had an actual job. First I was able to visit the U.S. for Christmas to relax and recharge my battery.

When I was unemployed the first time, I did a five-month intensive Finnish course. This time around I committed to attending a two-hour Finnish conversation group nearly every Monday from mid-January until mid-May. I had always wanted to attend such a group but found it difficult to gather enough motivation to attend after work or on the weekend. Now I was able to build it into my weekly routine. Just like in the intensive Finnish course, the participants were extremely diverse in background, age, and country of origin. There were engineers, cooks, and doctors. Some had only been in Finland for a month and others more than 30 years. And I counted at least 22 home countries, covering every continent except Antarctica. For example, there were people from the Dominican Republic, Colombia, the Congo (not sure which one!), Germany, Vietnam, and Australia. I thoroughly enjoyed the group and continued gaining confidence to speak Finnish.

Otherwise, I applied for many jobs and, more importantly, attended several networking events. I joined Finnish Forest Products Engineers’ Association and visited VTT – a research center owned by the state of Finland – as well as Aalto University a few times for various events. In addition to taking a more active role in softball, I started as a board member of Puumat, the larger baseball organization that includes Sandstorm.

And of course, I had more time for non-networking related activities. On my second to last day of work, I attended a sourdough bread baking workshop through one of the hobby clubs. We all received starter at the end of the workshop, so this was naturally a good time to try baking sourdough bread for the first time. Since then it has been all about sourdough. Now I have made nearly 60 loaves and Linnea almost 20. We no longer need to buy bread and can make high-quality sourdough for about a tenth of the cost. This has truly been life-changing. I have also been inspired to make other sourdough recipes – like muffins, waffles, and tortillas – and other homemade creations like hair cream, which is expensive and difficult to find in Finland.

Apart from sourdough, I was able to spend more time with friends and friends with babies, especially during the day. A whopping 10 babies within my circles have been / will be born in 2026! Linnea and I also became godparents for the first time, which was a huge blessing.

Throughout these months I continued studying my master’s in Biorefineries. Last week I started as a Junior Research Assistant at LUT University to work on my thesis for the next six months. The research is part of the Bio4all project to convert forest and agricultural biomass residues into sustainable chemicals and fuels. While my current thesis is more about hydrogen production, I am definitely experiencing déjà vu since I held the same position when completing my first master’s thesis five years ago. One might say that my career path has been anything but linear!

Though I am not out of the woods yet since I could be unemployed again at the beginning of next year, I am overall pleased with how everything turned out. No longer working in consulting pushed me to pursue my true passions, build my network, and engage in fulfilling activities. Now I have a better sense of my desired career and motivation to obtain it. I won’t lie and say the past six months have been easy-breezy, but they have been meaningful. Hopefully next time I have more positive career updates!