November 2019, I got an exciting opportunity to attend not only Junction 2019 but also the Terminal 2019.

I can go on and on about this experience but I will try to keep it short and stick to the major events.

What is Junction?

Visa

A few days before I applied for a visa to Finland I had another opportunity to visit Europe but sadly my visa application got rejected for that.
So you can understand how skeptical I was when I applied for a visa this time.
This being a business visa and that too a group application, proved too be a plus point for me and luckily it was approved.
The visa process itself was quite smooth and kudos to Junction and Terminal Team for providing all necessary documents beforehand.

Terminal

Before Junction, we had Terminal which is a week-long series of events consisting of company visits and a chance to interact with industry professionals. There were also some fun events like a scavenger hunt around Helsinki and Finnish sauna.

Schedule

Considering that we had exams lined up just after Junction, we did not have many days to go around Finland.

•  Week-long Terminal
•  3 days Junction Hackathon
•  2 days to enjoy the beauty of Finland

Terminal Week

This was a very unique experience, we got to visit many companies, interact with other participants from around the world, get to know the finish culture and work style.
Following are the companies we got a chance to visit:

•  Business Finland
•  Ericcson
•  Varian
•  Vainu
•  Rovio
•  Nordea
•  Supercell

Everywhere the experience was quite unique and we got to learn the way they work, what they work on, and work opportunities there. I would like to describe all the amazing things like the 5G tech presented at Ericsson, team structure of Supercell, Rovio’s custom crane game, etc… but no explanation can describe the experience so all I would say is you have to experience Terminal!

Apart from this, we were given a Helsinki Pass using which we were able to travel via metro, tram, ferry, bus for free of cost to us.

There was also a fun scavenger hunt organized that took place all across Helsinki, below are the clues for the same:

We also got to experience a Finnish sauna and drink free beers everywhere.

Junction

This was huge, like literally huge. The experience was just amazing, food was perfect, organized in a great way, and obviously a ton of free goodies. Although the project we made did not turn out well and there were way too many roadblocks we faced but being there and getting to interact with students and professionals from around the world made it all a great hackathon.

Writing about the experience at Junction won’t do it even a bit of justice so I would just say, doesn’t matter if you are a student or professional just go and apply for Junction if you have the knack to create something.

Finland

After Junction, we traveled 800km North to Rovaniemi where we hitchhiked for like the first time in our life as we were stranded in brain freezing weather with no idea of how to get back to our Airbnb apartment. People of Finland are very kind, they would out of their way to help you. Apart from this first-time experience, we enjoyed the Angry Bird Garden, and lastly we went to meet Santa!! Oh and we also had a sauna in our apartment!

After this, we just bought a half trolley full of chocolate and returned back home.