My Oulu: Fingersoft is building an international home for workers – huge gaming audience helps global recruiting

There is something familiar about Hill Climb Racing’s main character Bill Newton – the red-checkered flannel shirt, the backwards worn baseball cap and so on. A similar resemblance can be seen in the shirt worn by Aleksandar Lepojevic during this interview. He has been working as a 3D artist at Fingersoft for two years now. He moved from Serbia to Oulu.

“In 2022 my studio was closing, so I was applying to jobs in and outside of Serbia. Luckily, I saw an ad on LinkedIn about an open position for a 3D artist at Fingersoft. I remembered playing way too much Hill Climb Racing in high school, so I was eager to apply.”

Lepojevic had received job offers from Germany and the US, but after some research, he thought Oulu and Fingersoft would be the best fit for him. With prior experience living abroad, he was open to the opportunity.

“The recruitment process was easy. We had a few interviews and an art test, and within a few months I was already in Finland. After completing the paperwork, it took only a couple of weeks to get a work permit, and we were good to go. It was smooth, quite different experience from applying for a US work visa, which was much more complicated.”

Recruiments from 8 countries

Fingersoft has 118 employees, approximately 20 % of whom are international. They have had international employees almost from the beginning. However, the first recruitment from abroad was completed in 2020. Since then, they have recruited people from 8 different countries.

“The first case was the trickiest, not only because I didn’t have prior experience in international recruitment, but also because the world was upside down due to COVID-19. I had to turn every single stone to push the recruitment forward since the embassies weren’t open or they weren’t accepting new residence permit applications”, HR Manager Elina Yrttiaho reminisces about that first case.

“When we finally managed to get the new recruits to Finland, they needed to undergo the covid quarantine according to the protocol. We did their grocery shopping for them and tried to keep them entertained somehow.”

Path to a 3D artist

Lepojevic has always been interested in digital art. He started out with an online forum, where he drew animated stick figures fighting each other.

“I earned my bachelor’s degree in graphic design and worked in various vocations, such as photography, animation, web design, and graphic design. However, I always knew I wanted to work in the gaming industry. At some point I fell in love with 3D art and just never looked back. Since then, I’ve worked with THQ Nordic, Robot Entertainment, Chinese Room, Sumo Digital, and Room8 on numerous projects, primarily focusing on stylized art.”

Game artists design the visual context of the game, which affects the gaming experience and how successful the game can be. 3D artists use 3D graphics software to create and design all the elements and surroundings in the game.

“My role involves creating stylized worlds. We conceptualize different scenarios for our games and then I bring them to life in 3D space. We try our best to make our worlds imaginative, while ensuring optimal performance on mobile devices”, describes Lepojevic the work of visual designers.

Diversity brings productivity

Fingersoft has learned new things from each recruitment. Yrttiaho explains that by promoting diversity at Fingersoft, they support creativity and productivity. At the same time, they create an atmosphere of learning from different cultures and backgrounds.

“We have found great talents through international recruitment. The more diverse our company is, the better we can create fun games that are loved all around the world.”

It’s truly an advantage to have international talents, when trying to attract an international target audience. Different perspectives and cultural bases create more versatile outcomes – also when it comes to visual ideas.

Lepojevic appreciates the amount of autonomy that they have in their work at Fingersoft.

“In general level, we have an independent working culture, and we trust our people that they are specialists in their own field, and they are capable of making decisions that benefits their project and the company. Our people are expected to take initiative and ownership of their work. We emphasize the importance of trust, respect and responsibility”, Yrttiaho explains.

Are independence and trust emphasized more in the gaming industry or are they typical characteristics of Finnish working life? Probably it is a combination of general trends of Finnish working life and freeness of the gaming business.

“One thing that’s really different compared to Serbia is how quiet the workplace is in comparison. Which was odd at first, but I have come to like it.”

Audience helps recruiting

Fingersoft has a massive audience with over two billion downloads of Hill Climb Racing games. This creates a solid foundation for advertising their open positions worldwide.

“Since our games have such a huge audience and they are well known all over the world, it makes recruiting easier. We participate in the gaming industry’s recruitment events such as the Games Jobs Fair and use other gaming industry specific recruitment platforms as well as social media to reach talents”, Yrttiaho explicates.

She believes that Fingersoft continues hiring both domestic and international talents and students. Taking care of the newcomers has a major impact on keeping the great talents on board.

“In the future, I would like to implement a Buddy program when recruiting from abroad. And of course, we will offer the same integration package as before: paid flights, finding a furnished apartment for the first couple of months, rent support during the first months, full support with all the bureaucracy and offering Finnish courses.”

According to Yrttiaho the best advice for nailing international recruitment would be to support the international employee with all the bureaucracy along the way and give assistance with settling into a new country.

“When the new hire gets help, they can better focus on their new job, and they feel secure. We organize a Finnish class for all interested expats since we think learning Finnish will help with integration. The teacher comes to our office once a week and our people can use their working hours to learn Finnish. We also organize casual events in which spouses are welcome to find new friends and contacts.”

Life in Oulu as a foreigner

Lepojevic feels that he has adapted well to life in Oulu by forming his daily routines. He finds it amazing to see the city transform from season to season.

“Pros of living in Oulu would include nature, but also really nice people and the bike culture for sure. For cons, as someone who comes from southeastern Europe, the November and December night cycle can get pretty difficult. No real sun exposure for that long sometimes gets to me.”

“I think the great thing about Oulu is that it’s just urban enough. You’re never more than a short walk away from nature, even though it has all the things you would expect from a city. 99% percent of people speak English, which is great, especially in the beginning.”

There are also a lot of cultural and art events.

“I go to the art museum pretty regularly and visit the various small galleries around town whenever they change repertoires.”

Being a member of the community plays a significant role in settling in.

“There is a good international community in Oulu, but it can seem a bit scattered. I would love to see the community come together more, which is why it’s great to have the International House Oulu there. I’ve been to a few events, and it’s been pretty fun. People seem to really be down to chat there.”