Career Changer: Pauliina Karjalainen

Name: Pauliina Karjalainen

Job and title: Senior Security Analyst at Accenture

Professional interests: Self improvement

Previous career: Border Guard

Educational background: Bachelor of Engineering in ICT

Hobbies: Dogs, Gym and knitting/sewing

Song that gives me power: Rammstein, no specific songs

From the Finnish Border Guard to Cybersecurity 

In this Article you get to know what led Pauliina Karjalainen to start a career in cybersecurity a few years ago after one in the Finnish Border Guard through a series of happy coincidences and curiosity towards new things.  

During her military service, Pauliina had a first touch with IT through small related tasks that started a small spark of curiosity which didn’t quite ignite fully yet and she pursued a career in the Finnish Border Guard, having lived her life near the eastern border. Pauliina got the opportunity in this career path to work partially with IT communications which got her involved with networks, routers, switches, etc. 

This created a bigger spark towards IT and when the Covid pandemic and all related restrictions hit, Pauliina saw there a great opportunity to deepen and gain new IT knowledge and she decided to take the leap to start Cyber Security studies . 

This new path led her to apply to Jyväskylä’s University of Applied Sciences as they offered good opportunities for studying remotely and the university was reasonably close to Lappeenranta when on-site was required. Her first year of studies was fully remote through the open courses offered by the University. Starting from the second year, she took study leave from her job to focus fully on her studies. She was able to afford this new student-life mainly by having an adult-student subsidiary representing around half of her border guard salary and by significantly cutting costs.    

Curiosity can open job opportunities

In 2022, as she was still studying, Pauliina was scrolling through Instagram when she came across a post from Accenture informing that they were organising an European student battle in the form of a game similar to an escape room but cybersecurity related. She applied to join and through a lucky star was selected to be part of it alongside 6 other Finnish students. During the networking time there, she asked a few questions, especially related to Security Operation Center related work and on the Monday after the event, Accenture’s HR called her to know if she may be interested in an internship of 4 months. 

Initially, she wanted to apply for jobs only later but after discussing with people around her she decided to accept the position and lived temporarily on a friend’s couch as it was meant to be a short-term contract. However, after two months she was offered a permanent position which she had to consider seriously as she was still living in Lappeenranta at the time and the position was 100% on-site without any possibilities for remote work. For the first few years, she made it work by travelling regularly between Helsinki and Lappeenranta and having a second apartment in the capital. However, in 2025 after her graduation from the university they decided with her partner to make the move permanently to the Helsinki area to make their life less travel heavy. 

“In cybersecurity, I don’t have to prove myself as much as in my career at the Border Guard, now I can just be myself” 

A concern of many women who debate whether or not to pursue a career in cybersecurity or IT lies in the male dominance in the field. For Pauliina, this was not the case as she was already working in a male-dominated field at the border guard. In her personal experience she found herself more free to be fully herself in this new career and has never in the work-life encountered any discrimination because of her gender. 

As for the job itself, her expectations concerning the SOC Analyst position were met and the 2,5 years in her current job have matched what she originally envisioned for the position. However, the wideness of the job did surprise her a bit and she has to learn a lot and know a lot of things as every customer has different needs. As a result, she also had to accept that she couldn’t be great in absolutely everything related to her job, nor the best.  Her cyber journey has taught her that sometimes it is necessary and perfectly fine to ask for a second opinion or help and that mistakes are part of the journey. As a SOC Analyst, she got used to the feeling of uncertainty that comes in certain situations and thankfully, she has colleagues to whom to turn to in case of doubt. After all, we all are in this together and team work is inevitable in the industry. 

When she started the career change journey, she did not know anyone in the field but got a great amount of support from people close to her and even her former colleagues completely understood her decision to make the change. Now, Pauliina is part of SaimaaSec’s board and an important member of the organization of Disobey through her commitment to the community village for the past few years. 

As a last word for other people debating changing careers, she strongly encourages to do it, to study what interests you and approach new opportunities open-mindedly. The change can seem scary, but at least in cybersecurity you don’t have to do it alone and you will always find help during the transition and after it from either the school or the communities. The only thing that needs to be done is ask. 

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Picture: Pauliina Karjalainen, at Disobey 2025

Text: Varpu Huhtinen, W4CFI Articles