Juho Kajava joins Columbia Road

Hi Juho, how did you get good at what you do?

When it comes to marketing and technology, I have been driven by my need to learn in a self-directed manner and my need to fiddle with new things. I have studied English philology, which might come as a surprise, but in my studies I have acquired skills that are needed in understanding larger concepts and to think in a multi-faceted way. Many a thing in which I excel I have learned through a winning combination of reading, online courses and practical implementation at work.

Where have you earned your spurs?

I started my career in digital sales as a digital sales rep at Rainmaker Group (formerly known as Celectus) and got accustomed to helping customers through sales funnels. Consequently, I became interested in how one can drive more people into those funnels and what motivates them. I soon started handling the company's website and broadened later into SEM and analytics. In my free time I have done marketing, content creation and other projects for various organisations. Especially working as a Social Media Manager at the learning event Dare to Learn was an important as well as a rewarding experience.

Why Columbia Road?

My interest in Columbia Road began to grow when a friend, Esa Tiusanen, joined Columbia Road about a year earlier. I also longed to do client work after a lengthy patch of in-house work. When the opportunity presented itself I decided to apply and here we are.

I am fascinated by the breadth of skills people working here have. It is easy to get inspired and to get help when needed. I value that to a great extent. The picture presented outward and the reality seem to come together quite well to my experience.

Lauri, what will make our clients love Juho?

"Analytical problem solving is Juho’s expertise. His solid knowledge in SEM as well as analysing and visualising data will help him to excel in his work. Juho reformulates complex problems into smaller, more easily digestible pieces, while paying attention to how numbers correspond to events in the actual processes. He's a humanist who loves numbers and data, and tends to quickly understand clients’ problems and ideas holistically," says Lauri Eloranta, Managing Partner at Columbia Road.

What makes your heart beat a little faster?

"I love reading, especially British renaissance poetry. As a balancing factor I'm also learning how to produce legible code in Python and R. I'm especially interested in how they compare in similar tasks. I take great interest in data visualisation and ways of communicating with data efficiently and correctly. Last but not least I'm quite keen on UK politics and I have been following the recent developments with great interest," says Juho.