Jesse Nio is an International Business student who is graduating at the end of this year. He manages to study full-time, work and have a very time consuming hobby, in which he won the second place in an international competition recently, by the way!
Who are you and what do you study?
My name is Jesse Nio, I’m an IB student graduating hopefully at the end of this year. And I actually already have a degree from HAMK Electrical and automation engineering, from which I graduated in 2012.
I’m an adult student, and I thought for a while whether I should start studying full-time again or not. It felt it was a challenging thing to do. All classmates would be younger and while they would go out to party, I would need to go to bed early and wake up in the morning for work. But actually, everything has worked out fine. As it turned out, I’m not the only adult in my class, and it is actually very refreshing to study with younger people, their energy and motivation boost mine as well! Also, I’m rather an “old school” student and prefer to be in class 8-16, do all the work there and not get homework.
How about your work? What do you do?
I have my own company KuulaKojootti, which I founded in 2009 while studying in HAMK for the first time. At first, my company offered an airsoft gun repair service, but now it also rents airsoft guns and equipment for events like birthdays and bachelor parties, and for those who just want to try out the sport.
Also I work part-time in an airsoft equipment shop in Tampere called ProAirsoft. I work as a shop manager, and I’m writing my thesis for them as well at the moment. I have been working for this company basically since 2005, so we have a long history. It is very interesting for me to inspect the company’s actions from the view of a business expert now, and I can combine the knowledge from my studies to real life! I’m working on some marketing plans among other things.
You have an interesting hobby, tell a little about that
So, my hobby is shooting, more precisely IPSC and action air shooting. I got to know the sport in 2012 and I’ve been into it ever since. In action air, no real bullets and gunpowder are used, but the guns work with pressurized air or gas. The sport was developed in Hong Kong, where real firearms are really hard to obtain, so it is easier to shoot with air guns. It is also a way cheaper sport than shooting with firearms, since bullets and other equipment are expensive. Many shooters tend to do both because the sports back up each other.
The sport is very thorough, and it requires many other things in addition practicing shooting. You need to build up your physique in order to shoot better. This means going for walks and jogging and to the gym. Also you have to keep an eye on the other shooters and what they are doing and update your equipment when needed. It takes a lot of time to prepare for competitions. I spend maybe 3-4 days a week to practice the sport and everything included. And since I’m a range officer (referee) in competitions, work in a company that’s operations are related to shooting and will teach a shooting group this autumn, you could say I’m pretty much married to the sport!
Can people try shooting somewhere here?
Well yes, there are both firearm and air gun shooting ranges in Loimaa and Nokia which both support Action Air and IPSC. Action air Finnish national championships will be held in the end of September and the event is open and free for all spectators. This event is feld Nokia from 22th to 24th of September.
And after that Nokian Seudun Ampujat (the Shooters of Nokia Region) have an open doors day where everybody who are interested in the sport can go and try it out for free. The open doors day is on the 1st of October at 11:00 to 15:00 in the same location as the Finnish nationals.
Winning second place in an international shooting competition
In August 2017, an international practical airsoft competition was held in England. It had over 200 competitors half of which come outside of England. And as it happened, I won the second place in production division, which is considered one of the hardest due the restriction towards the guns and gears.
The competition was tough and challenging though, since the sole thing judged was the skill in shooting. And the local weather was very warm and humid, when we Finns like it cool and dry, and that made it even more exhausting!
If you got interested in shooting as a hobby and want to know more about it, check out Jesse’s Facebook page!
Photos courtesy of Popular Airsoft
