---
title: "Careers in Finance, #Momentum | Henrik Liimatainen and Mikko Hiltunen | Negotiator 105"
titleOriginal: "Momentum rahoituksen urat | Henrik Liimatainen Mikko Hiltunen | Neuvottelija 105"
episodeNumber: "105"
guest: "Henrik Liimatainen, Mikko Hiltunen"
datePublished: 2021-10-31
duration: "31:37"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["leadership_governance","investing_markets"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and a MacWhisper transcription of the Finnish audio, upgraded on 18 October 2026. The chapter marks are the publisher's own, translated one for one; every mark was checked against the transcript and lands within a few seconds of the start of a cue. No transcript is published here: the channel has no English caption track for this episode. The audio has a gap of about half a minute at 8:50–9:20. This is a reciprocal episode: the guests had just interviewed the host for their own programme, and one of the four careers discussed is the host's own. One of the others is Elias Rantapuska, who appears as a guest in EP107 of this same programme. Nothing in the episode is investment advice. Published 31 October 2021."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/122-rahoituksen-urat-momentum-liimatainen-hiltunen-neuvottelija"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep105-rahoituksen-urat-momentum-liimatainen-hiltunen/
---
# Careers in Finance, #Momentum | Henrik Liimatainen and Mikko Hiltunen | Negotiator 105

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=0s) Episode preview
- [01:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=65s) Henrik and Mikko introduce themselves and the Momentum podcast
- [01:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=110s) Spekti swapped a banking career at Nordea for Finnish rap
- [04:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=295s) Professor Elias Rantapuska and the love of learning
- [07:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=470s) Keloharju, Kaustia and the alternative career of a researcher
- [09:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=560s) Inderes's Mikael Rautanen and analysis as a passion
- [10:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=655s) Why Inderes matters to the Finnish stock exchange
- [12:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=740s) Sami's episode and the investment banker's classic path
- [14:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=865s) Consulting and BCG as a career for a finance student
- [15:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=900s) Finnish Long Drink conquers the United States
- [15:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=930s) Start-ups, or investment banking and consulting
- [16:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1000s) Finance students are risk avoiders
- [17:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1020s) The student loan into the market and an index-based portfolio
- [17:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1065s) The equity savings account and individual stocks
- [18:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1095s) Why US stocks belong in the portfolio
- [19:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1140s) Bitcoin, blockchains and the Wild West of crypto
- [21:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1300s) The thesis and the first job set the direction
- [22:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1370s) Your own company straight away, or via a big logo
- [24:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1450s) Sport, books and sailing in Croatia
- [26:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1560s) Aalto Finance, AFA and AFA Quarterly
- [27:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1635s) The business students' union representative council
- [27:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1670s) The KY building was sold: towards the Otaniemi campus
- [28:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1735s) Hanken and the business school keep up their ribbing tradition
- [29:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1770s) What Momentum has taught about career choices
- [30:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1830s) Thesis topics in Neuvottelija's Facebook community
- [31:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU&t=1875s) Thanks and close

## Summary

Henrik Liimatainen and Mikko Hiltunen, final-stage finance students at Aalto who make the Momentum podcast, reverse the roles: they had just interviewed the host for their own series, and here they reflect on the four careers they have covered — the rapper Spekti, professor Elias Rantapuska, Inderes founder Mikael Rautanen, and Sami Miettinen. The most interesting observation concerns their own cohort: finance students are above-average risk avoiders because good salaried work is available, so entrepreneurship interests them more than it materialises, and a failed firm straight after graduation looks like a credibility risk. The host answers that tactical CV-building is the safe bet but failure is judged less harshly than in his day. He also argues that without Inderes Finland would have an eastern European stock exchange, and admits it took him decades to learn to respect the efficiency of the US market. The episode covers investing the student loan in an index base, crypto and control of the keys, why a thesis and a first job set a career vector, and the sale of the KY building and the move to Otaniemi.

## Why the safe option wins

The cohort's risk aversion is not temperament. A finance graduate has a well-paid salaried job waiting, which makes the expected cost of trying something else unusually high, and one of the guests adds a sharper worry he has raised with his mentor: a firm that fails straight after graduation may cost credibility that a big logo on the CV would have bought. The host concedes the logic, recalls being an extreme risk avoider himself in the shadow of the 1990s recession, and argues that failure now carries less stigma.

## The vector set early

A thesis subject and a first employer narrow the range of plausible next steps far more than either feels like it should at the time. The host, who says he has handed out some thirty thesis topics and steered many students into consulting and banking, puts it bluntly: they set the vector.

## Markets, humbly

The investing passage is the host's admission that it took him decades to respect the efficiency of the US stock market, and his advice to keep it at a neutral weight rather than follow the perennial calls to sell. The guests have put their student loans into cost-efficient index funds before picking individual shares. On crypto the three agree it is a wild west, with theft and control of the keys as the practical risks.

## Roles reversed

The episode is worth reading as a conversation between interviewers about interviewing, conducted days after they had put the same questions to the person now asking them.

## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Rahoituksen urat #Momentum | Liimatainen Hiltunen | Neuvottelija 105](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2Zz-RYQoU).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/122-rahoituksen-urat-momentum-liimatainen-hiltunen-neuvottelija).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep105-rahoituksen-urat-momentum-liimatainen-hiltunen/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/economy/ep105-rahoituksen-urat-momentum-liimatainen-hiltunen/).

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Careers in Finance, #Momentum | Henrik Liimatainen and Mikko Hiltunen | Negotiator 105, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep105-rahoituksen-urat-momentum-liimatainen-hiltunen/, 2021-10-31. For quotes include episode 105 and timestamp.
