Camilla switches from horses to horsepower

by Nick Drew | Wed 10 Jun 2015

Camilla switches from horses to horsepower

It may sound like quite a career change, but when Finnish girl Camilla Kuivalainen was 18 years old, she swapped from working in the equine industry to operating excavators.

26 year old Camilla Kuivalainen who lives in Vihti some 50-60kms from Helsinki, had been working with horses for some time, but found out like so many that there is not much money to be made in the industry and she figured that she would never be able to purchase her own house on the poor salary. With that in mind she started to think about a career in the construction plant industry. In 2007 Camilla didn’t even know what an excavator was, but with time she practiced her skills whilst attending a college, until in 2009 she became a fully qualified machine operator. uutinen-3x2_1

In 2011 Camilla decided to set up her own contracting business Tmi KuCa Kaivaa and purchased her first excavator a 5.5 tonne Yanmar model which was equipped with a tiltrotator. At first the business was only part time and so Camilla was still working for other companies locally. uutinen-3x2_3_uus

In 2013 Camilla decided to go full time in business. During the long hard winter months work for the excavator sometimes gets quiet, so Camilla would often go driving trucks for others, but more recently she has expanded her business by purchasing her own 2008 model Scania truck which she will now drive and offer as a service in the future. uutinen-3x2_4

Apparently it is unusual in Finland to see a female contractor, there are plenty of female operators just like in other parts of Scandinavia but not many who actually own a business, so Camilla is something of a trailblazer in that respect. Of note is Camilla’s company logo which clearly displays her two passions in life horses and diggers. 15272127_772901532849330_3484528166573374882_o

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Talking about her experience in business Camilla said, “The fact that I am female in a traditionally male dominated profession attracts two kinds of interests, how good I am or how bad I am! Some older people say nice compliments often for no reason? And some people quite obviously think that there is no way it can work out, but most of the time everyone is ok with it”. 1455848_441515802654573_7286214763572993281_n

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Camilla continued, “Many people seem interested in what I am doing and I’m fine with that, but sometimes people stare which I am not too keen about. Sometimes I get advice even though I don’t really need it but we all face these problems I guess. At the end of the day I love my job and would not change it for anything”. Check out this video clip by our Finnish journalist friend Olli Paivio. It’s in Finnish but still a good watch.

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