Vegard worked as a research assistant before he started working
in a market analytics firm. Martin has travelled and been working
at the Norwegian Embassy in Havana, Cuba.
VEGARD TVEITO
MA specialization: Innovation Studies
Bachelor’s degree: North-American Studies
What did you write about in your master thesis?
My master thesis was about how a company (Telenor Norway) can use customer feedback in their innovation processes. I analyzed around 50 000 free form text messages from Telenor customers, 5000 tweets written about the company, as well as interviewing employees working with innovation in the company. I found that customers can be a source of smaller innovations and inform major decisions that lead to larger organizational innovations.
What have you done since graduating from TIK?
After graduating, I first spent a little over a year working with research at the TIK Centre. First on a paper about organizational innovations, and second on a project on how ICT affects happiness. Now I work as a Junior Consultant at Opinion, a market analytics firm.
In what ways has your TIK education been useful for your career?
Without the TIK education, I could not have had any of the jobs I’ve had. I have benefitted from practical skills that I use every day such as interviewing people, structuring a text properly, writing better and presenting better. Perhaps most importantly, my TIK education made me sit down for a whole year and focus on a problem, banging my head against the wall until something good enough came out. I know that is a skill I will always need going forward.
MARTIN GULSETH
MA specialization: Innovation Studies
Bachelor’s degree: Social Anthropology
What did you write about in your master thesis?
My thesis was about how the Norwegian hospitals works to follow up new and possibly system changing ideas by hospital employees to enhance and facilitate improvements. The innovation literature emphasizes the importance of innovation actors and contributors within hospitals, but at the same time, there is lack of qualitative knowledge on how these processes occur and develop. I wanted to contribute to this literature by studying eight different ideas and innovations at Sunnaas sykehus, a Norwegian hospital.
What have you done since graduating from TIK?
This last year I have been living abroad. First in Argentina where I did some post-studying, but also some traveling. I have learned the importance of a good, heart-breaking and sexy tango and the incredible atmosphere at an Argentinian football match. Since Christmas, I have been working at the Norwegian embassy in Havana, Cuba, an extremely interesting and special country to live in.
In what ways has your TIK education been useful for your career?
To be quite honest, this question comes a little early in my career. At this stage, I am not even sure I can call it a career? Nevertheless, what I have experienced is that there is an interest in persons with our particular background, and our expertise is relevant for a wide range of working fields.
