To Nokia colleagues being laid off or fearing for job survival - here a little bit of advice

Hi Nokia colleagues, past colleagues and new ones who came after I left in 2001.

I have just heard that Elop's 'strategy' includes layoffs. I am VERY sorry for you. But please do not despair. You have stong competence in mobile, a very difficult complex industry. You have experience in the biggest company of that industry. Mobile is a Trillion dollar industry (1,000 Billion, or one million million) - you WILL find a new job. Do NOT despair. Just take a deep breath, and calm down, and focus.

The first thing you have to do, is update your CV now, and contact every single contact you ever had, and start the search for your next job. Do not despair. You will find a better job, and it will not take that long. The mobile industry is in hypergrowth, so there are plenty of jobs, including very advanced jobs. It is not as bad, as the recent economic recession was. If ever there was a time to lose a Nokia job, this is about the best time for it to happen haha, you have no idea how much the rest of the world values your talents. Do not despair.

I have friends finding good CV assistance sites, I will shortly post here. I also have friends looking for good job-interviewing sites, and will post those also.

Please remember, if you are going to interview for a job outside of Finnish companies, your Finnish job-hunting skills are not right. You have to adjust your CV to be far more 'international' (and by that, it means it has to be more 'marketing' ie more 'aggressive' and show more 'achievements' etc). I will get you help on that here, don't worry. As a rough guide, make sure your CV first page is not your educational achievements etc, you post all work in 'reverse chronological' order ie newest job first - and at least one paragraph per job. So you have to think of what all great achievements you've done in your current job. You can put easily one paragraph per about a year or two at Nokia, so if you've spent 6 years at Nokia, you should have 4-5 paragraphs about your time there etc.

Here are some companies that I know are growing, and will greatly value your skills. RIM ie Blackberry - thats based in Waterloo outside of Toronto in Canada. Samsung based in Seoul South Korea. Apple, California, Google, Cisco California. Also there are good smaller companies so they wont' hire tons of people but you could find a really good job if you have the right mix - so companies like Layar the Augmented Reality people of Netherlands or Flirtomatic of the UK or Fjord which also has a Helsinki office, or Artificial Life here from Hong Kong. I will also be looking for good companies and post more for you.

Obviously if you're in Finland, hit the Finnish companies like Elisa, Sombero, Book It, Sulake, Rovio, Kontra, all who have anything to do with our industry.. I remember when I still lived there, that Ericsson also had big offices in Finland but am not sure if they still do, if yes, contact them too! Also remember companies that are growing their interest in mobile like YLE and Sanoma etc..

UPDATE - here first sites. Help with CV (offer free reviews of CV's) http://cvcl.co.uk/tweets

Help with interviewing (thank you @kulturvulturz) : http://www.quintcareers.com/interview_question_database/

Guys, I am with you! You will do fine. You'll find a good job, don't worry. I will return here with more.

And please also anyone of my readers outside of Nokia, who has ideas, post for my friends and colleagues. These Nokia employees tend to be very highly trained, very competent, hard working people of exceptionally good work ethics and have learned to work in collaborative environments and all are perfectly fluent in English. If you are looking to expand your mobilista staff, please consider hiring these Nokia people now..

Comments

[Arild]

Kudos to Tomi for this initiative.

http://www.jobserve.com/homepage.aspx has kept me alive for the past 4 years, good place to start, plenty of UK and Euro jobs.

[ryzvonusef]

Tomi,, one question: Finnish company Aava is about to launch a Intel based MeeGo phone in MWC, but they were think of it as a "developer"'s phone.

Do you think they will see the gap and pick up Nokia's fleeing employees and start up a proper business selling MeeGo cellphones to consumers?

[Nemus]

One more link

http://www.slashgear.com/google-offers-sacked-nokia-engineers-a-lifeline-11132817/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+slashgear+%28SlashGear%29

[Baudrillard]

My advice to ex-Nokia employees:

Come together, get investors and buy AAVA mobile. Bring new Qt-based MeeGo and Symbian AAVA phones to the world. MeeGo and Symbian are both open source. Elop can't remove that license even if he wanted to. Kill the mother company. It's not just the hardware, it's the software stupid!!!

If anyone starts this, you have a guaranteed €50.000 investment from me. There are many people like me who would help you guys start the next Nokia.

All the best for the future.

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Anthony

I removed your comment, it was not appropriate for this blog entry - I recognize what you said, you are welcome to re-post it in the other threat about Nokia Microsoft merger - but for you to say that in this thread where I advise people who have just lost their jobs, that is just cruel by you. I will be happy to respond in the other thread, go there.

Tomi Ahonen

[J]

Anthony, Tomi's help is meant for those thousands of SW engineers at Nokia who are no longer needed there (or HERE as I can say). Product mechanics designers or marketing specialists will have some good times in swimming in that cold MS sea but for Nokia SW folks this day was the doomsday and any help is appreciated.

I don't find Tomi's comment as offensive, not at all. They are just like most of software-Nokians think.

Actually I still can't believe it happened, Nokia just gave up as SW company. All SW gone with the blink of an eye: Symbian, MeeGo, Qt, in-house apps, OviSuite. Only S40 is left, what a joke.

Elop is now commonly called as Flop in coffee rooms. Our to-be-Jesus just turned out as the Devil itself.
Now the whole Nokia SW R&D is gridlock'd. Don't expect anything new out in few months. We have better things to do, like seeking for a new jobs.

SW Nokia - R.I.P.
Services & solutions Nokia - R.I.P.

[Jouko Ahvenainen]

Nokia got to do what Nokia got to do. But another thing is employees and software business in Finland particularly. Anyway, I think it has never been healthy Nokia dominates the high tech Finland. My recommendation is to create new companies. But it requires a lot of work and another type of attitude than to be a corporate employee. And business is now very different from Nokia's golden years. It means that people must also be open to learn new things, new technologies, and new business models. I think the key is really that all people really take a look, where the software, mobile and internet business are today.

But I recommend to take those steps, commit to work, and create something new! And as an ad I recommend to check our web site http://www.growvc.com, how you can also use creative models to get other people to work for you and get funding. But it is only the second step. The first one is that you make a decision that you are ready to create something new.

[bright side of life]

TOMI, I dare you, I challenge you. Please write your analysis how this could come a success! How to sell like hell. And can there be some light 2011. do it.

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Anthony

Please don't do that debate here. I removed your comment again. Bring your discussion to the other thread as I requested. If you can be nice to those who lost their jobs and post some constructive advice, do that here. But the debate about Elop, bring that to the other thread, ok?

All others, if you can talk about job opportunities, please do. If you want to talk about Nokia strategy, not here.

PS to bright side - I will haha

Tomi :-)

[Tuomas]

Hey!

What about Finnish Aava Mobile Oy? They are developing MeeGo and I think that with funding it could become the next big thing (in Finland)! When it grows it would possibly also hire former Nokia employees, not all, that`s for sure, but at least some part of the Nokia`s underrated staff.. If buying Aava mobiles shares would be possible, I would do it right now!

Tuomas

[brightside]

tomi, from brightside ps. Sent from afterski levi, do it.

[C. Enrique Ortiz]

Thanks for doing this Tommi. While my comments are straight to the point w.r.t. current state of things, I do wish the best to Nokia and its people.

The way I can offer help is for Qt developers. If there are any Qt developers, please feel free to have them contact me. My contact info you have plus it is on my blog.

ceo

[ex-nokiafan]

Can Nokia employes do the same?
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/11/egypts-military-backs-hosni-mubarak-cairo-protests-spread/

[ryzvonusef]

The Employees certainly had a strong reaction: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/11/nokia-workers-mourn-death-of-symbian-thousands-walk-out/

[maanilanlaukaus]

@tuomas you are now dreaming about an enemy. where is it? According to your aava proposal, it last time happened in 1918. What battle you want to fight. If nokia is to M then years 39 and few after come to mind. This is the few moments in history where the finnish nation is asked to be defending territory and conquer together with someone else. Can this run in our blood already now. We see soom

[SVE]

FINDING JOBS IN FINLAND. Nokia veterans, your best assets to some other company (as seen from someone here in Silicon Valley) are your experience in mobile technologies, and your ability to form and deliver a complete working team. Companies the world over are looking to get into mobile, and need to recruit talent. It is much less trouble for a company looking to staff up to get a full team already in-place with proven talents and management to run things versus picking up and moving individuals one-by-one and developing talent in-house.

Your offer:
A complete development team with articulated deliverables, local management in place, government subsidies defined, complete HR costs & practices shown, facilities location & costs, legal business documents all neatly packaged up. Show this with a complete, clear presentation document set.

Shop this deal to the Business VPs and HR departments of all major companies that you think are trying to get into mobile and are sufficiently large enough to afford an international presence. Hint: it's not just United States, it's worldwide companies - and there are thousands. You WILL get interest, and fast.

Nokia as you know it is gone. It will return again to be the pride of Finland, but just like the Phoenix it must be consumed by fire first before being born anew.

[Don McLean]

I really hope this will lead to Nokians starting a dozen of new companies. Your talent won't be lost.

[paulo]

Ari Jaaksi need good C / C++ developers http://jaaksi.blogspot.com/2011/02/you-can-make-difference.html

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Baron95 - I appreciate your posting was intended as 'constructive' but I trust you also understand, you clearly crossed the line, what we do not need in this thread is the negative vibes. Go post those elsewhere. If you want to honestly help, keep it positive.

Thanks, I know you are a regular, I know also that I am strict with my rules. Don't come here to make anybody's day worse than it is. I removed your comment.

Tomi Ahonen

[Tomi T Ahonen]

adam - I removed your comment. I appreciate the support you showed to the person you mentioned, but that is inappropriate in this thread. This is for people who just learned they have lost their jobs. Bring you comment to the thread about Nokia-Microsoft partnership, not here.

Tomi Ahonen