To Fired Nokia Colleagues old and new - here reposting (updated) advice about your new career

I have just read the press release from Elop about the 10K new layoffs today (and other news). I wrote a blog article last year at February 11, after the big layoffs, with some little bits of advice to Nokia colleagues who had been fired. I will repost that today with minor updates. 

My heart goes out to you. You were fighting the heroic fight and in my view, this was an artificial crisis, brought on by Elop and his mismanagement - ie the problem was bad management, not your work. So please take heart, that you have done your best. Here is a little bit of advice from an old Nokiadude who left 11 years ago:

(reposted from 11 February, 2011)
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

[The Bit In The Middle]

Moi Tommi,

I know some ex-Nokians went to Ixonos (http://www.ixonos.com/ who are in Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Kemi, Oulu, Tampere, Turku and outside Finland too).

As someone who is leaving another part of Nokia, I know what its like to be told "bye, bye". I wish good luck to all those people. You have amazing skills and some great history from a once great company. Any company would be lucky to have your knowledge and professional ethic.

Be proud of the work you have done.

Onwards and upwards!

Almost-ex-solutioneeer!

[JJ]

Nokia press release "Nokia sharpens strategy and provides updates to its targets and outlook" is world record bullshit.

[converse pas cher]

Ca cineva care este de a lăsa o altă parte a Nokia, ştiu ceea ce se vrea a fi spus "Bye, bye". Doresc succes tuturor acestor oameni. Aveţi abilităţi uimitoare si o istorie mare de la o companie mare o dată. Orice companie ar fi norocos să aibă cunoştinţele şi etica profesională.

[NN]

I'm curious, how does Nokia's board of directors take decisions ?

Do they not question at all even one decision by a boss-guy (Elop) with zero background in Manufacturing or Telecom or mobile ?

Do they not ask even once about Nokia's interests as different from Microsoft's interests ?

Dont they know that in Asia, made in Finland/Germany/Western-countries is seen as good quality ?

Personally I always liked the "Made in Finland" Nokia more than "Made in China" Apple or Nokia.

Sure... maybe I will get blocked for posting this... but for my own knowledge-- I would love to learn better how these systems work.

Thank you and awaiting this information from readers and Tomi...

[NN]

Also, dont they have a independant board of directors ???

Has not one director spoken a word OR resigned in protest???

If it was in any other country, any government would conduct a enquiry into honesty/corruption about a allegation by even 1 of the 10,000 fired who alleges wrongful termination.

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[Tomi T Ahonen]

Thank you all for the comments

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[Anonymouse]

As an insider, I no longer have faith in the company. We had a project that could have dominated a complete market sector. Nothing else was there to compete with it. Even after the burning platform fiasco, we still had a plan, and a clear direction. With this latest decision, Nokia has been relegated to a hardware company. Today is a very very sad day for those inside and outside Nokia.

[AnonyMr.]

Could you please explain some things that might help other companies who'd like to find these talented people and put them to work, maybe a follow up post?

Are these people almost all located in Finland? If not what other cities are they in?

What are typical pay ranges and benefits that are appropriate for these kinds of skilled engineers?

Does the Finnish public safety net provide enough unemployment assistance so that these engineers do not have to rush for the very first job they find, just to be able to afford food next week? In other words do they have time to make a plan for a good transition?

Are ex-Nokia engineers likely to be familiar with telecommuting, virtual team, international offshoring type of work situations already? Or would these be new types of job skills to them? How hard would it be for someone who worked onsite in Finland for decades to switch to this kind of working arrangement?

How hard is it for a group of former Nokia engineers and managers to create a technology consulting firm that could make deals with other companies around the world?

How hard is it for other companies to set up a Finnish subsidiary or branch for R&D?

Would most of these engineers have very specialized experience in digital RF, or would they have more transferable skills in digital systems, circuit boards, software, UI etc that could be used in other industries?

[Tomi T Ahonen]

To all in this thread

I just got a most wonderful Tweet on Twitter from Todd Smith over at Cisco. He said that Cisco Mobile is very interested in any Nokians, you have the skills they want. Its one place that has immediately stepped up and said they are interested in you. And I can say from working with Cisco in the past, their culture is also similar to what we had at Nokia. Please do follow up with the Cisco Mobile recruiting website or contact them for example via Twitter at @CiscoJobsEMEAR

Thank you Cisco! Any other companies, if you would like to mention to these talented clever hard-working Finns that you'd be interested, please feel free to post here in the thread, or send me email, or contact me via Twitter at @tomiahonen and I will help them find you

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[Qpuita-poltetaan,]

Kunnes asha, athsaa, 202 - viweps ,tnx. 2r 2c 2sim.

[fnord]

AnonyMr,

Engineers in Finland are located in Helsinki, Salo, Tampere and Oulu.

Some data about monthly pay ranges for Engineers with Masters degree in Finland can be found at:
http://issuu.com/mcipress/docs/tek0312?mode=window&pageNumber=31

Unemployment assistance for these engineers lasts for two years and is roughly 50-75% of the salary.

Virtual teams distributed globally is not a new environment for them.

Information on setting up a Finnish subsidiary for R&D
http://www.investinfinland.fi/
http://www.tekes.fi/en/community/Innovate_in_Finland/354/Innovate_in_Finland/1229

I doubt there's that much digital RF experience available, but rather systems, software and manufacturing experience which could very well fit other industries. Especially involving miniature or portable embedded electronics.

[Jon]

My collection of Nokia's is increasing in value.

[cycnus]

I think that all nokia ex-employee should speak up in web.

I know that Nokia & Microsoft now busy going from one web site to another to say "WP is good, WP is the future"

I believe nokia ex-employee should go to one web site to another and write a rebuttal. tell the world that Elop is a liar, a criminal. WP is a failure, and how failure it was and will be. Let's kick elop in the ball.

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