I left Nokia some six years ago and during these years I have met a large number of ex-Nokians, both in Finland and abroad.
Author: nokiapeople Page 2 of 5
I am an Engineer and had worked in several organizations before I joined Nokia. At the time of my interview I wished to be a part of the Nokia story very desperately. I saw Nokia go from not having any viable LTE network products to becoming a market leader that ultimately suffered series of layoffs and other struggles.
Here are the things I liked about working in Nokia
I was always fascinated about mobile communication technology. During my intermediate school days, the concept of voice transmission between two mobiles over the air was a mystery for me.
I’ve always wondered how coincidences happen in our lives – people we cross paths with, getting a call or message from someone we just remembered or thought about, events that occur, unforeseen opportunities and challenges that seem to appear….
Dr. Wayne Dyer wrote, “the word coincidence describes that which fits together perfectly”.
Meeting Nokia was a coincidence that grew to be a core part of my life for many years and still continues in some form.
What meaning have I found from Nokia experiences?
I learned how life can be unpredictable, uncertain and tough and, how quickly an organization can go from being the undisputed king
Like many Finns who came of age in the early 00s, my connection to Nokia has been a long and multi-faceted one. One of my parents worked for Nokia in the mid-1990s, and I was far from being the only kid in that position at school. I lived in Espoo, after all, the promised land for telecoms engineers back in the day.
My first entrance to Nokia was Oulu’s Special Products unit in 1997, which was a great place to learn the spirit of handcrafted product making.
It was one of those Nokia R&D units full of hackers and makers.
What was it about working at Nokia that stuck with so many of us long after we left the company? Why are 27 356 of us posting our musings and memories of our time at Nokia on the alumni group on Facebook? These are some of the questions I asked myself after Verena asked me to write something for this blog after I posted this?on the “Beyond Nokia” group earlier this month.
I wrote this from my client’s office in Johannesburg after I had just walked in and heard a colleague chatting to a customer on the phone in Portuguese. It reminded me so much of my days at Nokia.
Now, before I go any further, let me just say I’m a total Nokia fangirl.
My love affair with Nokia began when I was 15 years old, when my first mobile phone was a Motorola V2288, and my school friends at the time had the Nokia 5110 
and later Nokia 3310. Truth be told, I was jealous at the features and games that they had. Fast forward a few years later, when I finally managed to acquire the Nokia 3350. This was a great little phone, and one of the best things about it was that it had Snake. Awesome, right?
After commencing my first year in university, I went on a phone-spending binge
Life after Nokia
It’s been seven years since I left what I still consider the best company I’ve ever worked for. Spending so many years working for Nokia definitely made a mark that is still with me to this day.
I’m
sure many of you would agree that the excitement and sense of accomplishment we all felt just before we released a new product was out of this world. From the first time you held a proto in your hands and got to play with the latest tech, to the first pictures taken with an N95 8GB, to the amazing music coming out of the 5800 or the fashion sense of the L’amour collection: these are things that will be embedded in our personalities for the rest of our lives.
With all these in mind, three years ago, I decided to leave the comfort of a steady job to pursue a long-held dream of mine: launching a company.
Nokia has been part of my life for many years now and still is today even through the transition I have supported Nokia throughout and now that we are back once more with Mobile Phone I think the relationship will last for many more years to come.
My Journey began with the Nokia 5110 from what I recall and from there on it was just a matter of learning, progression then loyalty.
I then began to collect Nokia devices for some unknown reason but I just recall their simplicity and how well they looked with the changeable fascias which was cool back then. I then noticed the phones where getting better year by year and said “HEY” I have quite a few of these devices sure why not keep going.