In the morning of January 16th, the Nokia Executive Experience Center is crowded with close to 90 students, hiring managers, demonstrators and other Nokia employees who have come to share their views and stories about working at the top tier technological innovation company. The atmosphere is vibrant with anticipation. Why? It’s time for Nokia Experience!
We helped Nokia organize an event called Nokia Experience to give tech-savvy students an opportunity to find out what is going on in the R&D branch of the technology giant, eat good food and network with Nokia’s employees. We had a chance to interview the people attending the event and get their insights about it.
What is Nokia expecting from the event?
So why have all these people been gathered here and what is Nokia looking to get out of the event? One of the masterminds behind Nokia Experience, Pia from Nokia’s HR sums up the key reasons for organizing it: “We wanted to cooperate with aTalent and we had a chance to use our Executive Experience Center. Since we have so many interesting positions open at the moment, we thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to combine all of these things, to invite a lot of excellent students and to tell them what Nokia is currently doing.”
Tarja, line manager at Nokia, explains her expectations for the day: “We were expecting a diverse group of knowledgeable people who are interested in what we are doing and want to join us! Currently we have a lot of openings for recent graduates, soon-to-be graduates, but also people looking for thesis opportunities, part-time jobs or summer jobs.”
Another one of Nokia’s employees attending the event is Niko, who has been busy all day talking to candidates. Niko currently works as a Cloud RAN DevOps Engineer at Nokia, but started out at the company as a trainee. He has an important role at the event – he’s there to really talk about the day-to-day work at Nokia. “I didn’t have any specific expectations for today apart from the hot dogs,” he says jokingly, “but it has been a really fun day, some variation to sitting behind the computer!”
What are the students expecting from the event?
Apart from Nokia’s perspectives, we wanted to know why the students had decided to attend the event. “Even the name, I mean it’s Nokia – so who wouldn’t want to attend this event? Basically I saw this advertisement about it on aTalent’s website and I wanted to jump into the bandwagon and come here,” Majedul, a software engineering student tells, us. His feelings about the event are very positive: “So far the event has exceeded my expectations. I didn’t think it would be so big!”
Meron, an electronics student, in turn was intrigued to attend the event due to hearing about Nokia’s new inventions: “I’ve been hearing that Nokia has been working on a couple of new things so I was interested to see which venture they were on!” She is excited to find out what more the day has to offer. “So far it seems pretty interesting and it’s based in Finland as well, so it has a pretty long tradition and history and I think it’s important to support local developments. Also as students it’s a perfect place to start.”
Many attendees are fascinated to find out more about Nokia’s new technologies and open positions. “Mostly I was very interested to learn about the technologies Nokia is using and possibly even gain a job.” Karar, a software engineering student, tells us. Israel, an electronics student, shares his expectations: “They have summer trainee positions and other entry-level positions open and I was looking for just those. At the same time I’ve heard about new gadgets coming from Nokia. So I came here to explore opportunities and to get inspiration because it’s a technology center after all!”
Most of the students even find the Executive Experience Center a worthwhile reason to join the event. “I wanted to come here to experience the Nokia Center and see what’s going on here and also what it looks like inside, because normally you don’t get to go inside!”, Lee, a media engineering student, says. “The premises are amazing!” Asabeneh, a software engineering student, adds.
Stephen, a software engineering student, thought Nokia Experience would be an excellent opportunity to meet the hiring managers. He is very happy with his decision to attend: “I’ve gotten quite detailed information about the positions I’m interested in from the managers. I think tomorrow I will send a CV to two positions that I liked and hopefully this will get me an interview faster!” Nokia has been a part of Stephen’s life from an early age: “My first memories about technology are about Nokia – my first phone was Nokia. I’ve had a couple of friends who have worked for Nokia as well who’ve had great experiences.”
Why should you apply to work for Nokia?
Pia explains her point of view why people should apply to work at Nokia: “Nokia is all about the human possibilities of technology – so not just the technology itself but what you can do with it.” She also appreciates the internationality of the company: “I find it really cool that we are such a global company. Even if you work here in Espoo, you have so many colleagues from all over the world! There are so many opportunities, so much you can do in a global company.” Nokia’s Recruitment Coordinator Meri adds to Pia’s point of view: “We have approximately 3000 people on this campus which means that there are also a lot of different roles, such as in HR, in finance, in IT.”
Niko finds Nokia a unique place to work at: “There are not that many companies where you get to work with such big and complicated systems. We are going forward all the time and constantly creating new things, I find it cool that we are the forerunners in the market and we sort of get to create the future.” Meri builds on Niko’s point: “Even though Nokia is a 150-year-old company it’s still cutting-edge for example with its digital healthcare products!” she says and shows us her Withings smartwatch, “we are not stuck to anything old!”
Why is Nokia then interested to hire so many young talents? “Even though Nokia is among the largest and most well-known players in its field, there is tough competition. That’s why it’s really important that we get fresh young talents to move us forward as a company – also for the sake of Finnish economy!” Tarja explains.
Who is the ideal candidate for Nokia?
What is Nokia then looking for in candidates? “First and foremost we’re looking for great people with a global mindset”, Meri says. Tarja in turn lists some of the characteristics Nokia wants to see in their applicants: “we’re looking for people who are capable and motivated to learn new things, co-operative, active and innovative. Of course with every open position there is a long list of competencies that are needed, but we don’t expect you to know all of them – you just need to be keen to learn!”
Niko shares Tarja’s view in this regard: ”You have to be up to constantly learning new things, I can’t really remember a day when I didn’t learn anything new working here! That’s one of the best things about working at Nokia, you get to develop yourself every single day.”
All the attendees are leaving the day feeling inspired. “We had a lot of great conversations with people and they had good questions for us as well. It went even better than I expected! Now, of course, we’re looking forward to the applications and interviews!” Tarja gushes.