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Friday, December 18, 2009

Leaving London for Berlin - Nokia Gate5

This is just a quick post. First of all, my apologies about my recent absence: you have not even a rough idea about how busy I have been these days ...
Everything is a rush, but if "the rush" is for a good cause it's just a pleasure!
I am organizing my relocation which means I need to close contracts here, flat included, bills, sort out any kind of paperwork I need to leave UK in basically 2 weeks, while I am working, and I still have no idea where I gonna sleep, where I gonna move, but it does not matter: I can't wait to start this new role in Nokia!

Why Nokia

To be honest, I had different choices, but Nokia company in my opinion has been:

Perfectly Organized

When you have to deal with big companies you deal with teams, and in this case I had the opportunity to meet extremely interesting teams and persons while somebody else is not even able to organize their recruitment, putting online "We Are Looking For ..." while they have "all they are looking for" in that moment in the conference, but for another role that does not even match my CV ... FAIL! Big or not, if you have a database it does not matter if somebody has been already interviewed ... isn't it?

Mobile Device Development

It is already the present in USA and it's gonna definitively be the future everywhere.
I cannot take IE and IE6 anymore and moving into mobile where browsers are already better than IE8 and things must be perfect, since the CPU is not powerful, the RAM is never enough, and even the battery life is crucial, can you imagine any other JavaScript sector where every single coma and "var" matters?

Modest and Nice

Even if it's a sector leader, Nokia never gave me the impression they were feeling somehow superior (or that kind of impression such: they are doing you a favor interviewing you ... you know what I mean?)
Trust me when I say that another company "could" ask you during an interview something like: who do you think is the best company in the world?
First of all I do believe that if a company asks these kind of questions it means the company has serious problems ... ask me, whoever you are, which is the best IT company and I will reply in 0.01 milliseconds and as an honest person: Google FFS!!!

Unfortunately, the interview was not with Big G (trust me, I've tried, but they keep ignoring me in London, Victoria ... and moreover, I don't think they actually develop mobile related stuff there ... so you know what? ;) )

Quick

When you are perfectly organized, you are able to do everything instantly and for me this means that a company cares about you and does not have much time to waste with internal bureaucracy: things simply work as expected!

Marry Christmas

This goes to all WebReflection readers, to all Londoners I have met during these 2 years, and to Nokia as well for the kind guide they sent me in order to show me Berlin beauty in English, because there is only one thing I am a bit worried about: I don't know German at all! It's gonna be fun :D

P.S. I am looking for a senior JavaScript to replace me in this current amazing company I am working with - interesting challenging stuff - agile environment - and a new project to manage: leave me a message with your email and a brief description and I swear you gonna like this place in London Bridge: come on guys!

11 comments:

Alsanan said...

Hi Andrea! Congrats for the changes. I hope that they be for a better living.

BTW, at the moment I consider that Nokia/Symbian, just as Windows Mobile, are both dead. I hope that a Javascript expert can help to reborn Nokia as a web platform as Palm has done. Time is going against Nokia and every second counts.

Good luck!

Andrea Giammarchi said...

I can't tell you anything specific since I am not suppose to ... now, try to imagine they hired me because of my JavaScript skills, and forget I gonna work over Symbian ;)

Anonymous said...

Congrats Andrea. Do you talked to Alexander Grosse? I had an interview with them 9 months ago. Was very interesting for me as well and one of the best interviews I ever had. Give him my regards if you see him. Good luck in Berlin!

Andreas said...

hi andrea! you don't know german at all? never mind, i as born berliner am not understood in most places here as well ;-)
so don't worry - as long as you come along with at least the very minimum in english, you'll be all fine.
(best hint: use some free time now and then and have a visit to the "real", grown places of berlin off the center quarters)
greetings, from pankow, berlin.
cheers - andreas aka. ta2edchimp.

Aaron Heckmann said...

Congrats and good luck Andrea!

Andrea Giammarchi said...

Thanks guys - Andreas, I will ;)

Oleg Slobodskoi said...

Welcome to Germany. If you need help - just say.

Unknown said...

Ciao Andrea, Tanti e sinceri auguri per tutto quello che fai e farai.

Buon Natale e prospero anno nuovo

Piero.mac

Andrea Giammarchi said...

grazie mille Piero, auguri anche a te!

Web development London said...

The post is about Nokia and im a nokia user as well, thanks for this nice post and keep this effort up.

Unknown said...

Hello
Nice to see you targeting for a new adventure.
I will have an interview also for javascript position in Berlin.
Could you sell me some good points?
How was the interview? What about the technical interview?
How was the group panel interview if you had one?
Thanks and respect.