Career move after a long time

I have been working in Ericsson for more than 8 years. Basically this is my only industrial career in Finland. After I finished my study I started working in Ericsson in 2010 and since then I have been here. Never looked around for other opportunities. Overall, I was quite happy because of the nice working environment and great colleagues. Now it is time to see something new outside Ericsson. From next week I will be Working for Unikie.

Today is my last working day in Ericsson. I have to return that badge which I have been carrying with me since 2010. I will miss many friends which I have made over the time. I wish all the best for Ericsson's future.




Programming Solution

Window seat challenge

We had to change our seating arrangement at work. Our team is going to start in a new business area along with several other teams. The management decided to put all those teams quite close to each other. So a new area has been furnished to accommodate all those teams.

Now the question is which team will seat beside window and which team will sit beside aisle? Well, we could have a raffle draw but we are not that boring people. So we decided to have some events to choose the winner, runner up and so on to decide who is going to choose first, then second and so forth. Actually it was Kari Erola's idea and we agreed right away.

There were four teams and each team was asked to propose one event according to their strength. Since my team mates saw me playing table tennis they suggested that we could propose table tennis. So from our team it was table tennis double games. 3 other proposals from other teams were fast chess(5 minutes each side), foosball, and noble game of running.

In each category the gold winner gets 7 points, silver 4, bronze 2 and 4th place team gets 1 point. In table tennis, opponents were chosen by lottery. 2 losers will play for bronze and 2 winners will play for gold. The chess also went the same way. Fusball was in round robin fashion. Games were 5 minutes long. Winner gets 2 points, loser gets 0. If it's tied each side gets 1 point. At the end of the round robin the points are accumulated which decides who won gold, silver and bronze. The running was really interesting. You have to run 150 meters, open a can of beer(non alcoholic), drink it and run back that 150 meters. There one representative from each team.

I participated in all the events from our team. In table tennis and foosball I had partners but chess and running I had to do alone. The first event was chess. I managed to get the bronze there. Then table tennis and of course we won the gold since it was our strength :P Then come the foosball and after the round robin our team won bronze again. Among the 3 games I played in only 1.

The last event was running and we went outside. The rule was explained and we 4 went to the start line. With the ring we started to run and suddenly realized that I haven't run sprint for a long time. After 10 seconds I found myself the last guy there. I reached the beer can point at last when all 3 runners were already drinking from their can. I opened my can, took my first sip and the first guy already took off from there making his can empty. I was thinking I have to drink this faster. So I took a big sip, still couldn't finish it. Then a small third sip made the can empty and I started running back while the other 2 guys were still struggling with their beer. I ran as fast as I could since I knew that they were fast runners than me. But finally I could manage to finish as second :) It was pretty tough and I was totally out of breath after the run. But I enjoyed it so much.

After all the event the points were calculated and it seemed that our team ended up being second with 15 points. The champion team got 18 points in total. All in all, it was a nice 2 hours event full of fun. After the event we went to the new team area and choose the place one by one according to the position in events. So we haven't got the window area but we choose the next place after that. But it was not about the seating area. I don't think people care that much about the seating area in office but it was just having some fun in a very busy afternoon which made everybody compete, support, fight and laugh. One thing I will remember for a long time. I forgot to bring running shoe, so I was very unhappy that I had to run with my boots on. Then suddenly Jarmo took off his shoes and told me to try those because they were like sneakers and obviously softer than mine. I tried but they were so loose. His feet are bigger than mine. Interesting, never thought that my colleague will give me his shoes to wear :P



Programming Solution

Got new mobile phone

I just got a new mobile phone from my office. It's a Sony Xperia Acro S. I have been waiting for this phone for over a month now. Finally I got it today. What a nice start of weekend :)

My previous mobile's touch screen stopped working last month. I returned the phone to our secretary and my manager told me that I can order a new phone. Our secretary provided me a list of few android based handset. I already knew that a new Sony model is coming in August. So I kept my patience and decided to wait for it. It was released in Asia in the first week of August but it took some time to come to Europe. Last week our secretary informed me that this phone is available to order now. I took the offer right away. At first I thought it wouldn't take more than 3 days but it took a week since it was coming from Sweden.

There are mainly three reason for choosing this phone. Aside from the smart look and high processing capability this handset i) is water and dust resistance which is totally new feature for a mobile handset, ii) has a scratch resistance shatter proof glass (scratch resistance is not new but shatter proof is something new in mobile phone) and iii) has a very powerful camera (12.1 mega pixel and HD video of 1080p). I am not going to tell about other features since you can find those in several other mobile phones. If you wanna check the full specification go here.

For last one month I have been using a very old Nokia phone which comes with button keypad and you can do very basic thing like making call and sending text with it. I was eagerly waiting to taste the new Sony Android phone. However I haven't missed smart phone much for this period. My 25 minutes long bus journey in the morning became more visual - I see more, hear more and also I observe my surrounding more. I hope the new phone will make my life easier but won't help me to turn into a zombie in the street with an earphone on always :)

Programming Solution

Finally weekend came, now it's almost gone

Weekend feels much better after hell of a week like last one. It was a very busy week for me. The week started with the event "World Class Team" in Siuntio in a hotel. It was organized by our office. It was a two days event. We stayed overnight on Monday. The room was quite spacious and cozy with a balcony. The event ended on Tuesday afternoon. There were several nice discussion session, lots of food and drinks, sauna, swimming, billiard and so on. I must say that it was a nice event and I enjoyed every bit of it.

On Tuesday I had a badminton match in the afternoon. So I went to play badminton straight from Siuntio. I played for an hour and then came back home with a very tired body.

The next morning, Wednesday, I had a business trip to Sweden. My flight was at 8 O'clock in the morning. My home is quite far from the Helsinki airport. So I had to wake up so very early to be in the airport in time. I woke up around 04:30 and took the 05:20 train. The flight was quite short, only 50 minutes. The office gave us business class, so we got nice refreshments. We reached in Kista Ericsson office in Stockholm around 08:45 local time. Then starting from 9 we had whole day meeting until 4 O'clock in the afternoon. The meetings were quite fruitful. We had nice lunch and several coffee break. The coffee from vending machine there is better than in our office here in Finland. Our return flight was at 18:00. On the way back the flight was even shorter, about 40 minutes. We reached Helsinki airport at 20:00 local time. Good that we took taxi to home, so I reached home being totally exhausted.

On Thursday I went to work, was quite busy at work and I had another badminton match on that day. It was my last match in this round and I must win to enter into group 2, which was my target since I started playing badminton in LMF badminton club. Thursday's match was really tough. The opponent is almost of my quality. I had hard times to win against him but finally I managed somehow with a set 2-1. After playing for an hour with him another employee from our office asked me if I wanna play more because he has a reservation. I agreed and I played another half an hour. He is also a tough opponent. I could hardly walk after playing one and half hours in a row. On Friday morning I could feel every muscles of my body when I tried to move. I had to leave office early, around 16:00, because I was really tired. Finally the weekend came and it felt so good :) Weekend feels so good after such a hectic week. Now it's almost over again. It's Sunday evening now. Need to prepare mentally for tomorrow's work. Good that I have got an invitation in Khokon da's house to watch the Final match of ice hockey championship between Finland and Sweden. I will go watch the game there and most probably stay overnight. His home is quite close to my work place. Most probably I will go to office from his home tomorrow morning :)



Programming Solution

Going to start with a new team

Last two weeks was really different at work. Many changes took place - people were leaving, organizational structure was changing, teams were being restructured and so on. I was also inside the scope. In the end I have been offered an opportunity to work with another team. The new team is going to work with Radio Network. I still don't have the big picture but everybody said it's good to work there because it's the main focus area these days. So next week I am going to shift to the new team and from the beginning of April I will start working there. I would obviously miss my old team mates. Good that I would sit near by, so I can visit them quite often :)



Programming Solution

Survived from getting sacked

It's been two months now that Ericsson is negotiating with the union about the possible lay off of employees in Finland. The negotiation ended last week. It was a successful negotiation from employees' point of view in a sense that the number reduced to 37 from 90. Today was the big day to let all the employees know the final decision.

The environment was very awkward since this morning. People gathered in small groups in the terrace and were talking to each other. Everybody was tensed what was going to happen. The bosses started talking with people from 10 O'clock. I got call from my boss around 1 PM. Luckily I survived means I didn't get sacked. Unfortunately two guys from our team has been sacked and one of them is Peter :( I am not worried about Peter. He is competent enough to find a good job within few months. But I feel really bad about it. Peter has been my closest friend in the office for several months now. We used to work together, have fun together and most importantly share the events of our lives which is very unlikely for a Finnish guy. I can't be happy today because Peter is leaving and I am gonna miss him terribly in the office. I am loosing another very good friend. People I like are getting away from me one by one. It doesn't matter whether it's intentional or inevitability, the fact is I am loosing them :(


Programming Solution

Panjabi day at work :)

We had a panjabi day at work today. It was our sprint planning day. Peter and me attened our planning meeting wearing panjabi and we were wearing it until the end of the day. Let me tell you the whole story.

While coming back from Dhaka this time, I brought a panjabi for Peter and a fotua for his wife, Nicken. I gave those to him on last Sunday. Looks like they liked the dress. On that night he sent me a mail telling that how about two of us wearing this dress in office to surprise everybody. I agreed and we selected the sprint planning day to be blessed which was today :)

We arrived at work in normal outfit like jeans and shirt. Our daily scrum meeting is at 10 O'clock. At 9:55 our product owner and our scrum master came to our team space. Peter and me left the team space, found some quiet place in terrace, put on the panjabi over our shirt and came back. Everybody was looking at us with a strange look. Our product owner and scrum master were smiling. Aila screamed what it is. Peter answered it is our sprint planning uniform :P Everybody laughed :D

After the daily we discussed about our upcoming user stories and then we tried to spit the work in many stickers. We finished around 11 O'clock and I proposed to have lunch somewhere outside. Everybody agreed to go to a chinese restaurant. I wanted to take my panjabi off but Peter said "hey it's for the entire day", so we went to lunch in that dress :) When we reached at the restaurant people were looking at Peter mostly, not me becuase I look like asian but he doesn't. We finished our lunch and came back at 01:30 PM. Peter went to some shop to buy some of his building stuffs. I went to the sprint planning meeting with other teams straight and I was the only one there in this unusual dress among 15 people. Everybody was looking at me. Feeling a bit embarrassed I sent a text to Peter telling "Don't you dare change your dress before coming to the meeting room". Well, he came 15 miinutes later and I got relief because he didn't change. Now people are smiling looking at him and me again and again. It was fun :)

The good thing is I didn't forget to take picture of us in this dress. I am sharing two pictures here for you to see how did we look in the office today :P





The reason why Peter put his hands like that is he wanted to look spiritual in the picture :P





Behind the high table in team space



Programming Solution

Innovation session

Today we had an interesting innovation event in our team. Our innovation coach, Peter, arranged this session. It was actually playing a game together. To him, you need to think a bit out of the box to innovate, and this game helps people to think out of the box.


We, 8 persons (7 team members and our manager), gathered together in a conference room at 9 O'clock in the morning. Peter gave us a short speech about the session at the beginning and then we started playing game. The name of the game is Karoshi. It is developed in Japan. In Japanese language Karoshi means DEATH FROM OVERWORK. The objective of the game is to kill yourself. In every stage you have to find out a way to do so. Some of the stages are really puzzling, you have to think a lot to figure out the way to kill yourself. And, when you figure out the way, you will just say YESSSSSSSSSS. At least that's what I was hearing in the conference room today. There were people aged from 28-58 but everybody expressed joy when he/she figured it out.


It was a two hours session, it was fun. To me, this kinda session adds team spirit to people. I liked the game also, at least it makes your brain think to solve something which you might like :) If somebody wants to try it, here is the link for online flash version which is not good as the desktop version but you can at least try to see how it is :)



Programming Solution

Probation period is over

I didn't notice that the probation period in my new job is over with the end of September. This morning I remembered that it's already October and so I am not in probation period anymore. It made me feel a bit better after being so down in last couple of days.



Programming Solution

New office update

I haven't given any update about my new office since I started working here on July 1. So I decided to give you a virtual tour to my office. I took these picture around 6 PM, so the office looks deserted. Let's start :)





From distant place while walking towards my office. I think you can see the office building quite clearly from here.





The office football field just in front of the office building.





The pathway to the office building.





That is the main entrance.





Another building, I sit in this building.





A terrace after entering through the main entrance.





The place of my team. We eight people sit here.





Our scrum board, quite messy :D





This big window is just beside our team. Good for us, we do not have any scarcity of natural light :)





Place for another team seen from our place.





The long corridor in the middle. Different teams are located in both sides of this corridor.





Stair to a meeting room.





This terrace is just in front of our block. Natural trees everywhere :)





A small kitchen in one side of the terrace.





The kitchen from the other side, looks like a tea stall :D





The smoking room. I don't smoke, so I never had chance to go inside of that room.





Small place at the end of the terrace to have a chit-chat or for reading magazine.



Programming Solution

First day at new job

It was my first day at the new job. I went to office around 0830 am by train. I got the access key and then my manager started to introduce necessary places and guys in the office. I went to so many places with him. I forgot most of those :P For sure I need couple of weeks to make myself familiar with the geography of the building. From 0930 am he started a presentation. We took our lunch break at 11 am. Other three managers joined us in cafeteria. I am not used to take lunch this early but I had no other choice. We had a chit-chat during lunch. Since I am the new guy most of the time they were talking to me. After lunch my manager continued his presentation till 2 pm. After that I got all my stuffs - desk, computer, mobile phone, necessary documents. As it was my first day I was having look to different internal system. I already found loads of documents cluttering up on my desk but I didn't started to have a look in those today. May be from tomorrow I will start going through those documents. Today it was quite a busy day. I felt so tired when I left the office around 0545 pm.



Programming Solution

Got new residence permit with category A

From my last post you came to know that I have got a full time job. After signing the contract I applied for a new residence permit of category A. Previously I was holding a Finnish residence permit of category B. All international students hold that category. With category B you can work only part time. Only exception is the university. If you work in the university as a research assistant then you can work full time with a B category visa. Since I am going to start my work from July I needed to change my status from B to A.


I applied on Tuesday, 3 days back. The girl in the police office counter told me it would take 5-6 weeks. Later that day I sent her email telling that I need it urgently because I will shift to Helsinki soon. This morning when I opened my email inbox I found her mail and she said the decision is made already, I can pick the residence permit on any working day. I was quite amazed to see it's ready only withing three days. I didn't make any delay. I went to police office with my passport and the girl attached the visa. It's a category A residence permit and will be valid for a year.


Here is my new residence permit. The one as upside down is the previous one.






Programming Solution

Got a job in Ericsson

I have been hunting for permanent job for several months. After all those efforts, today I finally signed a job contract. My employer is Ericsson. I will be working in Research and Development centre of Ericsson in Finland as a software developer. The job will start from July, 2010.


As I heard from my senior brothers here it is really difficult to get an interview call. I applied for lots of open positions in many companies but, so far, I got only 2 interview calls. One was in Nokia and another one is in Ericsson. The Nokia guy interviewed me over the phone for an hour. After 2 weeks time the guy informed me (of course when I called him, they don't usually call unless there is positive result) that I am in second position in his list and for that position they are going to hire only one guy. If the guy, who is their first choice, would reject the offer or unable to accept, in that case, they will offer me the position. I never called him after hearing that, neither did they tell me anything.


The second interview was with Ericsson in the second week of April. It was an in-person interview and I had to go to Helsinki to attend the interview. This interview lasted for one and half hours. There were two guys. All three of us were discussing about so many things. After two weeks of this interview one of those guys called me and said if I am still interested to join Ericsson they will offer me the position. They ask me to join from June, 2010. Unfortunately I cannot start from June since I am working in my department at the university. I explained the situation to them and after considering the situation they allow me to start from July. So we agreed when we are going to sign the contract and today is that very day.


After signing the contract, I went to see the apartment where I am going to move in. I also made the deal with the guy there. It was a very long day for me - I have done lots of things, so far seems successfully. Now I have to start preparing other stuffs I have in my hand. The first thing is patching up my masters thesis before leaving Tampere. I hope I can finish that on time.

At a glance, my interview experiences in Finland are as following:

1. Very less technical question
2. The employer wants to see the person's dedication and interest to the specified job.
3. I think, as a candidate, just answering the questions is not an impressive approach, rather participating in the discussion is much better. If possible, asking them relevant questions at times is a rule of thumb to me.


Programming Solution

Got a job in the university again

This is the other update that I was talking about in my previous post. Yes, I have got a job as a research assistant again in my university. I got the confirmation on 1 April and I started from 6. I was quite busy last week to tell about this here. This time it's a four months' full time contract. So the contract will end at the end of July, 2010. Wish me luck for my new job. I hope it will go smooth.


Programming Solution

Last day at work

Six months back I started to work in the university as a research assistant. My contract was for six months and today is the last day of that contract. It's like I am writing a paragraph on "Last day at school" in an English exam during my secondary school life :)

Like everyday, today I came to office as usual. I didn't do any work the whole day. I had meeting and then I was busy in arranging my folders and documents. If I had to return the laptop today then I need to transfer all my personal stuffs from here. Since 2 pm I have been looking for my supervisor and for the secretary but they were not available. Finally I got my supervisor in his room around 5 pm and I went to tell him that it's my last day at work. He thanked me to work with him and mentioned that he will let me know if he has some other work for me. He also said that I can keep the laptop until I finish my thesis. So I need not to return the laptop today :D

Right now I am preparing to leave the office. Since I could not meet the secretary today I have to return the key tomorrow. Before that I need to take all my personal stuffs from this room. Time just flies. Six months just passed so quickly.


Programming solution

Got diploma for volunteering

The European Youth Olympic Festival organizing committee gave us a diploma for working as volunteers during the festival. In my certificate it is written that I worked 18-25 July as a volunteer in 10th European Youth Olympic Festival in Tampere, Finland. In the recommendation letter they said I worked 8 hours per day. I don't know where will I use this certificate in future but still it gave me good feeling when I received the diploma.




Here is the diploma they gave all the volunteers





Here is the recommendation letter from the volunteer manager




Programming solution

EYOF 2009 and volunteering

Its been long time I am not posting in my blog. Somehow I could not manage to write here. I think now its time to start writing again :)


Tampere is arranging the European Youth Olympic Festival(EYOF) this year. This youth olympic held in every 2 years. All the athletes must be under 19 to participate. This year 49 countries are participating. I always have interest about this kinda big sporting activities. When I heard about it I was excited to see it live because my university is inside the olympic village. So as soon as I heard they need lots of volunteers to make it a nice event I went to the website at once and applied for it. They approved me and now I am a part of this EYOF 2009.


I became an eco advisor. I have to encourage all the athletes, team members and also the spectators to be environment friendly. Where to put the waste and how, means in exact position - bio waste and plastics should not be mixed up. All these wastes will be recyled later and bio fuel will be produced from these so if those are mixed up it will be difficult to recycle. Beside being an eco advisor I also got chance to be a volunteer in the opening ceremony in Tampere ice hall. I was a spectator guide there. It was really a nice experience to see the opening ceremony live. It was a short but very nice program.


I became a volunteer just to be a part of this festival. I didn't know that there are some benefits as well. I got nice volunteer outfit - Tshirt, 3/4 trousers, cap and back pack. They gave an ID card to all the volunteers and with that we get free lunch in one of the restaurent here in the olympic village from 13-30 July. This card is also working as my bus pass during the festival. I need not to pay in any bus inside Tampere. Nice benefits huh :D The best part is I get to know many people by this. Lots of people came from many countries and I have to work with them. There will be a grand party for all the volunteers when the festival is over. Hopefully it will be a nice party with lots of foods :)




Programming solution

First week of my work

Its been a week that I joined my work. I wrote about the first day before. After that my room is changed. They allocated me a new room. Another person was already in that room. So I have to share the room with him but he didn't show up yet. Since this is the beginning I am gathering idea about my work and do necessary document review. I will try to give update from time to time. Let's have a look in my room.




This is my desk





Me, reviewing some documents.




Programming solution

First day in my job

Today I joined my job in the university. In the morning I attended the weekly meeting. To my amazement everybody talks in Finnish language in this meeting. I was just sitting in one corner and having coffee. after half an hour the secretary who was sitting beside me told me to introduce myself. I greet everybody in Finnish laguage(Huomenta - goodmorning), told my name, country, my program, my project etc. The meeting was short. At the end, one of the teachers came with his new born baby and a big cake. Everybody was seeing the baby in the perambulator and then had the cake.

After the meeting, the secretary showed me my room. The laptop is not yet ready and my professor was extremely busy with a training program. So I had nothing to do and I decided to come back home. At 12 afternoon I came back. I had a scheduled meeting with my professor and other team members at 5 pm. So I went to the university again before 5. In the meeting, my professor explained the main goal of the project and his plan about it. I was hearing carefully but it sounded so difficult for me and I am kinda afraid if I will be able to help the team as they expect me to do.

The first day was nothing special. I even didn't enter into my room. Hopefully tomorrow I will get my laptop and I can spend some time in my room.




Programming solution

Got a job in the university as Research Assistant

You know I came from Oulu suddenly to attend a meeting with my professor. I met the professor today and he formally let me know that he is going to take me as a Research Assistant under his supervision. My joining date is June 1, 2009 means next Monday.


Today the professor introduced me with the secretary of our department and she helped me to do the procedural stuffs. I had to fill up few forms. Next Monday she will give me the key of my room and then the laptop that I will use for my work.


Its a 6 months' contract as a full time worker(weekly 37.5 hours). So from next Monday I will sit in a tiny room in my university from 9 to 5 and hopefully my 3 months' long summer vacation wont go in vain :)




Programming solution