Tag Archives: life

“FINLAND IS PROBABLY THE ONLY PLACE IN THE WORLD WHERE BEING A GEEK IS COOL”

Originally published in Finland My Home, a project highlighting the life histories of immigrants to Finland.

LUIS

I’m originally from Mexico City and I always knew I wanted to go abroad. I started learning English when I was in kindergarten. My generation in Mexico is the first generation who were actively taught English.

Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world and even if we have the Americans next door we haven’t actually liked them much. Until the 1980s Mexicans were very worried about the Americans; there wasn’t much of a relationship and we just tried to get along with our neighbour. Finland and Mexico both have big, potentially difficult neighbours. Finland has managed to handle its very well. Mexico was rapidly industrialising and the natural market was the US. Then in the 1990s, after NAFTA, kids would actively learn English if their family had the means.

I was not really interested in going to the US, so I started to think about Europe. I sent some applications to German universities. They have programmes in English as well – very good ones. I was going for IT or Mathematics, then a family friend of ours who was Finnish, suggested Finland. With the support of my family I first arrived here in 2000.


Luis: “I went from a little bit pampered middle-class kid to ‘mamu’”


It was the dawn of the Internet age then. I was ‘googling’ a little bit – I mean Nokia, Linux, IRC, this was in 1999. I thought Finland made sense. I didn’t know it at that time, but Finland is probably the only place in the world where being a geek is cool. Back then the polytechnics had something in English so I thought I wouldn’t have to learn Finnish right away; I could just go and start studying in English and get going.

My dream was to go to Finland and work for Nokia and already in my first summer I got a traineeship with Nokia. It was pure gold dust. In those days they couldn’t get good people fast enough, the business was growing like foam. For me to graduate I needed to have some hours of relevant work experience and so after the summer I took their offer to continue; eventually I ended up working for Nokia 11 years. During the last couple of years it meant studying and working at the same time. I was basically either at the university or the office. I wanted to get my career and to graduate well. Back then I had the stamina and drive to do that. I felt like a pioneer because there were so few foreigners in Finland; people didn’t use to come here.

It was funny, in Mexico I was middle class and then I came here and lived in a student flat in Kontula. It was not really middle class, and not only that, but people looked at you like you were beneath them – especially because I look a bit different. So I went from a little bit pampered middle-class kid to ‘mamu’. I mean, you know you are screwed when even other marginalised foreigners look at you weirdly.

There was one time we were in Oittaa with a Hispanic friend from Venezuela. We were doing 20 km and talking in Spanish about family and work and other stuff – in the middle of the forest, where you probably shouldn’t have two people being so loud. I remember the guys coming towards us looking at us, and then even the Somali skiers were looking at us funny. I don’t have too much of an accent in Finnish anymore and nowadays people would look at me funny because I sound a bit more local but don’t look local.


Luis: “Nowadays people would look at me funny because I sound a bit more local, but don’t look local”


Back in the day there were not that many foreigners around and people kept on asking, “Why are you here?” Well because I wanna be here. I don’t find it offensive anymore, but sometimes I don’t feel like telling my life story to strangers. So when people ask me, “Mistä sä oot kotosin? I would reply “Täältä” – from here – to get them to shut up. I mean, this is a bit of bullshit on my part, but logically at this point my body has renewed its cells in such a way that all my cells are now of Finnish produce. After all, I became an adult here and I’ve lived most of my adult life here. It’s home.

I met my wife at the university, almost immediately after I came – it was really weird. We took it really slowly before deciding to be together. That was the other thing, I was raised to be a gentleman and I felt quite uncomfortable with the straightforward approach here. A couple of times I even felt harassed by Finnish girls. It was like, “Yeah, you are hot, but I’m not interested.” My friends always thought I was being strange.

In 2006 I took one year to go to Belgium to study. I was tired of Finland; it weighs heavily on you. I had not seen that much of Europe by that time and I went to study business. At that point my career at Nokia had gone from slightly technical to not technical at all. I ended up going from digital products to sales. I was in Brussels and it was amazing, it’s the best-kept secret of Europe. It’s a lot of fun. Their sense of humour is very absurd, they laugh at absurdity. After that year I wanted to stay in Belgium, but there was nothing to fit me there. I would’ve needed to know French and Dutch. I learned both, but not on a level that was enough. I had a job waiting at Nokia anyway, so I thought I would just go back to Finland.


Luis: “I left Nokia in 2012; it was basically that the last one turns off the lights”


I had already proposed to my girlfriend and I came back from Belgium to get married and start a life together. The important thing for us is that we can have civil discussion, not drama or silence. It does not always work and you might be handling some level of stress or you had a bad day with the kids or a bad day at work. We know how to apologise and we know the lines not to cross. Now we have two kids together, they are 6 and 4, it’s awesome. The thing with multicultural couples is that if you don’t know how you want to raise your kids before you get them then you are in for a surprise. You have to share as equally as possible the workload of house and kids and stuff, if you don’t it easily goes downhill. This is something I see with Finnish couples. Through my wife’s family, I have got a lot of insight. They are great and I love them.

I left Nokia in 2012; it was basically that the last one turns off the lights. It was just before the Microsoft sale, and they gave me a package because I had been there for so long. After Nokia the Finnish economy was a black hole. I was a little surprised at how difficult it was to find a position in circles outside of my own, especially with a foreign background, but thankfully things worked out. Since I couldn’t really find something I liked, and we wanted to go on the next adventure, I took a job offer in Dubai and lived there almost 4 years with my family. Eventually that ran its course and it was time to return, so I told an old colleague to let me know if he heard of anything that would fit my profile. He said he knew some guys and so I contacted them. I had heard that they were just starting up, but they were cool and serious about what they were doing. After I came back I took two weeks off and I had a new job.

I think one of the harder things for me is that in Finland you are not supposed to have ambition, you are supposed to know your place. And you can’t think that you are better than anybody else. It’s not that I think I’m better than anyone else, but I will give things a try. For a long time at Nokia I was the youngest person in the team but I wanted to work, learn and develop professionally. I think it has changed a bit now, but I think there is still a little bit of a glass ceiling if you don’t speak Finnish. Everyone knows that Finland has a lot going for it, but we need to work to keep it. I also think that Finns need to learn to express their happiness. You don’t always know when a Finn is happy. It’s like “Okay man, you can let go. You can say if you need a hug.”


Interview by Peter Seenan recorded in Helsinki, Finland in 2017. If you wish to support our work in projecting the voices and achievements of immigrants in Finland please like our Facebook page and share Luis’s story. 

Goodbye 2013

In January I started at a new company and I was very excited.

In February our second son was born.

In March I was focusing on work while our sons kept on growing.

In April I had my first business trip in the new job to Copenhagen

May was Vappu and merryment

In June I went again to Copenhagen

Unfortunately, in July I had to start looking for new professional challenges again but since everyone else was on holiday in Finland we traveled to Mallorca to relax a bit.

In August I was full-time focused in finding a new position

The same in September

But the kids always made it worth it

By October, I knew what was in our future

By the end of the month we were ready to move

And since the beginning of November, we have been living in Dubai


Where the work has been very interesting. World-class stuff in an encouraging environment surrounded by digital experts in their fields who also know how to have fun.

In December, we visited Finland for Christmas

All in all we can sum up 2013 like this:

Personally: wonderful.
Professionally: challenging, but ending on a good note.

Nokia devices and services is gone, time for new beginnings for all

Nokia headlines

My social media streams this morning can be summed up with two German words: schadenfreude & besserwisser. So long and thanks for all the fish, Nokia.

Hang on, those still in the mothership.

My feeds are still full of Nokia-related stuff, and just watched another news broadcast with the story front and centre. Even if towards the end of my tenure it was not great, I can’t do more than feel thankful for the chances, the responsibilities, the crazy projects, the friends all over the place, the first-row seat in a globalised technological business and the memories. Many have said that it was the best business school you could ever have, and I have read of a sense of loss not only in Finland but for the whole of Europe. That’s how important what we built was.

It was not just a workplace: we believed and changed the world. Eventually the world caught up, and they will have to reinvent themselves. I will cheer on Nokians past & present, and will continue cherishing what that experience gave me.

Job searching in uncertain times

Looking for a job in the current job market (especially in Europe) is a daunting prospect. As someone who recently went through the whole process, I wanted to share with you what I learned. Bulletpoints galore.

  • Learn how to write a CV either with the help of blogs, books, outplacement courses or personalised help. Make sure it clearly describes responsibilities and measurable results if possible and that it is easy to read for someone who is not an expert in your area of expertise (like most HR departments).
  • Use the web. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date and that you know what does the system use when matching candidates and showing search results.
  • Use your networks, but don’t be annoying. Friends and acquaintances will naturally try to help you if they see a way to do so, don’t push it too much but give them the tools.
  • Have your elevator pitch ready.
  • If you don’t have a portfolio of projects you’ve done, make sure you create a compelling one!
  • Remember interviews go both ways so don’t take it as a life and death situation.  Interviewers smell (and are turned off by) desperation. You are also making sure you would like to join the interviewing company, so ask the questions that interest you and get a feel for the hiring manager/team. In time you will develop a “feel” for interviews.
  • Use all fact-finding tools at your disposal: company financial reports, LinkedIn profiles, Glassdoor…
  • Have a plan. Don’t succumb to despair, boredom or burnout.
  • If your life situation allows, widen your geographic scope: depending on your area of expertise there might be a place for you in Germany, Sweden, Singapore, the US, Brazil, Mexico, China, Finland…
  • Remember searching for a job is a full time job.
  • Evaluate your opportunities to freelance or become an entrepreneur.  That might also be a way to find a position you want by freelancing for that company first.
  • Remember the hidden job market.  Many, many positions aren’t advertised, get to those first through your network.
  • Relax every once in a while.  I know it is stressful, but wasting energy being stressed won’t help you.  As the Brits would have said in the event of a German invasion in World War II: “Keep calm and carry on”. 😉

Became a dad for the second time

Jorvin sairaala
The miracle of life and sleepless nights. They say it’s a little bit easier the second time around as you already know how to handle a baby and so far it’s proven to be the case. Also the marginal cost in terms of lifestyle changes is quite minimal, which was something I hadn’t thought about. 😉

Bienvenido, bebé.

Career planning in uncertain times

Career development
Related to the Me Mindmap for personal development, this is a simple model I’ve used to define what I want in my professional career and especially to evaluate job opportunities.  The weighting of each factor varies per person and also depending on what stage of your career you find yourself at, but at least those are the three main things to keep in mind.

  1. Tasks and expertise: Usually the only thing a job description will contain.  If you don’t like your job or you are not particularly good at it, you will not enjoy it.  Standard stuff.
  2. Team and environment: Depending on the job and the person this might be more or less important. As I am a very sociable person and I have seen what a noxious work environment does to you eventually, I tend to value this quite highly.
  3. Future development and match with own life plans: As said, not everybody wants to “go up in the organization ” (or would be good at it), so your position needs to match that.If there is an area of expertise you want to develop, make sure you can do so in/with your job.

The interesting part is then really listing all the possible influence factors for these three areas and then assigning priorities for each. While it sounds straightforward, it should help you understand what are the things you value professionally to make sure you are happy and perform in what you do.

TV for a multicultural toddler

Supposedly you shouldn’t expose small children to the evils of television, but we’ve been doing that in small doses. Programmes like Plaza Sésamo, Pikku Kakkonen, Mr Bloom’s Nursery and the Numtums seem to be our son’s favourites.

He’s so active that I don’t need to worry about him “getting sucked in” as he can only concentrate in 10 minute intervals and plays a lot in the house. I just want to make sure he gets as much exposure as possible to the three languages that are the most important for him. Furthermore, I prefer these programmes than, say, Nickelodeon, as they don’t feel so annoyingly commercial.

Apps and games for toddlers

There’s something about technology that tends to attract small kids if they are exposed to it.  Our son obviously notices that there’s smartphones, iPads and computers in the house and wants to use what we use.

Since nowadays all these technologies are touchscreen-based, operating them is a breeze: no more hard buttons to press, no more long times to wait, things just happen.  Therefore, we have felt quite comfortable with our toddler using the devices.  His favourite games and apps below.

GigglePad (Windows phone): Our lifesaver when our son started crying like a madman at night when he was 9 months old.  Tapping shapes, play phone and baby piano with a soothing voice and a couple of lullabyes.

Kapu Forest (iOS): Finnish-developed “toy” with little mini-games, a Jazz soundtrack and beautifully illustrated characters and settings. A must have if you let your toddler touch your iPad.

Miny Moe Car (iOS): Different mini-games related to an old 50’s car. Change the lightbulb, fill the tank, repair a tyre and take it for a ride. The two characters also make cute sounds when pressed, which is probably the most fun for a small kid.

Toca Doctor (iOS): Swedish developer Toca Boca has released a series of beautiful-looking games with no in-app purchases allowed. Repairing bones and getting rid of ticks was never so much fun.

Goodnight Safari (iOS): Beautiful e-book for going to bed. Just make sure your toddler knows to select the “read to me” option.

Word of warning: just like with TV or candies, make sure you set strict limits on how much they play at a time and overall. Thankfully ours is quite active so it’s not too much of a problem.

Biking with a small toddler: Burley Single buggy

As you may know, I drive very seldom but bike regularly except for the depths of winter. During some of my cycling trips I noticed some families with small children would have them in buggies attached to their bicycles. We now have one and it has proven very useful during the summer.

The buggy is big enough for our son to sit with enough space for some of his toys while also having a compartment in the back for fitting even a couple of bags for the road. Furthermore, it can easily get detached from the bike and turned into a more or less normal stroller.

While the buggy is not perfect (the seat is not great for when the toddler falls asleep, the stroller is difficult to lift to the bus, the brake is difficult to put) it has given us a freedom with the bikes we didn’t have before. Now we can bike to the summer house and take our clothes for the weekend with us. The buggy is also very safe and well tested, so it feels much more secure for our son than riding in a bike seat.

Leaving Nokia, looking for the next step

Leaving Nokia

The last day of August was also my last day at Nokia. After 11 years at the company I took the plunge just like some of my friends and colleagues.

A friend who left Nokia some years ago to found his own company has repeatedly said that working at Nokia is the best MBA you could ever have, and I tend to agree.

I worked in global and area roles, executed projects in tens of countries in some cases reaching millions of people in one of the fastest-moving industries in the planet. I shared projects with incredible people and had a chance to see the world. I worked in services product management back in the days of ringtones, in European sales when the N90, N73 & N95 redefined what a smartphone could be, in digital marketing launching internet services and in sponsorships when we ran the partnerships with the Fedération Internationale de Basketball and the World Rally Championship.

Even if it had its challenges, especially during the last few years, I will always be thankful for the chances I had and the friendships I made there. Thank you for the ride and for the lessons learned.

Now it is time to spend some time with my family, recharge my batteries, meet people and start forming an idea of what I want to do next. If the past is any indication, I know it will be tough but great.

If you want to know what I can do and would be interested in offering me an opportunity, there’s always my portfolio and LinkedIn. 😉