Oulu is a home to world-class tech­nol­o­gy

Atul Sax­e­na and Rafeeq Rafeeq both work at Nokia in Oulu. Atul is pas­sion­ate about engi­neer­ing and is ded­i­cat­ed to cre­at­ing state-of-the-art prod­ucts. Rafeeq relo­cat­ed to the city to join the team respon­si­ble for design­ing new elec­tron­ic sys­tems. Both appre­ci­ate the work-life bal­ance offered by Oulu’s serene envi­ron­ment.

Atul Saxena’s team works on prod­ucts for 5G and 6G telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions net­works. “That’s the front­line of high-tech inno­va­tion which I find immense­ly sat­is­fy­ing,” he says with a proud smile.

Rafeeq Rafeeq enjoys work­ing with world-class tech­nol­o­gy, design­ing chips to work with 5G and 6G mobile tech­nol­o­gy. “We oper­ate at the high end of telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion engi­neer­ing,” he says.

Both say that work-life bal­ance in Nokia is world class.

Atul is a tech­ni­cal man­ag­er at Nokia. He leads a team of six engi­neers. “I like cor­po­rate cul­ture here. First, the organ­i­sa­tion­al chart is quite flat,” he laughs. “Sec­ond, work-life bal­ance is very good.”

Mov­ing to Oulu has brought big changes also to Rafeeq’s life. In addi­tion to estab­lish­ing a work-life bal­ance, the hard­ware design­er from Hyder­abad has found a high-tech job that he’s pas­sion­ate about.

Job that involves glob­al expo­sure

“My team uses the soft­ware to make sure that new semi­con­duc­tor chips match the phys­i­cal envi­ron­ment they will oper­ate in,” says Rafeeq.

But why do we need to devel­op new chips all the time?

“What’s dri­ving devel­op­ment with regards to chips in Mobile Radio is the same that we have seen with proces­sors in mobile phones. We want to make them small­er, more cost-effec­tive and we want them to use less pow­er. At the same time, we want to put more func­tion­al­i­ty in them.”

“We oper­ate at the high end of
telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion engi­neer­ing.”

Rafeeq Rafeeq

Rafeeq says that design­ing chips to see if they meet the require­ments in their oper­at­ing envi­ron­ments is a reward­ing job that has the poten­tial to make a glob­al impact. He is keen­ly aware of the dif­fer­ence he can make for mil­lions of mobile phone users around the world.

Anoth­er fac­tor that boosts Rafeeq’s morale is that he feels like he’s a val­ued mem­ber of the team whose opin­ions are impor­tant.

“My man­agers val­ue my exper­tise and ask for spe­cial­ist view and appre­ci­ate my feed­back. I can reach out to any­one in the orga­ni­za­tion. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion is open and hon­est.”

Rafeeq has a fel­low Indi­an and a Nepalese col­league in his Oulu team and he also works with Nokia col­leagues Fin­land and oth­er coun­tries around the world. “In all my deal­ing with all these peo­ple of dif­fer­ent nation­al­i­ties, I’ve nev­er expe­ri­enced any dis­crim­i­na­tion or prej­u­dice. We’re all treat­ed equal­ly at Nokia. It’s a pleas­ant, wel­com­ing envi­ron­ment.”

Flex­i­ble work­ing and fam­i­ly time

Atul believes flex­i­ble work­ing at Nokia cre­ates a win-win sit­u­a­tion. “It allows me to sup­port my fam­i­ly prop­er­ly because I’m at home when my kids come home from school.

Atul’s wife, ten-year-old daugh­ter and eight-year-old son have all set­tled into their new lives in Oulu very eas­i­ly. “They’re all very hap­py. I am the only one who gets a bit home­sick at times,” admits Atul.

“I love walk­ing in the for­est in Oulu. It’s an expe­ri­ence that gives you a feel for nature.”

Atul Sax­e­na

Atul says his wife has found ser­vices to help immi­grants set­tle, find work, and learn the Finnish lan­guage very help­ful. “There’s strong sup­port for inte­gra­tion in Fin­land.”

“There’s equal oppor­tu­ni­ty in Fin­land for every­one. My wife will start look­ing for a job when she’s fin­ished her course — some­thing she would not have been able to do in Malaysia”, he con­tin­ues.

Atul’s chil­dren go to Oulu Inter­na­tion­al School: an IB (Inter­na­tion­al Bac­calau­re­ate) school run by the City of Oulu. It’s free to attend and the lan­guage of tuition is Eng­lish.

“There’s less pres­sure at school on chil­dren than there is in India. School is less com­pet­i­tive. One thing I real­ly appre­ci­ate is how much Oulu Inter­na­tion­al School sup­ports learn­ing for­eign lan­guages. For exam­ple, my chil­dren attend Hin­di class­es.”

Enjoy­ing the great out­doors

Accord­ing to Atul, pris­tine Arc­tic nature is anoth­er big attrac­tion in Oulu.

“Oulu is a city in the for­est. Nature is at your doorstep and it’s so easy to explore the forests, lakes and the sea­side. They’re awe­some in every sea­son.

Atul loves jump­ing on his bike to go to the for­est with his fam­i­ly to pick blue­ber­ries and lin­gonber­ries in the sum­mer and autumn.

“But I don’t just cycle. I also love walk­ing in the for­est in Oulu. It’s an expe­ri­ence that gives you a real feel for nature.”

Rafeeq and his fam­i­ly also enjoy explor­ing the Finnish coun­try­side and spend time in the beau­ti­ful nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment sur­round­ing Oulu.

The recre­ation area of Koitelinkos­ki on the Kiiminki­jo­ki riv­er, just 25 km from the cen­tre of Oulu, is a fam­i­ly favourite.

The area con­sists of small islands which divide the riv­er into small­er streams and rapids.

“I was amazed to see how close you can go to the water on wood­en planks. There are lots of bar­be­cue places that any­body can use at any time of the year, even in the win­ter when there’s a lot of snow.”

Eri­ka Benke

Nokia cre­ates tech­nol­o­gy that helps the world act togeth­er. Are you open to join­ing Nokia?

Read more about work­ing in Oulu