What is it like being a woman engineer at Nokia?

It is very intimidating at first to see that most of my colleagues are men, especially that there is this notion that men excel in Engineering more than women but I was glad to see that I was at par with my teammates. I appreciate it too that we understand and respect each other equally and that there is no sense of division caused by what your gender may be.

I'm not an Engineer, but I can tell you that Nokia is committed to working on Diversity & Inclusion, from the recruitment process and all the way through development and career growth. We know there are some areas where the female population is smaller, but we would love to increase those numbers and we are working on different programs globally to make that happen.

I am not an engineer so I cannot comment on that angle. But I think women engineers are very common in Nokia. In fact, I think NOT being an engineer (whether you are man or woman) is more uncommon. The tech industry is tilted in gender split towards majority male by far, so most often I find myself in a room full of men, being the only woman. I think in Nokia this is more a question of volumes of employees than attitudes; which I feel are quite neutral. But it does help that as a woman in this industry you absolutely have to know what you're talking about, especially if you don't have a technical background.

As women engineer worked in NOKIA, I feel I could get equal opportunity for career development. In Nokia, I met many excellent females in technology areas, they developed very well, and gender diversity is quite supported. Simply saying, I always forget I am a women in the work, because we are truly equal.

I'm not a woman. When we say the engineer in our sector, it is understood that it is only a man's job, which is a very wrong perception. Not only in our sector, but also in other sectors, women need to play an active role. Because women don't really have a job that they can't handle. Their perspective is different and these differences allow us to look at things from a wider perspective. I believe that this opinion will lead to a further discussion in any field, thanks to the high quality discussion environment created by these differences.

This might be different depending on the the team/country/etc, but I'll share my own experience.
I work in the Layer1 Software development team in the Finland (Espoo) office. The team is made up mostly of men, so when I joined I was expecting for a long time to feel some kind of different treatment. However, I can honestly say that it has not happened at all. I feel like I am treated exactly the same as everyone else who joins the team, and judged only by my competencies and skills. I feel respected , trusted, and relied upon, not more and nor less than if I were a man.

I do not have first-hand perspectives of what it is like for a woman of colour working at Nokia. Thus, I asked some of the women of colour with whom I work for their feedback to your inquiry. Here is one person's response: "As a black woman who has more than 30 years in the company I can say it has been and continues to be interesting. In light of todays environment we are working with executives to help Nokia to become more aware for the need of increased levels of inclusion relating to African Americans. Some progress has been made and we continue to work to make more strides in this area. Not there yet, but the fact that we are getting face time and can see some results shows that it’s headed in the right direction. I would say there is opportunity as a black woman to make your mark in the company as many African American have and continue to contribute to the success of the company and we’re very proud of that."

Here is the perspective of another woman of color at Nokia to your question: Being a woman of color has definitely impacted the experiences, encounters, and opportunities that I’ve had at Nokia. Over my 35 year tenure, I can honestly say my knowledge, skill set, and experience were key to being assigned certain projects and eventually promoted. I’ve learned that in some cases, the rules of the engagement are not always the same, equal or fair for a woman of color. So, I quickly learned one has to take charge of their career, build alliances, keep non-supportive people at bay and find initiatives, organizations, and programs where I felt personally fulfilled. Nokia is putting forth a good effort and focus on improving cultural awareness, expanding Diversity & Inclusion beyond gender diversity, and making the workplace more reflective of the world we live in.

Thank you so much for the insightful and helpful responses.

You're welcome.

Here is one additional response to your inquiry. This perspective comes from the Director, a woman of color, to whom I report in Nokia: As a black female who has been with the company for 38 years, my tenure has been challenging, exciting, sometimes frustrating, but overall fulfilling. I have worked in several different job areas and I have to admit to learning a great deal on each assignment. I am proud to say I have enjoyed my time with the company and have seen many changes throughout the years; some positive, and some not so much. My career has been rewarding, but realize nothing came easy or was freely given to me. I was blessed to have some strong black females in the company serve as mentors to me during my early years. Those strong and intelligent black females helped pave the way for me, and I appreciate the company allowing me to work with these ladies. I learned early on to work hard and do a good job at any task presented to me. I also learned to always be prepared for anything assigned to me, even if this required me to work long hours and sometimes weekends. A very positive thing for me was having some excellent bosses who supported me and allowed me guilt-free time with my family. Overall, I am proud of my time with the company and the many good people I have known over the years. I have seen some positive changes for people of color and females which allowed me to reach the level of Director. The company now has a focus on diversity and inclusion which are definite steps in the right direction.

Nokia has global and local country employee resource groups (ERGs) for women, non-binary, and other underrepresented groups . These ERG groups work together to support the inclusion and equality within all employees at all levels and job functions within the organisation not only engineers and software developers - even though STEM field is of specific interest. At a global and local level, each country has diversity initiatives and programs that target and addresses the challenges that our employees may face. Some of these, can be learning and development opportunities, guest speaks, open forums, coffee chats, etc.