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VTT Reviews
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Full-timePart-timeApprove of CEO
Erkki KM Leppävuori
3 Ratings
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"Good Research"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
No opinion of CEOI have been working at VTT full-time
Pros
Good research expertise in the field
Cons
Haven't experienced any cons yet
VTT 2017-06-21 00:59 PDT![VTT Logo]()
"Possibilities for organizational renewal"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNeutral OutlookDisapproves of CEOI have been working at VTT (More than 3 years)
Pros
-Great place to do applied research
-Very multi-disciplinary, good know how in many technical fields
-New CEO seems very promising and could help in renewing VTTCons
-Communication is sometimes poor and strategic direction is missing
-Too many fragmented and isolated projects
-Lack of leadership
-At the moment government funding for R&D is being reduced which makes it challenging to find project fundingAdvice to Management
-Appreciate your people
-Work on company culture and leaderhip skills of your managers
-Find a clear strategy with your employees and take determined steps in implementing itVTT 2016-08-15 01:11 PDT![VTT Logo]()
"Research scientist"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookDisapproves of CEOI worked at VTT full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
Coworkers! Excellent and professional coworkers, who were always open and supportive to others. Many have PhD degree and/or long experience in their fields. Loved the solidarity.
Cons
Strategy is lost. Are you a reserch institute, a subsitute to university or a collaborative institute linking industry to research world?
Management style fromstone age: day by day more regulations, less and less freedom to even think.Advice to Management
Learn to respect the law
VTT 2015-09-28 05:02 PDT![VTT Logo]()
"Management, please learn some lessons"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookDisapproves of CEOPros
nice people... usually, communication within the organisation, collaboration & sharing ideas with other employees (but only on roughly the same level) was very good.
The place also used to be a very international playing ground, although this has gradually declined over the years, and in my last year (2014), there was very little of it left.... with a poor outlook in future, I hink.
Communication with other researchers OUTSIDE the organization was also usually very good, and there were many opportunities to participate or even coordinate in International networking projects, such as many EU projects with partners from the rest of Europe. With declining funds available, these options, however, have gradually disappeared.
Also communication with national research groups in academia was usually quite okay, these rank as the best of my experiences while at VTT.Cons
It was generally difficult to define a clear line between contract research and academic research within the organisation ... you can do either one or the other.
However, if you want an academic career, VTT is not a good place, in particular after the revisions done in 2015 to the structure (now a non-profit company or OY; whatever that means in practice remains to be seen). Now, this is hardly the place to conduct research that leads to higher impact publications; if this is your goal... go elsewhere.
Research portfolio has been re-arranged several times during my time, and often changed on short or literally, no notice at all. The reasons for such decisions were also usually not communicated in any way.
By far the worst experience, therefore, relates to the management. It lacks any clear line of development, consistency; shows poor long-term vision, and was constantly shifting focus ... projects were constantly tossed around or terminated prematurely for reasons that often remained obscure.
Communication between management and employees was the worst I have ever experienced in any organization. There was simply no interest, it seemed, to properly communicate with those "below" within the line management, and no emails nor phone calls were answered. This also shows a strong degree of disrespect to employees.
Most importantly, for the economic welfare of the organization: Important decisions were simply not made or not communicated timely - when it would have been strategically smart to react quickly.
It remained often unclear what exactly was the case or what may have been the reasons behinds such non-decisions ??? Simple procrastination, indecision, lack of interest ? It will remain a mystery to me.Advice to Management
just communicate ! The notorious lack of communication has, in my direct experience, led to missing several good opportunities for partnering & developing a higher visibility with foreign (not Finnish) companies, or even the formation of "strategic alliances" which could be longer lasting sources of income than the usual small, short-term project of which there were so many at VTT. This is a pity, since Finnish economy in this field so strongly depends on entering the European market. Even more so, as VTT is barely known outside Finland.
The management has to work on this issue if they want to survive in a tough market, in particular when the reason to exist for large-scale, government-owned research organisations (with an immense bureaucratic burden) becomes increasingly questionable.VTT 2015-08-09 23:38 PDTHelpful (1)
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"Good place"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNeutral OutlookI have been working at VTT full-time (More than a year)
Pros
Good place to work for
Cons
slow growth and lots of bureaucracy
VTT 2015-01-23 06:07 PSTHelpful (1)
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"OK for research"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendPros
extremely flexible working hours, 6 weeks of vacation
Cons
academic research is not appreciated
VTT 2015-01-06 05:22 PSTHelpful (2)
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"One of the worst employers ever"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Pros
Very good colleagues. Excellent team spirit.
Cons
Top management does nothing else nut consume basic funding amd increase bureaucracy.
Advice to Management
Leave the company.
VTT 2014-11-03 13:15 PSTHelpful (1)
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"Research Scientist"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookI worked at VTT full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
Research resource available for work is probably second to known in Nordic nations. Equipments are often free to use internally if you know how to operate - garage scientists' heaven.
Cons
Unfortunately, it is sometimes hard to work when you are in the position, no access to lobby line managers for funding. All work is project based, no project, no money to run your work but difficult to get project proposal approved? you would be stuck in the dark...
Advice to Management
We are losing approval from Finnish people!
VTT 2014-09-09 14:11 PDTHelpful (3)
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"Possibilities are endless for the motivated self-starters"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNegative OutlookI have been working at VTT full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
- Relaxed and informal office culture, and great colleagues (we spend free time together)!
- Long holidays (30 d/a), and flexible working hours
- Best brains in Northern Europe as colleagues - someone will know the answer to your problem!
- Project management responsibility early in career, possibility to affect on the contents of the research projects and work on the topics of your interestsCons
- Getting funding for research projects is difficult, and there is little money allocated for project preparation (even though it takes time!)
- The research infrastructure is generally good, but some of the hardware (scientific instruments) is a bit worn-out and outdated. Replacement investments are scarce and their processing takes a long time. It is embarrasing to work with customers using old instruments.
- Salary is (to my experience) 10 % lower when compared to similar positions in industry.Advice to Management
Common direction is missing
VTT 2014-07-24 11:58 PDTHelpful (1)
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"Amazing colleagues to work with"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookI worked at VTT full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
Colleagues are skillful, intelligent and helpful. I absolutely loved to work with them.
Very long holidays and a short work week (36 h)Cons
The worst thing was to hear from more than one customer that agreements are not respected
Management is very formal and inflexible, Administration from the Stone AgeAdvice to Management
Please, learn Lean and Leadership
VTT 2014-05-27 09:52 PDT
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