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I have been working at VTT part-time
Pros
great working environment! People are committed to work and your well-being
Cons
nothing, I really enjoyed it there
I worked at VTT full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
Interesting projects and possibility to work on multiple different technology areas.
Cons
Bureaucratic and rigid organization, poor career development opportunities, low salary.
I have been working at VTT full-time
Pros
High density of clever and innovative people, highly interesting projects with international companies and RTOs.
Cons
Low prospects of increasing salary with increasing responsibilities.
I have been working at VTT full-time (Less than a year)
Pros
Work-life balance, pretty much freedom in exploring new paths of science, they accept foreigners and willing to speak English.
Cons
No perks and benefits, no recognition, glass ceiling, horizontal growth (more tasks) without rewards, low salary compared to the private sector, old contingent - no fun, even though they try to build some communities for young professionals.
If you found some mistakes or have ideas on how to improve the current mode of work, be ready to be told to shut up, be called stupid or any other reaction just to keep the things in the old fashion because there are dinosaurs who don't want to have changes (probably just being lazy or I don't know).
Advice to Management
If you can't afford better salaries for your employees, at least create a healthy organizational culture.
Helpful (3)
I have been working at VTT full-time (More than 10 years)
Pros
If you have the will and the skill, you can often influence what you work on and how you work on something within a project.
Good support for travelling to conferences to present your work and meet and discuss with international peers.
Some good people still remain, if you can find them.
Cons
Pay has stagnated for last 10 years or so. Personal pay has nothing to do with your skills or contributions. Idle a project doing nothing, or do world-class research and results, no-one cares. New hires have been frozen for years, so no new blood, no new energy, no fresh ideas to stir it up with some rebel feeling. Old geezers clubs keep each other hired regardless of research skill over any layoffs. A good researcher in a core subject is not valued whatsoever. You have to be acquiring funding to be something. Over the years, most capable people have left and what remains is mostly those who know they are better of staying and biding it till retirement.
Still, the potential is great, and it was actually great a few years back. Hope it will get there someday still.
Advice to Management
Freshen the management, fire the old friends club who do not contribute, start rewarding people for good work, take responsibility for more than just everyone having some project number for hours. It's always in the words, never in the real action.
I have been working at VTT full-time
Pros
A very professional company, very good level of expertise and facilities. Long-term contracts or permanent contracts typical.
Cons
A large company with typical problems with internal communications. Not a strong feedback culture. Orientation of new employees can vary in quality.
Advice to Management
More emphasis on internal communication would be advisable. Active management of workload almost non-existent for senior scientists and management.
I have been working at VTT full-time
Pros
Good research expertise in the field
Cons
Haven't experienced any cons yet
I 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 VTT
Cons
-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 funding
Advice 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 it
I 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
Helpful (1)
Pros
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.
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