Nextcon’s new consultancy partner Matti Sorsa has a strong background in telecom and has worked in a variety of roles over the years. After almost 15 years in Telecom, Matti decided to become an entrepreneur after a sabbatical year.

“Teaching was an option, but it didn’t appeal to me at the time and I wanted to work in industry.”

In 2006, Matti graduated with a Master’s degree in Mathematics, majoring in Mathematics and Computer Science. Teaching was an option, but it didn’t excite him as much as the idea of working in industry.

– My career started with a summer job on Nokia’s production line in Oulu, where I worked on automation testing of base stations. After my summer job ended, I looked for jobs all over Finland and ended up in a small it-house in Psk-seudu, through which I worked for Nokia as a consultant on the product development side.

Matti says that while working as a consultant, the title changed several times. Over the years he gained experience in coding, test automation, documentation, acting as a scrum master and product ownership.

At some point, Mati’s own position came up in Nokia’s internal search and he was recruited from an external consultant directly to Nokia’s payroll, where he continued to work on agile product development.

– I later moved to another project, which was looking for a new direction through agile development. At best, we managed three production exports per week! Achieving such results required a lot of process rotation, opening up and development,” Matti recalls.

From Microsoft to healthcare and back to Nokia

With the merger, Matti moved from Nokia to Microsoft, where software development was part of the company’s DNA. However, the phone business was run down and Matti’s development team ceased to exist.

– When the team at Microsoft ended, I looked for different jobs and got involved in interesting projects in the healthcare sector. It seemed interesting and completely different from my previous experience.

The bureaucratic approach made Mati think about alternatives and Elisa Appels found a suitable project. At the same time, Nokia was contacted, but the recruitment process was long.

– When Nokia’s recruitment process was finally completed, I moved there to build a platform for Nokia’s internal data analysts, Matti says.

Stop and Sabbatical

After almost 15 years in the job, 2021 was a good time to take a break. Entrepreneurship had been on Mat’s mind for years and after a short break it started to seem like the best option.

– I had accumulated 40 annual tyres, so I wanted to stop and look at the past and think about the future. The idea of bringing my own expertise to product development teams and customers inspired me to become an entrepreneur. Building a business on your own know-how is quite low risk and easy to start. That is the path we are on now.

“Building software is like painting a picture – there will never be another picture like it, just as there will never be software.”

Matti says that continuous learning, changing job descriptions and interesting projects in agile development continue to inspire him to stay in the industry.

– When a project changes, it’s like a new job. Repeating the same thing year after year is not your thing. Every software development project is completely unique and that’s what makes it really interesting,” Matti says.

Now, Mati’s career and development of his own skills continue as a consultant partner of Nextcon in the role of product owner on a Traficom project. Nextcon has supported Matt in his early entrepreneurial days and the collaboration has got off to a good start.

– Nextcon was contacted when they were looking for a product owner for a public side project. The “sabbatical year” was coming to an end, so I thought, yes, we can start talking about jobs here. I was initially offered an employment contract, but I wanted to go freelance as an entrepreneur and this was a good fit for Nextcon.

Familiarity with the role and interest in the end client and the project itself finally convinced Mati to take on the assignment

– Nextcon enables me to get public sector clients and projects that I wouldn’t even have been able to access as a lone freelancer. I have no previous experience in public sector projects, but now I can bring my own expertise to the public sector. I’ve also had help setting up a business, which has been great. I look forward to working with other Nextcon consultants and clients!