What would you do?

Stuppored

What would you do if RIM (the maker of the BlackBerry) offered you an excellent full time opportunity right now? Let's say you had a lesser position in a full time position already that was secure. Would you jump ship and why/why not?

lordy

I wouldn't.

To me, RIM is a sinking ship which is perfectly reflected in their stock price. I don't see them having any strategy to catch up with Apple or Android. They have been the big player in the past, but the last few years have turned them into a dinosaur. Nobody wants to join a loosing team.

Stuppored

If the opportunity allowed you to gain valuable experience the current postion does not allow you?

Bl8ckr0uter

Stuppored wrote: »

If the opportunity allowed you to gain valuable experience the current postion does not allow you?

Hmmm. I probably wouldn't take it. A companies stability should always be taken into consideration.

bryanthetechie

I worked with a company recently that contracted some support functions from RIM. From my experience in working with their middle and senior management, I would never work for RIM. I feel like they are decent at their core business of making smart phones, but they suck at most other aspects of business. Their leadership did not understand basic metrics around the business functions we were handling, their training department did not understand training management, and their legal department did not seem to understand US contract laws. I doubt their IT teams are where you would expect for them to be, either. Your mileage may vary, however.

SteveLord

Would have sounded great about 5-7 years ago.

longhorn79

Who knows maybe Microsoft will buy out RIM in the near future and take back their glory hole back , lol

ptilsen

As a phone developer (in any capacity)? No. In an IT infrastructure capacity? Sure. RIM's struggling to compete and their stocks have plummeted, but the company's financials are extremely strong. If RIM goes out, it will be a very slow death. If they were hiring IT positions now, I would be skeptical that they were about to have layoffs in those positions. Either they need them or they don't.

erpadmin

RIM is seriously too much of a gamble. The best they can hope for is a buyout, but look at how well that worked out for Palm. LOL. It pretty much died twice.

SteveLord is right; it would have sounded great a few years back to work for them. Now? I wouldn't. I can't see Microsoft being a white knight and buying them. And to what end, moving those Canadians to Redmond?

MentholMoose

It costs a lot to hire someone, so I agree with ptilsen... if they give you an offer there shouldn't be much concern about getting laid off any time soon. That said, I'd be kind of nervous about working in IT at RIM. Any time they have any sort of outage it makes headlines (especially on slow news days). I can imagine that in future interview you'd likely get questions about whether or not you were responsible for some BIS outage even if you never touched anything related to BIS. Of course with everyone switching to Apple and Android smart phones, chances are by the time you are interviewing for a new position, most people won't remember BES or BIS and any associated pain.

longhorn79

Remember when Amazon put in a bid for RIM. Maybe the ceo's are rethinking the idea. I believe there is/was a rumor Amazon wants a phone since the Fire is selling like hotcakes. Who knows you might take the deal and then head to California. Could lead to possible future jobs.

Turgon

Stuppored wrote: »

What would you do if RIM (the maker of the BlackBerry) offered you an excellent full time opportunity right now? Let's say you had a lesser position in a full time position already that was secure. Would you jump ship and why/why not?

Might be a good opportunity. Is this a hyperthetical question? RIM will not vanish overnight, may just be absorbed by another player an there is plenty of real estate to support out there dependent on blackberry and still money to be made. If the role is senior you might have a decent escalation path within the organisation while others within it jump ship. You could get a few years of good exposure there in a side to technology that will only grow in the years ahead, albeit not RIM. For example, if you want to work in the mobile phone sector it could be good for you. They love people already working in the biz. You find that senior people working in these areas dont have major problems getting rehired if the company runs into difficulty. Incidently Novell has been the losing team for over 10 years but if you have the right job there you are doing fine.

Just an alternative point of view there as everyone else is saying no. You might do 5 years at RIM (or whatever else it ends up being called) and never look back. I would speak to them and be aggressive about what you are looking for in terms of career opportunity given the climate for BB.

dontstop

I would take it for what it is - Possibly an unstable job so don't go buy a new car or house in the next 5 years, but understand that having Research in Motion on your resume even if they do go belly up will always look very nice and will open doors. While in the position try to also be vigilant of what is going on, if the company starts to take a massive dive be open and ready to start looking for another role in a different company.

From either end of the stick, RIM will not just disappear overnight. With many organizations still technologically committed to their products either through support contracts, policy or just resistance to change they will still be around in some capacity. Currently there are two outcomes for RIM; Either they come to the market with something new and break into the market again (i wouldn't put money on this), or they just get gobbled up by another big player - who will support their contracts, dry up supply chains and then just integrate their technology with their current lineups and try and move the current RIM customer base to their own.

I would set yourself a plan, promise to yourself to get as far as you can in 2-5 years (unless they go amazingly well) and then move on. The worse that can happen is they fold you into another company, the best that can happen is you are in a market leading company again. I see this as a Win-Win.

Either way - Goodluck with you choice.

P.S if you are close with your boss from your current position and you are genuine about your reasons to dip your toe in at RIM (once in a lifetime chance etc) they may keep the door open for you in the future. Remember that tacit knowledge of a business is very hard to pass on and hiring someone in the future that has it reduces costs.

Turgon

dontstop wrote: »

I would take it for what it is - Possibly an unstable job so don't go buy a new car or house in the next 5 years, but understand that having Research in Motion on your resume even if they do go belly up will always look very nice and will open doors. While in the position try to also be vigilant of what is going on, if the company starts to take a massive dive be open and ready to start looking for another role in a different company.

From either end of the stick, RIM will not just disappear overnight. With many organizations still technologically committed to their products either through support contracts, policy or just resistance to change they will still be around in some capacity. Currently there are two outcomes for RIM; Either they come to the market with something new and break into the market again (i wouldn't put money on this), or they just get gobbled up by another big player - who will support their contracts, dry up supply chains and then just integrate their technology with their current lineups and try and move the current RIM customer base to their own.

I would set yourself a plan, promise to yourself to get as far as you can in 2-5 years (unless they go amazingly well) and then move on. The worse that can happen is they fold you into another company, the best that can happen is you are in a market leading company again. I see this as a Win-Win.

Either way - Goodluck with you choice.

P.S if you are close with your boss from your current position and you are genuine about your reasons to dip your toe in at RIM (once in a lifetime chance etc) they may keep the door open for you in the future. Remember that tacit knowledge of a business is very hard to pass on and hiring someone in the future that has it reduces costs.

Lots of good advice there.

sambuca69

Stuppored wrote: »

What would you do if RIM (the maker of the BlackBerry) offered you an excellent full time opportunity right now? Let's say you had a lesser position in a full time position already that was secure. Would you jump ship and why/why not?

Depends. Do you have a house, family to support or are you living with someone(at home)? I personally wouldn't/couldn't as I have a mortgage and family to support.

Would I have done it 10 years ago? Probably.

Like others, I think RIM is a big gamble right now....