BlackBerry is seen some difficult times over the last few years. Between 2007 and 2011, the company tripled its workforce, but thereafter declining sales and market share compelled the firm to lay off thousands of employees. To find out where these thousands of employees went, Macleans conducted a survey, and the results were not very surprising.
Employees joining related, but popular names
A question was posted on LinkedIn asking the whereabouts of ex-BlackBerry employees. The researchers collected data showing from January 1, 2011 through last month; approximately 14,000 LinkedIn users mentioned on their profile that they quit BlackBerry, and joined other companies.
The 10 most popular companies that the employees joined after leaving BlackBerry are Apple, Microsoft, D2L (Desire 2 Learn), Sun Life Financial, University of Waterloo, Manulife Financial, TD Bank, Amazon, Samsung and OpenTex. One thing to note is only one in ten former BlackBerry employees joined the top ten companies, suggesting a lot many employees went to small and medium-sized firms, which account more than half of the Canadian economy, notes Macleans.
It’s quite understandable why the Canadian firm’s former employees chose these firms. Companies like Apple, Microsoft and Samsung are competing each other in the smartphone market. Apple, in particular, has done most of the damage to BlackBerry. Ex-BlackBerry employees also joined various financial service companies, probably the result of company’s strong reputation for security.
BlackBerry list growing long
A number of employees also migrated to other cities after leaving BlackBerry, notes Macleans. According to LinkedIn data, approximately 32% or 4,480 of the 14,000 employees who left BlackBerry since 2011 were in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Around 40% of those, or somewhere near 1,800, left the region and moved to another city. The most preferred destinations where the majority of the former employees went are Toronto, the San Francisco Bay Area, Ottawa, Seattle and Vancouver.
It must be noted this is not a complete list for the all former BlackBerry employees, but it pretty much covers the preferences of most employees. The list will certainly keep on growing as BlackBerry is still in the turnaround phase.
On Tuesday of this week, the Canadian smartphone maker announced more job cuts, but the exact number has been kept secret. In a recent regulatory filing, BlackBerry said it has 6,225 full-time global employees as of February 28th.
