Earlier quoted context omitted.
I worked at Nokia starting in about 2004. Looking back on my career, one of the single greatest feelings of accomplishment was getting a Hello World application to run on Symbian/S60. I thought I knew C++ going in, but I wasn't prepared for two phase constructors and the 6 files you'd need to draw a simple list view on the screen. Felt amazing once it worked though!
Lol. At least you guys had actual phones to work with. Until we became Nokia all we had was a techview UI shell running on H2, or later, H4 boards that would boot an MMC card. Of course, when we became Nokia we got the flashing stations and access to Phoenix. Only a particular part of the company ever saw phones that were in development and you needed special access to get into that part of the building.
Oh, I remember it was near impossible to get access to service manuals Level 1 & 2 (just for understand how to repair/replace few parts on my N82), and fully impossible get its Level 3 & 4.[0]
AIKON service centers had monopoly on repairing devices.