After reading a few recent postings of people stuck in Finland with not apperent job, means of support or even a clue what to do next, I stooped to the level of Troll
In all honesty, it was 50% fun & 50% serious. I thought with the nom de guerre of SillySeason and signing as "Clueless" everyone would know it wasn't a genuine call for help. But I felt I listed the major causes of some one the latest posters problems. So compasionate souls did reply.
The thread has been deleted, but in response to a PM, I was asked if I could write such a "Hownotto" guide.
This won't be a definitive work, debated by scholars and philosophers for years to come, and it has been formulated mainly from observation, not experience.
I am from an EU country, came to Finland whilst working for a Finnish company in the UK. I had it easy. The only real hick-up I had was when I lost my job.
Again, being an almost fully integrated resident, union member and having a Finnish wife (with obligatory Finnish womans temper...) I got all the aid I was entiltled to. Even a cheap holiday at Ruka ! So, on with the show ...
How not to come to Finland
Don't prepare.
Do not bother finding out what your legal entitlements will be.
Do not contact the nearest embassy and asking what you need to do/apply for to be able to work in Finland.
Do not search the web beyond pages extolling the virtues of the Lapland in summer, the joys of scrubbing your carpets in the river, or ice castles.
Do not look for articles or forum threads with keywords such as visa, 'work permit', 'social security', entitlement, and so on.
Do not ask yourself "so how different is Finland to my home country ?", like language, work, culture, society, ecomony.
So do not ask people, on forums like one, this who have first hand experience, for advise. But if you do, do not bother actually following it !
Do not create a back-up/safety net. Why would you need money stashed away in bank account, or somewhere to stay if things go wrong ?
So, after doing none of the above, you are definately coming to Finland.
Don't plan
Moltke the Elder, said "No plan survives the first contact with the enemy.", so why bother planning ?
You do not need to worry about what you will do once you get here.
You do not need to know what to do when things go wrong - if you do not have a plan, then things cannot go wrong in the first place.
If you would like to stay for a very long time, that is more than a month or so, then why worry about tomorrow. Life is good.
Do not think about work. As part of not preparing, you did not find out if you actually allowed to work in Finland, did you ?
But, if you did, you do not need to think about why an employer in Finland would want to hire you.
Don't sell yourself
Do not bother a having a long hard think about what you can do.
A Finnish employer does not really want to know why employing, a probably non-Finnish speaking, foreigner will be beneficial for their company.
You not need to be creative and think about what you could do and why it whould be in an employers interest to give you a job.
Expect charity OK, this is a 'Do'
So, life is not so great. You are now in Finland, no money, maybe even dumped by your 'loved one' and now alone.
Do not think about going home.
Start telling people how much trouble you are in and expect them to talk to their boss and give you job.
Post messages on the same forums you did not bother heeding the advice from earlier and beg for help. No one will be sarcastic or rude, they will queue up to offer their services to you.
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OK, this list isn't exhaustive, but as I make more mistakes in my life, I could update this from time to time, but then why should I bother, because you're coming coming to Finland, ready or not & you ain't gonna read this, are you ?
How *not* to come to Finland
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Hank W.
- The Motorhead
- Posts: 29973
- Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2002 10:00 pm
- Location: Mushroom Mountain
- Contact:
Do not learn any Finnish
Do not learn any Finnish.
Do not get frustrated after 3 weeks and give up, as it doesn't take more than say a year or ten (or never) to become fluent.
Do not believe the fact that you need Finnish especially for any low-level jobs that have a customer service interface.
Do not believe that you won't find documents necessarily in anything else than Finnish.
Do not believe Finns will not bother explaining "things like to a child" and in a foreign language.
Do not learn any Finnish.
Do not get frustrated after 3 weeks and give up, as it doesn't take more than say a year or ten (or never) to become fluent.
Do not believe the fact that you need Finnish especially for any low-level jobs that have a customer service interface.
Do not believe that you won't find documents necessarily in anything else than Finnish.
Do not believe Finns will not bother explaining "things like to a child" and in a foreign language.
Cheers, Hank W.
sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.
sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.
Don't get too stressed when you walk upto the ticket counter at Oulu railwaystation & say in yer best Oulus "mä haluan käyn helsinissa", and the young lady replies "when would you like to go" in perfect bl00dy english ! & you reply dejectly "is my Finnish that bad ? I just spent half an hour practising that sentence !"Hank W. wrote:Do not learn any Finnish
Do not learn any Finnish.
Do not get frustrated after 3 weeks and give up, as it doesn't take more than say a year or ten (or never) to become fluent.
Do not believe the fact that you need Finnish especially for any low-level jobs that have a customer service interface.
Do not believe that you won't find documents necessarily in anything else than Finnish.
Do not believe Finns will not bother explaining "things like to a child" and in a foreign language.
This was, for me, the single biggest reason that I gave up on Finnish when I came south. The point just seemed to disappear!Don't get too stressed when you walk upto the ticket counter at Oulu railwaystation & say in yer best Oulus "mä haluan käyn helsinissa", and the young lady replies "when would you like to go" in perfect bl00dy english ! & you reply dejectly "is my Finnish that bad ? I just spent half an hour practising that sentence !"
All credit to Finns for their English though.
