Jobs for English Speakers

[Pursuivant]

I stopped telling people at interviews how great I was, and concentrated on how I could help their business and was humble... that worked.

Its them Lutheran work ethics...

When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;
And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.
But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

[mrjimsfc]

What's the world comming to? Hank quoting from the Bible? 2012 is a year and a half away.

[Pursuivant]

Oh I am good in quoting. You just had to remember a few and you weren't asked so often in Sunday school:

Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall

[MC Deli]

Best thing to do is start your own bussiness, Finns wont hire if you dont know the language. This culture is very much against Globalism and against excepting other cultures into thiers.... Its not easy to live here if you dont know the language or if you are not a Finn... Most all foriegners either have a job with Nokia, teach english (but must be certified teacher in the EU), or own thier own bussiness. sorry mate

Drivel.

Sini is right... if anyone bothers to read back through the posts there are jobs for foreigners (even those not speaking Finnish, shock horror!) and much advice is given.

Starting a business is not all its cracked up to be, and many fail, so that is also very risky (been there done that).

Many of us non-Finns live here quite happily without Finnish language (although it would be better if we had the language), and I love living in Finland.

As Hank says time and time again, you need to find your niche. Most of my foreign friends (all but 1 now have a full time job) do not fall into the Nokia, teach English or own company bracket... we are everywhere and doing a large range of jobs.

Examples of the niches for someone not speaking Finnish are:
- in a company which does most or all of its business overseas (check out some of the many high tech companies)
- in a company where English is the working language (larger international companies)
- where you have skills which are prized and needed (programming, managerial, engineering, sales, golf professional, greenkeeper etc)
- where you will do work which Finns do not want so much (low paid, hard work or dirty jobs - cleaning, refuse, fast food etc)
- where your language is an asset (teaching English, editorial, technical writing etc)

You can also just get lucky... but this is not so normal. A good route is via your network (family, friends, old work colleagues, people you meet at events etc), but normally you have to also do the tough hard slog of sending out many applications. Do not complain why no-one answers your applications, instead look at how to improve it to get answers (really as my applications improved I got more answers).

It can be painful to start, it was for me... but listen to people. My CV was wrong to start with, so I made it more Finnish style and that worked. I stopped telling people at interviews how great I was, and concentrated on how I could help their business and was humble... that worked.

Sure, if you have no qualifications, experience or local language then employment will be difficult (but what country would that be easy?)

I wouldn't usually quote such a long post but that is spot on. Especially the interview and attitude. Honest, sincere, humble, thoughtful, constructive - it's what you need to get ANY job here. Be the guy/gal that offers something better/different but does not rock the boat

[sinikala]

Drivel.

Obviuosly you have not seen how finns treat outsiders..... and you have not seen or read the news here hahahahaha Drivel out of my ass.... Most finns if you ask do not agree with the open borders or the EU.... And definently are not open hiring someone with out language skills unless you want to pick berries... Srting your own bussiness is the easiest ans fastest way to make money in Finland...

I´ve lived here for over a decade and been employed full time every day I´ve been here. I work for a Finnish company, and I´m one of 3 foreigners in a branch of our company that employs a little over 150 people. I´m also married to a Finn that I met here, so I have some Idea of how Finns treat outsiders.

The OP is coming for 8 -10 months, hardly even time to do market research and draw up a business plan, never mind start a company, build a client base and make some kind of profit to pay yourself.

Fortunately Mölkky-Fan wrote a very good reply, saved me the time and effort of pointing out why what you wrote was garbage. So yeah, drivel out of your ass.

[cspotrun]

Its one thing to say you found work 10 years ago,,,, and another to say you found work these days..... http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Polish ... 5220364004, http://jobera.com/finland/finland-job-search-2 those are just a couple examples of how it is to be a foriegner in finland and i can show you a hundered more, as well as give you testimony to all the foriegn people i know in finland.... You can sit there and fight me all you want... im not saying finland is bad, im saying that it is not easy at all for foreinger unless unlike you, you work for a international company like nokia or some it group... I respect your opinion as you should respect mine.... btw your one of the lucky ones..

[cspotrun]

oh i forgot im also married to a finn,,, and she agree's actually it was not until i moved here and started looking for work that she realized how bad it was... and now is coorperating with a group that is trying to help foriegners adapt into the finnish culture... i even have several friends who are astonished at how difficult it is to adapt here... now I have my own company and im doing well... but it was making the decision to take the risk of starting that bussiness that got me out of a bad spiral down itno financial trouble.. and thats what happens finland has these social benifits for everyone, noone can get a job so they say let just get free money that will get us by then they stop looking for work... i never took one cent from kela or the unemployment office cause i dont believe in free rides some is paying for it and i dont feel right taking it... so maybe if you got rid of that social benifit more people would get work and employers would have to hire more people... but as of right now.. if you dont have a masters degree it impossible for a foriegner to get a steady full time job even with language skills but with out its damn near impossible... you should go to mol.fi and look for a job there that you dont need language skills... luckily though im doing something about it.. im taking a finnish language course.. and i do understand that you should learn the language... if someone wanted a job in brittian or in usa the they would have to know english.. whats the difference? you see im not dogging on finland as much as you think... but for a country that holds itsself so high shouldnt there be some kind of way for all people no matter where they are from or what language they speak to make an honest living??? even in the states there is construction for anyone who does not speak english here you cant even pick up trash or clean the floors?? odd huh

[arinacmb]

- where you will do work which Finns do not want so much (low paid, hard work or dirty jobs - cleaning, refuse, fast food etc)

I just read your post and I realized that I don't know a lot about how much "low paid" is considered in Finland.
Just out of curiosity, would it be possible for a student to find a job, for example, in a fast food part-time; 4hours/day ? And if they would, how much would they get for it?

[Upphew]

- where you will do work which Finns do not want so much (low paid, hard work or dirty jobs - cleaning, refuse, fast food etc)

I just read your post and I realized that I don't know a lot about how much "low paid" is considered in Finland.
Just out of curiosity, would it be possible for a student to find a job, for example, in a fast food part-time; 4hours/day ? And if they would, how much would they get for it?

http://www.mcdonalds.fi/fi/tyoepaikat/u ... uudet.html

[arinacmb]

^Thank you. My Finnish is not that good, so I'm not sure if I understood it, but does it say 9 euro/hour? Now I know prices in Finland are a lot different than in other parts of Europe, but it still seems a bit much for something called "low-paid". What about the regular student jobs?

[Pursuivant]

even in the states there is construction for anyone who does not speak english

Well you go to any construction site you don't hear much ifg any Finnish. The problem is you can get cheap no-speaks hired via subcontractor agents - they are supposed to take care of their taxes etc. which they obviously dont. So why hire some no-speak with triple the salary and you have to pay the social fees on top? Not like the employers are stupid, they're just greedy. And you can find a job even not speaking a language if you can find a niche - niches just are different.

[Ladooshka]

no instead i sold it while travelling around france for the winter to a mad englshman who fell in love with it

Is that you cow?