based on my limited experience, a recommendation from a Fin is very very helpful (mm.. make sure he/she holds certain important position). My boyfriend is from EU, and every time he changes place for work, the new *boss* called his old 'boss' to ask what kind of person he is and how he works. Thank God so far he only get great opinions. He started in Finland by doing some exchange program, then he got written recommendation from a very famous Fin in his field, then he sent many job applications using the recommendation and got job offer at 2 places.
In my case, it was harder although i get a good recommendation.. so I applied in smaller city, and they gave me one month trial, because my Finnish was very poor ( I had stayed only for 7months in Finland and never learnt Finnish before). But they prolong me because they see that I make a big improvement (passing language test after 3 months working and taking exam in Finnish to get my degree admitted after staying in Finland for 1,5years).
Just make sure to keep open mind.. you will meet a LOT of people who believe in stereotypes ( I am an Asian women and many people at the beginning don't take me seriously at work..thinking that I am either looking for Finnish husbands or trying to get Finnish citizenship) and perhaps you would have to prove over and over again your quality to certain people at work ( I was graduated in South East Asia so many people don't know the level of education there and thinking that I am very stupid).. but then you will also meet great and nice people who really really appreciate your effort at work and especially your effort in learning Finnish. Now people are taking me pretty seriously at work.. and one of the 'boss' actually said there are several things I did better than a Finnish employee
So I kinda concluded that in every country you would meet nice people and unkind ones, ones who believe in stereotypes and ones who don't, ones that will trash you in forum like this and ones who would give help.
And if you cannot get the job you want ( I get this a lot, despite having job experiences for more than a year now), it is always very easy and convenient of foreigners to blame on those people being racist or unfriendly to foreigners.. but that won't help you very far.. Change your strategy, make a network, get as many informations as possible.. and try again. Doing the same thing over and over again with the exact same approaches but expect different results are simply stupid...
I don't know if this help.. but this is my experience. for me it is hard.. but not impossible..
hope this helps
