How useful is Russian professionally?

[Sami-Is-Boss]

In Finland, is a business command of Russian likely to make a huge amount of difference to job prospects and if so, in what fields? I imagine it'd come in pretty useful in the border towns, but only in tourism-related jobs, or would it help in 'business'? I speak little Finnish at present but if/when it gets up to speed, would the Russian help? I'm not actively preparing to move but it could be a possibility in the future, I'd just like to get some kind of idea. Kiitti

[Rosamunda]

I think the retail-sector in Helsinki employs a lot of Russian speakers. I'm sure there are other sectors too. Relatively few schools offer Russian as a foreign language (and very few offer it at an advanced level). I think there are probably still more school kids learning French and German than Russian

Another sector in the news recently was food production. More and more food produced in Finland is exported to Finland: meat, dairy etc

And the energy sector (oil eg: Neste refines Russian crude and re-exports refined products) has strong ties with Russia.

[Sami-Is-Boss]

Yeah, even in Turku I'd seen a few little Russian flags on the badges of the staff in Stockmann...

Thanks! Now it's time to worry about Finnish, I guess Off to kielikoulu I go!

[rinso]

Russian certainly opens a new range of possibilities for you. It might even compensate for not perfect Finnish. (but off course you must be able to communicate in Finnish)