starla wrote:The pay rate the company quoted is 4-5000 euros/month, and according to that tax calculator if I were to get paid at the high end of the scale, then I'd be bringing home ~37,000 euros/yr unless I misunderstand something.
Something like that (I got bout 39,000 €/yr with 60 000 annual income. With vacation bonus ('lomaraha') 5000 €/month should be 63 000/year, but that was the high end and definitely your basic calculation is correct).
As for the husband, he already will have a PhD in chemistry so I'm not sure more schooling is the way to go for him. Ideally, he would get a postdoc or a job in industry, but we're not finding a ton of opportunities in his particular area of research. So I'm not sure what kind of work he could pick up. Would more opportunities open up if he were to learn finnish (neither of us can speak it, but the company I'm talking to doesn't seem to care)? Or would we have to accept living on one salary and having his education go to waste?
Well, people with university education in sciences/technology, with research orientation - I'd say there is definitely lot better than average chance that if a job is available it could be successfully done in English. But this is small country and economy is weak (what did he do his thesis on?). Obviously it would make dramatic difference to your freely disposable income as most of your salary will go to buy the bare necessities.
Someone spoke of free education; would I be able to get an MBA while working, or is education only free if you have no income? I was considering applying for an online MBA program in the states, but those are quite expensive ($90,000 for the one I was looking at) and if a free one is available that would be quite valuable and would factor highly into my decision.
Regular degree programs are free irrespective of income, but those MBA programs I think tend to be for a fee. First quotation I saw (googling 'Aalto' (the prime techonology/business university in Helsinki area, former Helsinki University of Technology and School of Economics (if they happened to say you anything) combined) and 'MBA' and clicking the links was somewhat above 10 000 euros)
And one final question; should I get there and find the job to not be what they made it out to be, am I able to just quit and walk away, or are employees required to give lengthy notice? I know in some countries, employees are under contract to stay and if they would like to leave, they are sometimes forced to stay 6 months or more before they are released from their contracts. Here in the states, you are employed "at will", which means both you and the employer can terminate employment at any time for any reason, but two weeks notice is the standard.
Default rule for an employee is 14 days if you have been working less than five years (as it is for the employer if the contract has lasted less than a year). Longer period, up to six months, is legally valid if it is stated in the employment contract.
Employment contracts act, Chapter 6, sections 2 and 3.
http://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset ... 010055.pdf
See also "Agreement of non-competition" Chapter 3, section 5.
The "at will" is valid for the employee, the employer needs and acceptable reason. The work contract may include a trial period during which both employee and employer can terminate the contract with immediate effect (and even employer for almost any reason) .
(Chapter 1, section 4)
