Advice on company with english as professional language

[kwx]

Moi Moi everybody,

I'm originally from France and moved to Finland 2 months ago. I'm now living at Vantaa near the airport and i'm looking for a job.

I have a bachelors degree in administration and security of network. I'm looking for a job that will give me the opportunity to get into the finnish society and working environment. I speak french as a native and english fluently. Unfortunately I can't speak finnish.

I m sending more than 10 -15 e-mail per day. Stockmann, French school, checking mol.fi & interim company...

Maybe someone can help me to target company who don't need finnish language, meaning more spontaneous applying and less "lazzy waiting".

Like a lot of people here, I'm not waiting for a job in my field (nevertheless, i m still hoping to exerce a job in my branch)
My girlfriend is finnish and help me a lot with tranlsation of website to applying, beeing more finnish and less french (yes, i don't feel confident growing up in France and be a french citizen on paper (but not in my mind!)beeing foreigner now, french stereotype give me hardtime... well not the topic), etc.

I applied for job in my field (Information technologic), mover, warehouse, put away the snow from the rooth, etc...
I knew how difficult it will be to find a job when you're foreigner, but i didn't imagine it that difficult (maybe it's because there is something on one paper call passeport with a wrong nationality :p)

Well, the question is, at Vantaa, Helsinki, or even Espoo, are there any company who use english (or french... let's dream about it...) as professional language (whatever branch)? or, even better, is there any job who don't require finnish as main language ?(i m learning it with my girlfriend and will take some curse from the mol, but it will take at least, more than 2 years before speaking fluently finnish )

ps: I did the professional TOEIC (85%) to help me finding a job & the academic IELTS (6.5 av.) to apply at the university if i don't find any job (I would like to know and see how good is the finnish education -> 1st / 2nd best education in the world , that give me hardtime with my french education, don't even find it on any official top 20 list xD)

Kiitos ja hyvää päivää

[cors187]

My opinion as an immigrant to the area is FINS don't like loosing jobs to immigrants.Union mindset enables a general consensus which is mainstream acceptable.

[Pursuivant]

So when I go to France without speaking any language, I will get a job? Ha ha, maybe in the Legion, but they teach the language with the method bottes dans le cul. Very effective, maybe you should buy some doc martens for the gf and have you sing return of the guard while you scrub the floor? Most of the IT companies (big ones) have company language as English - problem is that theres a whole lot of people on the kilometre factory right now. As for the other jobs - industrial/cleaning usually has vacancies, airport has some for baggage handling (see previous posts), also you got the big warehouses in the area. They dont necessarily advertise through MOL though, but you have to find the company and see how they do hiring - themselves or through some rental agency. Good luck with the boots method.

[Rosamunda]

There are companies that use English as the company language (Nokia, Neste, Kone, Tieto and more...) but that doesn't mean that (a) they have a job for you and (b) that Finnish is not required. A 6.5 in IELTS is hardly "fluent" (it's the minimum requirement for university) so you need to understand that for any job vacancy advertised requiring English, there are dozens of Finns with "fluent" English AND Finnish (and maybe also Swedish) who are applying too. That means your qualifications and your experience have to trump theirs, or your interview technique, or something. And, by the way, there aren't many companies hiring at the moment. Most are laying people off.

I think your best move would be to enrol on a degree course at a Finnish university as quickly as you can (and improve your Finnish and your English at the same time) and get your girlfriend to speak to you ONLY in Finnish... There are literally TENS OF THOUSANDS of young Finns unemployed at the moment. I can understand why an employer might prefer to employ one of them (after all they are living off benefits, funded by the taxpayer) rather than give a job to a foreigner who can't even speak the language. It's the same all over Europe.

Have you thought about taking the Food Hygiene Pass and looking for work in a restaurant or hotel kitchen? Some of them aren't too fussed about language skills.

Bon courage et bonne continuation

[Lamauttaja]

I have seen a one france girl, who doesn't speak enlgish or finnish at all, and i think what her was thinking when she come down there? So it is not impossible to have job without finnish language, but it is a wery important. Now, when we have a little time, there are no jobs for everyone.. I think you should speak only finnish with your girlfriend, try to live without french or english.

Tu reste a la Finland longtemps, ou seulement quelque mois?

[kwx]

Hello, just to follow up my topic, I will give some news/update.

I found on internet the website of technopolis ( www.technopolis.fi )/ Thanks to a very nice guy working at the "mol" of Vantaa. Here I found a list of all the company renting space. Most of them (90%) work with english. I send more than 100 hundreds mail with "open application - IT" as title (+CV as attachment and a picture of me) and got more than 30 interview (woot). Then, I found (during those interview) the place name "Keilaranta", one of the biggest IT place in the area of "Uusimaa". I, again, found a list of IT company on this aera (Microsoft, ework, Think, Nokia, ...) and send over 50 "open application". I got, at the end, more than 40 interviews (that was a long months...) and more than 10 "correct" propositions (contract without limited time [you need a contract of 6months minimum to apply at the immigration and have a social security number] / more than 3000euro/month /...) . I'm now working in a big IT company with a very good salary !(and I got the first interview beginning of June and start the 1st of July!).

I hope people coming in Finland and lookin for an IT job will find some clues for themselves in this topic. Because most of the people on Forum and website told me " you will never find anything" , "go back to your country" , "No work in Finland", "...".

But the conclusion is the complete OPPOSITE! And if you want some "advice" just send me a private message.

[Pursuivant]

So, how did your Finnish studies progress? Or are you now in a happy niche bubble?

[RaulOne]

Thx kwx for sharing and doing useful posts not like others just spamming.

[rinso]

Thx kwx for sharing and doing useful posts not like others just spamming.

His experience is quite the opposite from the national trend. So some wondering is in place.
http://yle.fi/uutiset/more_than_12000_j ... 12/6307195

[Upphew]

There are literally TENS OF THOUSANDS of young Finns unemployed at the moment. I can understand why an employer might prefer to employ one of them

I have a bachelors degree in administration and security of network.

Tietoturva-alan yritykset ovat perustaneet Teknologiateollisuus ry:n tietotekniikka-toimialan (DIGI.FI) yhteyteen yhteistyöryhmän edistämään toimialalle tärkeitä tavoitteita. Tietoturva-ala kasvaa nopeasti, ja osaajapula on jo noussut kasvun esteeksi.

http://www.talouselama.fi/uutiset/tieto ... a/a2146756

If you have skills/degree that is in high demand, you will find a job without Finnish. Especially in IT where the lingua franca is English anyways.

[Rosamunda]

In YLE's English news pages too. They're desperate.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/wanted_data_secur ... ts/6307022

Sounds like if you're a data security specialist, you have definite bargaining power!

While I find it difficult to believe that one person can attend 40 job interviews in a couple of months, you have to give him credit for effort. I think he did the right thing in holding out for a permanent contract with a good salary.

[Upphew]

In YLE's English news pages too. They're desperate.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/wanted_data_secur ... ts/6307022

Sounds like if you're a data security specialist, you have definite bargaining power!

While I find it difficult to believe that one person can attend 40 job interviews in a couple of months, you have to give him credit for effort. I think he did the right thing in holding out for a permanent contract with a good salary.

And after reading those news (and teeny bit more stuff on CV), he might start to put feelers for rise or new job...

[Rick1]

The only thing permanent in Finland is that you pay taxes. You can ask all these 'permanent' people in 'YT' negotiations at the moment. He was just lucky to be in the right field. Like in every country there are jobs for foreigners which locals do not want to do or a lack of qualified people. Also 40 interviews sounds strange to me, there are hardly 40 companies with these kind of jobs, maybe he went three times to 12 companies?

[RaulOne]

Best Regards

[RaulOne]

The only thing permanent in Finland is that you pay taxes. You can ask all these 'permanent' people in 'YT' negotiations at the moment. He was just lucky to be in the right field. Like in every country there are jobs for foreigners which locals do not want to do or a lack of qualified people. Also 40 interviews sounds strange to me, there are hardly 40 companies with these kind of jobs, maybe he went three times to 12 companies?

if you read you'll see that he has been sending applications to any place, not only on his field. there is people that just want to work and if they don't find the perfect job or salary they deal with what the life give. I have a lot of finnish friends and i can tell that many of them reject jobs because they don't earn x money or is not exactly what they want or is more than 10km away from their home. And others who prefer to keep studying as they get paid anyway. And btw.. anyone can find a job. ANYONE.. i only needed english and have arms.. is what i found in 1 week. I hope to find something better anyway.