English Speaking Engineer Seeks Employment ...

Sukerkin · Post by **Sukerkin** » Tue Apr 12, 2016 4:21 pm

Hello all.

I've been reading through these fora for a while with an increasingly sinking heart as the difficulty of finding employment, even in the Helsinki area, is stressed again and again; most especially so when your spoken Finnish is limited to the very basics (I am learning this beautiful tongue but, whilst my vocabulary is growing, the Grammar Demon is proving harder to slay

).

However, I have been encouraged by the mention that IT based work is more open to English speakers. Does that same broader chance of success apply in other engineering fields? I am a SCADA engineer with twenty years experience in the electricity T&D field ... Buuuut ... my paper qualifications are not really related to my work at all (degrees in Economics, Computer Studies and Museum Studies). What I have read here suggests that not having the 'right' qualifications from a Finnish university will significantly hurt my attempts to gain employment in my area of expertise - is that an accurate impression to draw or have I just read too many of the nay-sayers posts and not seen enough of the 'success story' ones?

I am on the cusp of buying a house in Finland (a bit North of Helsinki) so having a sense of the real opportunities of finding work within a reasonable time frame (six months or so) is quite important to my plans. So if contributors here could help me by sharing their experiences of how long it took to obtain a paying job I would be most grateful.

**Sponsor:**

Sukerkin · Post by **Sukerkin** » Fri Apr 22, 2016 2:27 pm

Well ... that really is a strong sign it would seem. A great many views of the OP and not a single story of how getting a job in Finland is a battle but possible.

Surely there must be someone who frequents these pages with a tale of success to share?

Beep_Boop · Post by **Beep_Boop** » Sat Apr 23, 2016 12:39 pm

20 years of experience in industrial control field and you cannot find work?! This is absolutely insane!
I think I know 4 people in the same field, albeit about half your years of experience, making a killing in Finland (I know the salaries of two of them, lower one is 6500. The other two guys seem to be doing equally well if not better). Zero Finnish language (besides moi and hei).

Anyway, regardless of that, why are you looking for positive stories? How does that help at all? You're your own unique person with unique experience, skills, knowledge, connections, etc. Why take other people's experiences and apply it to yourself?
I can sit here and tell you about my awesome well-paying job that I got in Finland with relative ease, but what good would that do for you? You'll either get a false good feeling or false bad feeling. Neither is good.

cors187 · Post by **cors187** » Sun Apr 24, 2016 8:17 pm

Sukerkin wrote:
Surely there must be someone who frequents these pages with a tale of success to share?

Get ready to be fleeced by the social labor system.

cors187 · Post by **cors187** » Sun Apr 24, 2016 8:19 pm

Sukerkin · Post by **Sukerkin** » Mon Apr 25, 2016 11:27 am

Thank you, Beep_Boop, that is pretty much all I needed to hear i.e. that there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is not necessarily an oncoming train

.

I was really looking for a rough guess as to the time frame of getting my feet under the table in a paying job for, whilst I can likely keep the wheels on for a couple of years without employment (once I've bought a house), I obviously would prefer not to drain my savings more than I need to. As you say tho, with everyone having their unique story and talents then seeking an 'average' is a somewhat forlorn endeavour.

As roger_roger suggests, I'll just dig in to my studies of Finnish, taking on board a little help in the form of a tutor to guide my linguistic steps and keep on popping out those employment applications until I get a return echo

.

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