Non-Finnish-Speaker’s Guide to Job Search in Finland

The bad news first: finding a job in Finland can be tough for non-Finnish-speakers. The job market is developing towards being more international, but the change is slow. Yet, it’s not impossible to find a job in Finland. Even though many companies still require Finnish skills from their employees, there are a lot of those who don’t. The companies working in IT and technology are good examples of businesses where the importance of Finnish skills has decreased. Also, many companies with international clients and companies that are expanding to foreign markets are looking for fluent English speakers instead of Finnish speakers.

How to find these positions then? On our website, you can easily filter the jobs that only require English skills. In addition to that, here are a few other tips for the job hunt.

Find your superpower.

The recruitment process is a bargain between the needed skills and the considered beneficial skills from the employer's perspective. These beneficial skills are often the ones that give you the chance to stand out from the rest of the candidates. For this reason, it’s important to learn, how to market your expertise. Try to think what’s the special thing in your expertise. Maybe you are a fluent Chinese speaker? Or perhaps you have expertise in some of the newest Javascript frameworks? Make sure these skills are mentioned in your CV. If you are applying for different types of roles, it might be worth considering having two customized CVs.

When the recruiter calls.

The recruiter calls you to have a better understanding of your skills and get the first impression of you. So, be polite, and do your best! If you are in a bad place to talk tell this to the recruiter so they can schedule a more suitable time for the call. These calls are normally short: 10-20 minutes in total. A short call doesn’t mean that you performed poorly. The recruiter probably just got the information they needed. If you are unsure, how the process is continuing after the call, don’t hesitate to ask the recruiter.

What to do if you get rejected?

Getting rejected while seeking a new job is more of a rule than an exception (for the Finnish speakers too!). Getting the No, thanks message from the job of your dreams really, really sucks. This said, try not to take it personally. There were probably many other good candidates that got the same message. Within every failure, lies a chance. As Henry Ford put it

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”

So, ask for feedback and use this information for your benefit the next time you apply for a job. You can also ask the recruiter, what kind of candidate got the job. Maybe they had a better application letter or maybe the candidate was able to sell their expertise better. Use the information you get as a tip and copy that behavior the next time you apply.

Be persistent.

Last, but not least – don’t give up! With a bit of luck, you might find the job of your dreams quite easily. However, there are a lot of variables in the recruitment process and sometimes the differences between the selected candidate and the one that didn’t get the job, are minuscule. When you are searching for a job, make it your number one priority. Sooner or later, your activeness will be rewarded!