Working in Finland How to Apply for a Job in Finland? Jan Kraufvelin Åbo Akademi University Career Services (Arbetsforum)
Content The Finnish labour market Know what you want and what you can Different kind of skills / competences Job application What can I do to get a job?
The Finnish labour-market Official unemployment ~9% (12/2014) Unemployment among newly graduated academics ~6 % (2012) Quite difficult also to get part-time, training and summer jobs for students in the current economic climate Helsinki-oriented for higher educated Mostly SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) Finland has a total of ~322 000 enterprises of which 99,8 % are SMEs employing less than 250 people. 93,3 % of Finnish companies have fewer than 10 employees. Almost all job-environments require knowledge of Finnish (or Swedish might be sufficient in some specific geographical regions), only English is not usually enough Ageing society
Finnish employers appreciate high education work experience social skills service-orientation language skills intrapreneurship ability to see the big picture ability to adapt to change & insecurity flexibility to undertake different tasks desire for professional development an active approach!
Have Clear Goals & Know Your Strengths CLEAR GOALS What do you want from a job? What have you been particularly interested in at earlier jobs? How convincing are your education, work experience, personal skills etc. in relation to what you are seeking? Your first job(s) will not necessarily match your ambitions, before being considered for more demanding jobs. How do your plans for the near term differ from your long term ambitions? KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS Recognizing your own skills correctly helps you find the jobs that suit you best, and increases the probability of getting hired. It is important to remember to consider all aspects of your life, competences and experiences.
Competence & personal traits Hard skills General, transferable (soft) skills Personal traits
Hard skills Subject specific and teachable abilities that can be defined and measured. Specific hard skills are essential for getting a specific job done (e.g. accounting for accountants) By contrast, soft skills are usually less tangible and often much harder to quantify. For most jobs, the hard skills are essential to getting the interview, but it's the soft skills and personality traits that will land you the job because employers want someone who won't just perform their job function, but will be a good all-rounder, a good personality fit for the employer as well as make a good impression on clients and get along with collegues.
Transferable, soft skills These are competences that can be carried over from one environment to another. You can develop these skills during your work experience, your studies and/or your extracurricular activities. For example, you could improve your customerservice skills by working on the customer service desk in a supermarket or demonstrate your teamwork skills in a group project at university.
Examples of transferable skills Life management Communicational skills Leading people and tasks Innovation skills Learning skills Interaction skills Coordinating skills Creative skills Scheduling skills Skill to listen Decision making skills Personal strengths Analytical- and problem solving skills Oral communication skills Written communication skills Management skills Skills to control conflicts Planning- and organizational skills Ability to face changes Ability to face risks Envision skills
Personal traits and values Personality, attitude and motivation What kind of jobs suites my personality? What kind of jobs suites my lifestyle? What kind of jobs suites my believes and values? What do I want to do right now? Why?
Job application A normal job application in Finland consists of two documents an application letter and a CV Don t attach anything else if not specifically asked to do so Job application documents marketing yourself Look at your application as a marketing letter Think that you have to market yourself (not only your expertise) to someone who (most often) don t know anything about you from before Promote positive aspects of yourself, not negative details You can/should brag a little bit about yourself, but don t overdo it! Remember the purpose of your application: To wake interest in the employer To take you to the next step - the job interview NOT to tell exactly everything about yourself
Application (cover) letter & CV (Curriculum Vitae) A good cover letter is: Short (max one A4 page), concentrated on the most relevant Clear, good language - don t use common phrases Personal, but still professional Answers to the job add http://teekkarintyokirja.tek.fi/en/job-advertisement-jobapplication A good CV: A list of your (mostly) professional achievements Informative but still easy to read Should generally fit on two A4 pages http://teekkarintyokirja.tek.fi/en/cv-models-2015 Drop-in CV-clinics at Career Services (UTU/ÅAU)!
What can I do to get a job? To get experience, try to get a summerjob, internship or part-time job, or even start your own company Be pro-active - Jobs don t come to you - You have to go to them Take part in different projects and/or camp activities, you get a great deal of experience there Project Aces Challenge-camps Also use other services as: The Employment Office (TE-services) Professors and other teaching personel Recruitment Agencies Your personal contacts Entrepreneurship societies, as Boost Turku etc.
Thank you! & Good luck!