Finnish Trade Unions

While working in Finland, the question of joining or not a trade union will likely come up. According to your university education, you might have already been approached by the union according to your profession.

Here is an introduction to the topic:
What every employee should know about Finnish Trade Unions (PDF).

Top three benefits of belonging to a union, according to me:

• In the case of becoming unemployed, the wage received for unemployment is significantly higher than if you don't belong; i.e. Kela pays approximately 30€/day, whilst belonging to the union will allow you to receive ~70-80€/day (according to your previous salary.
• Different kinds of assistance: career , legal, salary , etc.
• The membership fee is tax free (still to be confirmed in practice)

Fair salaries in Finland

Have you ever been in the situation that you go to a job interview in Finland and have absolutely no idea what is a normal salary level to ask for? How to know what a fair when negotiating salary?

Here in Finland its not very common for people to share how much money they are making. However, you might have already heard about some figures from your university's Career Services' center or from your open finnish friends.

If you have not had such luck in finding relevant information for you, here I will present some information that might help you:

Every year the workers union of economics students (SEFE) publishes a Palkkatutkimus (salary research/investigation). By joining this asociation you get access to several services, most of which are unkown to me and mostly in Finnish, but one that has been very helpful is the Palkkaneuvonta (salary advisory services). When you call the salary specialist they will advise you on how to use the interactive tool and find data about employees with similar conditions as you and tell you how much they earn. The report is only published in Finnish and Swedish.

In the report about salaries in 2010, there were more than 5000 people who participated. Out of which the median salary reported was 4520€ and the average was 5278€. These figures change widely according to your date of graduation, your level in the organisation, your specialization and if you live in the Helsinki area.

As another example you should know that students wo have one year since their graduation have a median salary of 3000€ and an average salary of 3163€, but 25% of them make over 3400€.

To see the full report you can see an article by SEFE and register to their pages.

Additionally, if you want to know more about salaries in Finland and elsewhere. You can visit Glassdoor.com a site were people state their salaries and companies. The information is anonymous, so be aware of the level of seriousness.

Tired of queuing at the Poliisi

I you have ever had to go to the Helsingin Ulkumalaispoliisi to renew your student or working resident permit you know that you have to spend a long time waiting in lines. Sometimes we talk about many hours.

Waiting is a sign of social inefficiency, especially if you are making workers wait (as opposed to unemployed), because those hunders of hours equal a loose-loose situation both in salary and tax for people and government repesptively. I decided to complain about this, and suggested that they have some sort of time reservation system.  To my surprise, they replied to my letter by stating t hat such a system already exists.

The problem was that if you use the English version of the Poliisi.fi site, then you will never see the link. In any case, if you want to reserve time with the poliisi for any police matter, you are able to do so through this page:

https://www.ajanvaraus.fi/isl/rms.do?url=poliisi

Finns love foreigners 4 times more in 20 years

According to a research done by the department of Official Statistics in Finland, the number of families with at least one of the two spouses of foreign nationalities have had a steady growth from 1990-2009 period. The study's figures are 9,958 in 1990 and 37,193 in 2009.

This research released in 2010, shows that during 1995 and 2009 the number of families composed by a Finnish man and a foreign women have multiplied by three. The 2009 figure shows that there are more than 19,000 families with a non-finnish wife. With regards to finnish women, during the same period the study shows an increase of more than 200% in relationships with.

Families of foreign citizens in 1995 and 2009

According the the results, Finnish men are mostly interested in Swedish, Russian and Thai women while Finnish women are mostly interested in Swedish, British and German men. See the entire chart:

Foreign-born spouses of Finnish-born men by country of birth in 2009

Foreign-born spouses of Finnish-born women by country of birth in 2009

Source: Population and Cause of Death Statistics, Statistics Finland

The full publication by Statistics Finland can be found Finland Families 2009 (PDF).

If you have a Finnish university degree, then you have the right to work

This is an extract from finnish law: 

(4) Aliens who have received a degree

or other qualification in Finland have a right

to gainful employment with a residence

permit issued under section 45(1)(1) or

section 47(1)(2) without the matter being

given the consideration laid down in section

72(1). (34/2006)

See more information in the Aliens Act (PDF).

Some job hunting best practices

In general, I consider that the job hunting process is tough and it might require you to spend several hours a day for the applications. In my case, I followed some advices from career coordinators and other successful job hunters. I can share some of the best practices I used:

• Create different versions of your CV and cover letter, this means, you should shape them according to the description of the job your are applying to, describing your previous achievements, studies and experiences that are more relevant to the position. Try to keep your CV as simple as possible. Be precise.

• Make short phone calls to companies before applying and show your interest by asking questions related to the job ad. Sometimes it helps, sometimes is doesn't, but probabilities increase for sure.

• Register all your applications in an excel file, google doc, etc. and save all the information you need, eg. company names, job descriptions, dates, contacts. Most of the companies remove their job ads from their websites after the application's deadlines. It will also help you to keep track of your applications and if an employer calls you, it would likely easy to remember why they are calling you.

• If you have a job interview, make a previous research about the company. Try to research case studies, financial reports, products or services. This would definitely give you a plus from your competition. And always show you are interested in the position, if you really are.

• After a job interview, try to register the questions they have asked you. This would work as a feedback for other interviews.

• Learn Finnish. It is always positive that you have at least some basic skills of the language. In both interviews I had with the Finnish SMEs, they asked about my level of Finnish (in Finnish). Even if you still have basic skills, this definitely shows your interest in the country in a long-term basis.