When did you decide to move to Poland? Why did you choose 3City?
My story with Poland began when I was in my final year of secondary education and, like most students, I thought that choosing a university was one of the most important decisions in my life. It is worth noting that I was only 17 years old, some are surprised by this fact. This is due to the fact that there is a completely different educational system in Ukraine and most young people go to university at this age. I had quite ambitious plans for the future so I only considered studying abroad.
I chose Poland for several reasons, one of them being the opportunity to get a European diploma. In addition, Poland is very open to accepting students from the East and offers courses at quite attractive prices. Moving to Poland, I wanted to achieve my plans for studying, starting a career and staying here permanently (or move on to conquer the world). I chose the Tri-City as my destination and I’ve never regretted this choice! I liked this place from the very first time I saw the Old Town in Gdańsk Old Town. I remember how the fog enveloped Motlawa and entered the long market street – it was truly something beautiful! I have lived here for three and a half years and I still love this atmosphere.
What was your experience of looking for a job here in Poland?
I started my adventure in marketing during the second year of undergraduate studies. After reading Philip Kotler’s Marketing Bible from cover to cover, I wanted to translate knowledge into practical applications. At that time, I applied to the careers office of my university, Gdansk School of Banking.
They added my CV to their database and nothing happened for a while. I began to actively monitor the career group on Facebook, where the university’s partners regularly added new posts. After some time scrolling through their Facebook feed, I came across a job advertisement which was a perfect match. The post was seeking a student for the position of Marketing and Sales Specialist in a packaging design company. Right at that very moment I sent my CV and I was in a recruitment interview just a few days later.
One simple trick that helped me get to an interview with a future employer – a few days after sending a CV – was asking the careers office specialist to call the company and ask if my CV had reached them and if they had any questions. In addition, the careers office specialist recommended my candidacy for the given position which was very kind of her, of course.
What was your first work experience in Gdańsk?
I worked in that company for about two years. One of the most important things myself to do in those few years was multitasking.
I was a great example of putting my university’s advertising slogan into practice: „Time to study, time to work, time to live”. I had classes 2-3 times a week and at the same time I worked in a part-time company. I also had internships, with the first being at an SEO Agency and then at the Marketing Agency. These were very intense times but I very much doubt that I could have learned all that I did solely from my university.
Nowadays, I try to focus on some of the most important things for me and do my best not to be distracted. I carry out my marketing experiments at Leocode and I study Design Graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts.
What would you recommend to other people from Ukraine who are considering moving to Poland and working in the IT industry? Where should they start? What should they be aware of?
Many of my friends at university say they can’t find a job because they’ve just graduated or are still in education, and that they don’t have enough experience to boast about in a resume. In addition, they complain that they are foreigners which further complicates their situation. I would like to correct some of these claims.
I have prepared for you 11 tips from my experience:
- Choosing a university
If you want to combine studies and work, choose private universities that will either allow you to do this or engage in extramural studies.
- Careers office at your university
If you are a student, get help from the careers office.
- Free internships and apprenticeships
Don’t be afraid to go for free internships. I completely understand that it is easy to become demotivated when working for free, but it is worth bearing in mind that if you want to have a „nice” CV and mentors who will guide you in developing further – sometimes you need to spend several months offering your services for free. Of course, I’m not talking about internships where your main duty is to make coffee and just do basic admin – this isn’t useful to your career. You do need to be careful, however, because some companies do adopt such a strategy. Every three months they hire new trainees to whom they promise further employment, and after the internship they say goodbye and find new people to replace them with.
When deciding on this type of cooperation, I recommend reading opinions about the company on such websites such as Gowork.pl to help you make an informed decision.
- The more we train, the better we are.
In terms of interviews, more training means less stress, greater confidence and a wider arsenal of answers to recruitment questions. If after the second recruitment interview no one offers you a job, it doesn’t mean that it will not be possible on the twelfth time of asking.
- Recruitment tasks
Don’t be afraid to do recruitment tasks. I know that sometimes it can take several days to do such a task, but it’s worth understanding that this is the best way for an employer to see what you can actually do.
Often, a potential employer will give tasks that are on the list of “typical” everyday jobs that you’ll need to do if you get offered the position. Therefore, if you feel that the task is too difficult for you, you already know what you need to learn. Besides, doing these tasks can help you expand your portfolio.
For example, when I was applying for a job in Leocode, I was given this task:
„You have a specific, limited advertising budget. Prepare an advertising strategy.”
I prepared a presentation in which I thoroughly described my vision in 10 slides. Later, I found out that some candidates for this position just send one sentence, such as: with X budget, I’d spend X on advertising on Google and X on advertising on Facebook. The conclusions seem obvious. Thanks to this, I’m writing to you from our office in Gdynia. By the way, our office is located right by the Baltic sea, so usually, at work I look like this:
- Creative CV
A CV must be creative, especially if you apply for a job at Software House or another digital industry company. Personalization is important.
Once, I applied to a company for a position called „Pineapple for Marketing” (Junior Marketer). My CV looked like an advertisement for multivitamin juice!
- You are needed in the labor market
Being a foreigner can be a bonus in many cases. Firstly, you know several foreign languages and many employers see this as a plus for their business. You can help them with expanding their operations to Eastern markets and communicating with clients in their native language.
- Work in English
Remaining on the subject of foreign languages, it is worth mentioning that in many international (and national) corporations that are located in Poland, all communication in the company is in English. Even without knowing Polish, there is a great chance of finding a good job.
- Valuable contacts on LinkedIn
Of course, doing ctrl+c, ctrl+v on Pracuj.pl is a very comfortable way to look for a job, but not always effective. Network – add people from your industry to your LinkedIn network and ask if they need new people for their team.
I once read a book about PR that made a very good impression on me. I found the author on Linkedin and it turned out that she was from the Tri-City. I wrote to her about my impressions from the book and asked if she was looking for willing hands to work. As a result, we’ve done several very interesting projects together.
- Industry events
Every day, hundreds of free IT industry events take place in Poland where you can meet cool people from your industry and establish cooperation for the future. At Leocode, we often run free webinars for programmers which can be found on our social media pages here: Facebook, Instagram
I know that not everyone actively uses Facebook in Ukraine as there are other, more popular types of social media. But, Facebook is number one in Poland so be sure to register and look for events that may interest you. Recently, event options have been provided to us by LinkedIn, so I recommend you check it out.
- „Career” tab
Often, companies do not have time to place a job offer on a website and they simply add it to their website in the „Career” tab, so it’s absolutely worth opening a list of companies from your city and doing some research.