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Many foreigners in Finland start looking for work by sending their CV and a covering letter to a possible employer and are amazed when that company simply doesn’t bother to write back at all. But according to many Finns interviewed for 65 Degrees North, simply sending a letter or an email is not the way that things are done in Finland.
‘I just couldn’t believe it! ’‘I just couldn’t believe it,’ said one expat who has been here a few years. ‘When I write to Finnish people – whether it’s looking for work or whatever it – they just don’t write back! It’d be so rude where I come from!’ Many expats in search of work tell the same story of coming to Finland and writing letters or sending emails just like they would in their own country. ‘In Italy,’ said one student looking for part time work, ‘you probably wouldn’t get written back to by everyone but at least some people would write and say, “Ok, I’d like to meet you” or “No, sorry. There’s nothing for you.” But here I find nobody writes back, not even to say that they got the email or letter!’ ‘The weirdest thing,’ another expat, from Greece, told me, ‘is that a lot of companies have the possibility to send your CV and experience on their website – as if they want you to write to them – but still you here nothing back.’ And yet another expat heard nothing back even after writing a formal letter – just as a Finn would. However, unlike the Finns, there was no response . . . until his Finnish wife happened to randomly meet the employer in question. ‘Maybe he assumed I can’t be that uncivilised if I’m married to a Finn!’ the expat guessed. Showing Enthusiasm But Finns who were interviewed about this were not in the least bit surprised that expats who had sent emails and letters in search of work had received no response. ‘I always send a letter and a CV and then I ring,’ said one Oulu University student, with regard to how she’d managed to find summer work. ‘It shows that you’re really interested . . . that you actually want the job.’ ‘Maybe it’s to do with being foreign as well,’ another student, who had formerly done work at various embassies added. ‘There was some programme on TV about this. They’re far more likely to ignore your application if you have a foreign name. But if they actually talk to you then particularly older Finns might think, “Oh! This foreigner’s not that bad! He might even do a better job than a Finn!” I think a lot of people just don’t quite trust foreigners.’ ‘It’s just lazy to write,’ claimed a teacher from a Finnish coastal town. ‘Anybody can just send off letters and change a few sentences in the letter for the different companies but if you actually call people that shows that you’ve really made an effort. You really care. Maybe it even shows them that you’re hard working and you don’t give up easily.’ An English student at Oulu University agreed saying, ‘Maybe you have to ring them three or four times. Some people just can’t face saying “No” to you but normally if you do this it shows that you don’t just want any job . . . you seriously want to work for them.’ ‘Don’t Call. We Won’t Answer’ Another student pointed out that some job advertisements specifically state ‘Don’t call. We won’t answer.’ This implied, he assumed, that ‘calling’ is culturally expected. ‘When you’re unemployed here and KELA sends you on courses one of the things that they tell you to do is to ring up to check that the company has the application and then to ring up again. I don’t know why but it’s just kind of expected.’ A German expat had found the same thing. ‘Sometimes with companies they say “Don’t ring us” and they get a bit annoyed if you do,’ she said. ‘But maybe with the smaller companies you have to ring.’ ‘It’s the way you get work in Finland,’ declared a church worker. ‘You have to be active. You have to get to know people. You have to ring people. I guess it’s a kind of psychology thing. If they speak to you, they’re more likely to remember you . . . if they speak to you they might think, “Yeah I quite like that foreigner. She was fun!”’ ‘It also depends on the job’ claimed another student. ‘With some jobs, like being a chef, it’s kind of expected everywhere that you come in and do some cooking. With anything that’s kind freelance . . . that’s about you personally . . . it’s definitely better to ring or to meet them. In Finland, I think people are a bit confused by the idea of anyone – even Finns – working freelance. There isn’t even a word for it in Finnish!’ However, some expats had a lot of luck contacting people by email. Lee Walton, from England, found work as a computer games designer in Oulu mainly through sending emails in English. But one Oulu company director emphasised, as did others, that older employers may be more sceptical of employing foreigners or doing anything in English.
‘No Idea Why’ ‘I’ve no idea why it is that you have to ring,’ commented one cultural studies student, thinking about the way in which Finns are normally stereotyped as being ‘un-talkative’ and disliking of conflict. ‘It’s much easier to say “No” to someone looking for work in an email than on the phone or face-to-face but that’s just kind of the way it is.’ A taxi driver and history student had found exactly the same thing. He insisted, ‘It’s nothing to do with being foreign. It’s the same for Finns if it’s a small company. It’s a kind of filtering process. I applied for this one job and I rang up three times. They wanted to see how interested people were – that was their filter – and people would ring up if they were really interested.’ He added, ‘I find it a lot easier to call and ask than to draw up a resume . . . maybe a lot of Finns do.’ According to Heikki Tala, chairman of the Finnish Culture and Identity Association, there is a long history in Finland of being ‘very reluctant to respond to letters . . . and now with emails.’ ‘Finnish people are quiet in two languages, we don’t speak and we don’t write,’ he said. ‘We feel that our English is very bad’ he told me in explaining why Finns don’t want to respond in English, ‘and we were a colony where we were just told to “Shut up!” It’s changing now . . . but there’s a long history of just being quiet and not answering letters.’
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