65DN follows a foreigner’s quest for a job.

The personal and social costs of unemployment can be severe. Increased social isolation, an erosion of self confidence and financial problems can play a role in coping with an undesirable situation. According to the Regional Employment Center Oulu has a 12% unemployment rate. How do you spend your day when you´re out of work and what can you do to find a job? 65 Degrees North talks to Sergey Osmekhin to find out.

Sergey Osmekhin

Sergey, tall stature with slightly hunched shoulders comes originally from Saint Petersburg. He arrived 7 years ago to pursue a PhD in Physics at Oulu University.

“I´m unemployed since the beginning of this year” he says with a soft voice . “I knew during my research that I would be out of work after my dissertation.” His thesis is about electron and ion spectroscopy.

Generally speaking, the university encourages doctoral graduates to do their post doctoral fellowship elsewhere and Sergey thinks it has its advantages and disadvantages. “The main reason to change place is to get experience in different groups, but I know many people who quit science because the family does not want to leave.”

Sergey decided to sign up at the Regional Employment Centre and was, after one month at home, enrolled in a full time Finnish language course. “It´s quite nice to learn Finnish” he says. “Also, I meet other foreigners and it keeps me occupied during weekdays. I hope it will help me to get a job.”

Sergey, lives with his Russian wife and their 3 year old son in Linnanmaa, an area close to the university. “My son goes to the daycare and my wife is doing her PhD in Biotechnology” he says, so financially we can survive. “Also, as a member of the trade union (FUURT) for researchers and teachers I receive approximately 60% of my previous income.”

Job openings

Sergey sent approximately 50 job applications throughout Finland. Not even half of them replied and he was only invited for an interview at Marioff, a company in Helsinki and at NokiaSiemens Network in Oulu.

During the first interview he felt the people were not really interested. “Maybe because of the Finnish language” he says. “But the second interview went well. Unfortunately they choose someone with more experience in the field.”

Sergey regularly checks the “Mol” website from the Regional Employment Center which he thinks is a very good source of information. “It´s all in Finnish so I use Google translate to understand what jobs are available and what the requirements are” he nods. “There´s also a site called “Tip Top” that advertises jobs for physicists all over the world.”

“I have no experience with recruitment agencies” he says. “It would be interesting to find out what kind of help they offer.”

Going abroad?

“Staying in Finland is important to my family. “Of course it depends on my wife too, but there´s a strong research group in physics here and Finland is close to Saint Petersburg so it´s easy to go home” he admits.

Apart from a scientific job he´s also actively looking for employment possibilities with companies in Finland and, as he says maybe in Sweden. “And if nothing happens before the end of this year we will certainly try our luck elsewhere.”

How do you prepare yourself for job interviews?

“I Googled “job interviews to learn what´s done and not done” he says. “I wear a formal suit and try to impress the committee with my knowledge about research development. The weirdest thing they´ve asked me during a job interview was if I could sleep well if there were technical or social problems at work” he says with amazement.

Cleaning

“I´m not going for a cleaning job” he says resolutely. “I think I can do something more useful such as teaching or programming.” These activities come closer to who I am and what my skills are.

Sergey thinks he´s strong in his field and finds he quickly absorbs new information. His hobbies are jogging, swimming, reading and skiing. At the end of May the Finnish language course will end. There´s no job for him yet but despite that I see a very confident young man who trusts that, sooner or later things will work out for him. “I´m happy in Finland” he says when we end the interview.