We tell who are waiting abroad and answer uncomfortable questions about the relocation of IT-specialists to England and Germany.
Nitro often sends us resumes. We carefully translate and send each of them to the client. And mentally wish good luck to the person who decided to change something in his life. Change is always for the better, right? ;)
Want to know if you are waiting abroad and receive instructions for relocation to Europe? We want too! Therefore, we have prepared a list of questions and we will ask them to our friends - EP Advisory , where Russian-speaking specialists are helped to find work and build a successful career abroad.
The guys recently launched a new YouTube project, Moving Stories , where the characters share their stories about moving to England, Germany and Sweden, dispel myths about working and living abroad.
Meet our current interlocutor Elmira Maksudova, career consultant IT & tech.
Elmira, could you please tell us what motivates our people to move to England more often?
Of course, everyone has their own motivation and pushes a person to move not one, but a whole set of circumstances.
But most often it is:
- Finances: salary, pension system.
- Quality of life and opportunities offered: level of culture, climate / ecology, safety, protection of rights, medicine, quality of education.
- Opportunity to develop professionally: many of the IT experts we interviewed assess the technical level of Russian projects as “extremely low” or “low”, including the fact that many Western technologies are beginning to be replaced by Russian solutions, which are several orders of magnitude behind. Also, many developers, according to the survey, are depressed by the state and level of Russian management.
- Unpredictability and instability in society, lack of confidence in the future.
Written in Alconost
Which professions have the highest chance of finding a good job easily and quickly?
If we talk about the UK, then the shortage positions with the facilitated procedure for obtaining a work visa according to the shortage occupation list gov.uk include product managers, developers, game designers, cybersecurity specialists. Also in demand are testing engineers and analysts, DevOps, system engineers (virtualization and cloud solutions), Program Managers, machine learning specialists and Big Data. Demand for these specialties has been growing steadily over the past 5 years. The situation is similar in countries such as Germany, Holland, Switzerland.
European education required?
European education is definitely not necessary. And the mandatory availability of higher education as such depends on the country.
For a British Tier 2 (General) visa, a diploma in a specialty is not a requirement.
But, for example, in Germany the situation is different. If you are considering the possibility of obtaining a Blue Card , then a higher education diploma is required to obtain this visa. Also, the diploma should be in the Anabin database. The candidate himself can verify the presence of a university in this database, and it will be even better if he mentions this at an interview. If your university is not in the Anabin database, it must be verified at ZAB , the Central Office for Foreign Education.
If we talk about a local German work permit, then without a higher education you can get the opportunity to live and work in Germany, but it is much longer and riskier. Numerous checks will be needed here. This is exactly the case in our work right now. When applying for a work visa, letters of recommendation were required, evidence that there is a close relationship between previous experience and the position that the client is applying for.
Not all companies are aware that such an option is possible. Therefore, during consultations, I emphasize all the time - candidates need to know everything about work visas themselves and, if necessary, tell the employer that this is possible and what documents need to be collected. Cases where the candidate himself is engaged in his work permit are quite frequent, especially in Germany.
Photo Felipe Furtado with Unsplash
What is more important - work experience or specific skills? And if skills, then what?
It matters not how many years you have been working, but the relevance of your experience. We have many clients who change the scope of their business and receive education in a completely different field, for example, logistics → project management, network technologies → data analysis, development → application design. In such cases, even the project’s experience as part of a dissertation or training practice becomes very relevant and more suitable for your profile than, for example, a managerial experience 5 years ago.
Hard skills for tech professionals are certainly important, but usually at the level of direction. Very often in vacancies a mix of technologies is given, that is, not 5 years in C ++, but the experience of using several technologies: C ++, Erlang, Kernel Development (Unix / Linux / Win), Scala, etc.
Soft skills are strictly critical. This is an understanding of the cultural code, the ability to conduct communication in an appropriate way, solve problems and find mutual understanding on working issues. All this is checked at the interview stage. But just “talk for life” will not work. Certain mathematics are sewn into the interview process, on the basis of which the candidate is evaluated. We help these laws to learn and learn to play according to the rules of employers.
Elmira, honestly, do you need to know English to work in England?
Technical IT specialists usually have basic knowledge of the English language at least at the technical level - all work is somehow related to English (instructions, code, training materials, vendor documentation, etc.). The technical level of the language will be enough for correspondence, documentation, attendance at conferences - these are entry-level and mid-level positions for developers, system, network engineers, date engineers, testers, mobile developers. Spoken at the middle level, when you can participate in discussions, explain your decisions and ideas - this is already the Senior level for the same roles. There are technical roles (regardless of Junior or Senior level), when fluency in English is critical and can be a criterion for evaluating a candidate - Pre-sales / Sales, engineers, designers, system and business analysts, architects, Project and Product managers, user support (Customer Success / Customer Support Manager), account managers.
Of course, managers need fluent spoken English: for example, for such roles as a team leader, technology director, operations director (IT infrastructure management) or business development director.
What about German / Dutch and other languages ​​besides English?
As for knowledge of the local language in Germany, Holland and Switzerland, they are not required if you speak English. In capitals, there is no particular need to know the language, but in other cities your life will be much easier if you speak the local language.
If you make far-reaching plans, it makes sense to learn a language. And it’s better to start before the move. Firstly, you will feel more confident (during registration, searching for an apartment, etc.), and secondly, you will show the company your interest.
Age? At what age are applicants no longer considered?
On the part of the employer: In Europe and the UK, the law against age discrimination is in force - it is so strictly enforced that employers do not perceive age as one of the characteristics of hiring. The most important thing is your technological horizons, expertise, portfolio, skills and ambitions.
For your part, as a candidate, it is better to move to 50 years. Here we are talking about lightness and the desire to adapt, productivity and an adequate perception of the new.
Photo Adam Wilson with Unsplash
Tell me, how does relocation usually happen?
The most common scenario is that you are looking for work remotely, go through interviews (first a video call, then personal meetings), get a job offer, agree on the conditions, get a visa and move.
This format does not require significant financial investments and takes on average from 1 to 6 months - depending on how actively you are looking for work and which country you plan to move to. We have client cases that went through all stages of selection in 1 month and received a visa in 2 weeks (Germany). And there are cases when only the period for obtaining a visa was stretched for 5 months (Great Britain).
"Inconvenient" question. Is it possible to move on my own without resorting to your help?
Sure. It's great when a person has a strong motivation, is ready to study the issue and do everything himself. We often receive letters like this: “I watched all your 100 videos on the YouTube channel , followed all the advice, found a job and moved. How can I thank you? ”
Why then are we? Our expertise is a tool and knowledge that a person receives in order to solve his specific problem most efficiently and quickly. You can learn to snowboard yourself, and sooner or later you will go anyway, with bumps and not immediately, but you will go. And you can take an instructor and go the next day, fully understanding the process. A matter of efficiency and time. Our goal is to give people knowledge and understanding of the principles of the labor market in a particular country and, of course, share contacts.
Let's talk about salaries, how much is it possible for technicians in the UK to earn?
The salaries of developers in Russia and the UK differ several times: Software engineer: ÂŁ 17,600 and ÂŁ 70,000, Senior Software Engineer: ÂŁ 19,000 and ÂŁ 87,000, IT project manager: ÂŁ 21,000 and ÂŁ 100,000 per year in Russia and UK accordingly.
Including tax, the average monthly income of an IT specialist is ÂŁ 3800- ÂŁ 5500.
If you find a job for £ 30,000 a year, then you can make just £ 2,000 a month - this can be enough for one person, but you can’t live on this money with your family — both partners need to work.
But if your salary is ÂŁ 65,000 (an average level for a developer, data / machine learning engineer), then you will get ÂŁ 3850 in your hands - which is already quite comfortable for a family.
The numbers are tasty, but you can’t say only on them that the standard of living of a person will change significantly. Let's compare salaries after taxes in the Russian Federation and the UK with the cost of goods or services that we use every day.
It seems to me that this is a fundamentally incorrect comparison, and the mistake of many is precisely that they are trying to compare liters of milk, kilograms of apples, the cost of the metro or rental housing. Such a comparison is absolutely useless - these are different coordinate systems.
In England and Europe, a progressive tax system, taxes are higher than in Russia and make up from 30 to 55%.
A liter of milk costs the same, but if you break the screen on your iPhone 11 Pro, in Russia you will have to pay a tidy sum for repairs, and in EU / UK they will fix it for free. If you buy something online and change your mind, you are tormented to return in Russia, but you don’t even need a check in EU / UK. Electronic trading platforms such as Amazon / Ebay, which deliver goods on time and insure you against fraud, can not be compared to individual online stores and even more so Russian mail.
Commercial insurance in EU / UK works like a clock, and you do not need to confirm that you had the right to it, in Russia you just get tired of proving that checking a child’s ears for the 15th time in 2 years is not a disease that has developed earlier, even a chronicle - This is an insured event. Teaching a child English (and mentality) in the lessons of courses and schools or in a natural environment with native speakers. If at school your child is bullied at least drop out of school, in the EU / UK right up to the criminal liability of parents for this.
Renting a house in Europe or England often (especially for a family) translates into the ability to buy your apartment (low interest rates on loans and mortgages) or even a house (which is very unusual for an average Moscow apartment resident), live in the suburbs and travel to London (or not drive and work remotely).
In England, a garden for a child under 3 years old will cost an average of ÂŁ 200- ÂŁ 600 per month. After 3 years, all children receive 15 hours of pre-school education per week at the expense of the state.
Schools are private and public. In private, the cost of training can reach up to ÂŁ 50,000 per year, but there are public schools whose work is rated "excellent" (by the Ofsted testing organization) - they are of very high quality education and are free.
NHS is state-owned free medicine at a fairly good level, but if you want to have commercial all-inclusive insurance in all countries of the world, it will cost ÂŁ 300-500 per person per month.
Photo Aron Van de Pol with Unsplash
Well, I almost decided to move to England. But I’m a little afraid that they will treat me there as a guest worker, that I’ll have to work hard 24 hours a day, and I won’t even be able to go out to drink coffee.
About guest workers: London is multinational, there are a lot of visitors from different countries, so you will find yourself in the same situation as many around. Therefore, the concept of migrant workers do not exist. There is such a fun game - count the number of foreign languages ​​in a subway car in London. The numbers can go up to 30, and this is in one car.
About processing: Processing is more often characteristic of startups, and then only at a certain stage. Investors consider the “crazy” work schedule a risk factor. Work-life balance is increasingly welcomed.
Burnout is also extremely serious. Under UK law, “an employer must conduct a risk assessment of work-related stress and take steps to prevent employee illnesses associated with work stress”. Burnout in the UK officially has the status of a disease, and if symptoms appear, go to the therapist, he gives the conclusion that you have stress, and you can rest from work for a week or more. There are many public and private initiatives and organizations that are recognized to care about your mental health. So if you’re tired and want to talk about it, you know where you can call (and even in Russian).
I have two children, a husband and a cat. Can I take them with me?
Yes, if you have a spouse, then they receive a dependant visa with the right to work in the country. Children under 18 years of age also receive a dependent visa. And there are no problems with animals - the procedure for transporting pets is very clearly described.
I don’t feel like about money again, but I have to. How much money do I need to collect for the move?
As a rule, these are visa costs + ÂŁ 945 in your bank account 90 days before applying for a Tier 2 visa + the cost of renting a house for the first 3 months + ÂŁ 500-1000 per month for expenses (it depends on your lifestyle - someone can live on 30 pounds a week, he cooks himself, rides a bicycle / scooter, prefers to buy tickets for a plane or a concert in advance (yes, even for that kind of money you can fly to Europe and hang out at festivals), and someone eats in restaurants, moves by car or taxi, buys new things and tickets a couple of days before departure).
Thanks to Elmira for the interview. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments.
In the following articles we will talk about how to write a resume and write a cover letter so that you are noticed. We will find out whether hunting in people on social networks is widespread in the UK and touch upon the fashionable theme of a personal brand. Stay tuned!
PS If you are a brave and motivated person, leave a link to your resume in a comment before 10.22.2019. So that we can figure out what to do using a live example.
about the author
Article written in Alconost.
Nitro is a professional online translation service for 70 languages ​​created by Alconost.
Nitro is great for translating resumes into English and other languages. Your resume will go to a native translator who will translate the text accurately and competently. Nitro has no minimum order, so if you need to make changes to the translated resume, you can easily send a couple of lines of text for translation. The service is fast: 50% of orders are ready within 2 hours, 96% - in less than 24 hours.