Study / Is the University of Warsaw good? [26]

First of all, it is extremely difficult for foreign students to find work during or after their studies in Poland. You MIGHT find work, but then you might win the lottery, get struck by lightening or get eaten by a shark. If you cannot afford to finance your studies on your own without working, then Poland is not the place for you. Make your plans on the very safe assumption that you will not earn a single penny during your stay in Poland. The same goes for the other poorer countries in southern and eastern Europe.

Second of all, studying engineering in Poland is probably no better than studying engineering in India. The main problems are:

1) no work or other forms of financial assistance for foreign students.

2) poor job prospects after you graduate in Poland.

3) very little research and development is done in Poland, so funding for engineering programs is low and opportunities for interesting research projects and internships are very few.

4) practical courses are of low quality because of budget constraints, equipment is outdated and jealously guarded by professors, and focus is on theoretical learning.

5) Polish universities do not form partnerships with industry and business, at least as much as in richer countries, and this limits opportunities for good paid internships and job opportunities.

6) Polish universities in general do not offer job placement assistance.

Next, mechatronics is not one of the highly paid fields of engineering, and job prospects are below average. It would be better to study one of the highly paid fields with superb job prospects, especially petroleum, geological and biomedical engineering. It will be much easier for you to find work in these fields, and your lifetime earnings and savings potential will be much higher.

If you don't want to study in India, then pick a place that has lots of research and development dollars flowing in it, like the United States and the other English speaking countries, the richer countries of northwestern Europe like Germany, Switzerland and Sweden, South Korea and Japan. For example, if you are a good student, you can get accepted into a good university in the United States, and they can provide you with tuition assistance, even full scholarships, and jobs for students are much easier to find than in Poland. It's absolutely wonderful to be a student at a university where research and development money runs in rivers.

If you cannot get into a petroleum, geological or biomedical engineering program in a rich country now, then go to a good school in India, do very well, and transfer in two years. You may have to start from the beginning after you transfer, but you will be a a big advantage because you will have learned the mathematics needed; study your math like your life depends on it. It will save you a lot of time and trouble during your studies. Nothing holds you back more in an engineering program like inadequate knowledge of math.

Also, study the language of your target country as if your life depends on it. This is especially important for Indians who tend to vastly overestimate their knowledge of English. Read lots and lots of science fiction and fantasy novels, and look up every word you don't know in the dictionary. Of all the types of literature, science fiction and fantasy have by far the greatest range of vocabulary. Read basic books in physics, chemistry, and mathematics so that you are familiar with the academic language, as well.

Read a book or two about logical and rhetorical fallacies. They are usually called "critical thinking". It will also save you a lot of time and trouble. A student with good critical thinking skills is like a T. rex among chickens.

Last of all, learn to network NOW. Learn how to win over professors, prospective employers and peers. A large part of studying is learning how to effectively network. For example, professors have at their disposal lots of "cookies", things like letters of recommendation, leads for jobs and internships, semesters abroad, and invitations to international conferences. They give them out to the students who enter their heads first; not necessarily the best students. During your studies, a main goal is to be one of the students that your professors think of first. So practice networking in India now by arranging meetings with professors and senior engineers and asking intelligent questions. Graduates who know how to network move up the corporate ladder than those who don't. Shy people often end up doing boring work in windowless basements, so if you are shy, learn to be assertive at any cost.

Work / Warsaw vs Krakow vs Wroclaw - which city offers more job opportunities for foreigners in Poland? [9]


Not students, and not recent grads. Even Polish students and recent grads have trouble finding work in Poland.


Umm... the red you see around the richer cities in Poland is primarily due to internal migration from poorer rural areas in Poland, especially in the eastern part of the country, rather than foreigners migrating to Poland.

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]


His usual mantra is to maximize savings potential in absolute dollars, not income, as I explained above. As for non-science degrees, I always recommend highly in-demand, highly paying fields like financial engineering, financial mathematics, econometrics and actuarial science.


No. They retain their departments in their home countries, at least the higher level positions, especially specialists, management and admisitration, and transfer the low-level grunt work to cheaper countries like Poland where they can pay much less.

This is lousy for several reasons:

Most importantly, workers in SSCs are cut off from the core of the corporate structure, which makes advancement in the corporate ladder very difficult. Upper level management and administrative positions are filled by people who work in the home country, not in the SSCs. It's worse than being stuck in some windowless basement in the home country, where there is at least some chance that someone upstairs might notice them when they go outside for a smoke.

Interesting, rewarding projects generally stay in the home country, and SSC workers are generally stuck with the mundane grunt workers that workers in the home country don't want to do. This also limits advancement, as doing grunt-work does little to enhance ones CV.

Practically all hiring, firing and retention decisions in an SSC are made on the basis of keeping wages as low as possible. Job security sucks, and workers get stuck in low paid positions without the means to escape to greener pastures.

There are practically zero chances for continuing education or other forms of self-improvement, both because of the language barrier and cost. SSCs are extremely reluctant to spend money to improve and retain staff because replacements are so easy to find, especially from countries like India and Pakistan that see any job in Poland as a back door to the richer countries of the EU.

Work conditions generally suck, wages are much lower, quality of life is lower, relative cost of living is higher, job security is poorer, and savings potential is drastically lower.

Sorry, but given the choice between relocating to Poland to work in a lousy SSC for peanuts, it would be much better to stay at home and beef up one's salable qualifications, or to do so at a school elsewhere that offers programs that are much more salable than anything you can get in Poland.

Bottom line, as I've said many times before, if you come to the conclusion that working or studying in Poland is your best or only option, you have failed miserably at exploring all the better opportunities available to you, either for employment or further education. There are precious few exceptions, and this is not one of them. There's a reason why so many Poles seek employment in the West.

Work / Warsaw vs Krakow vs Wroclaw - which city offers more job opportunities for foreigners in Poland? [9]


None. It is unlikely that you will be able to find work in Poland either during your studies or afterward. Poland is not a rich country, and jobs are hard to find even for Polish people, who often go to richer countries to find work. In Poland, people with degrees in economics are as common as cockroaches and consider themselves lucky if the can find low-paid jobs like sweeping floors or putting cans on shelves in a supermarket, so even jobs like that will not be available to you.

Also, there is little point in studying in Poland. If you want to study outside of China, then pick a good university in a richer country in northwestern Europe, the English speaking countries or Asia. If you can't afford it, then study in your own country.

Last of all, if you want to work in richer countries, get a useful degree. A degree in economics is essentially worthless. There are already far too many people with economics degrees in the world, and no one needs any more. Go back to school and study a math-intensive field like econometrics, financial engineering, financial mathematics or actuarial sciences. You old enough to know one of the greatest secrets in life: math is money, and no math, no money, honey. Someone should have told you that earlier (actually, lots pf people did, but you just didn't listen).

So now, go back to school and get a serious degree in a serious field that serious employers who pay serious money take seriously on the job market.

In any case, Poland is not a realistic part of your plan.

News / Poland have the 3rd best Education System of Europe [49]

Secondary education is pretty good, but tertiary is abysmal.

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]

I will no longer respond to your trolling.

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]


That can be done. It doesn't take much imagination to come up with several ways that are probably available to the OP. And if not, a modestly paying part-time job with a lot of down-time that can be used to study can help fill the gap, as I suggested above. Something like security guard or hotel night clerk.

In any case, working in a lousy SSC in Poland is one of the worst options available to the OP, and is tantamount to career suicide.

Study / Student from Nepal travelling to Poland with dependent for further studies. Any job? [87]

An MBA from Poland is not worth much on the job market. MBAs in general are not worth much unless they are from very good programs in top schools and are backed up by abundant prior serious management experience.

You would be much better off spending the time to get a degree in a math-intensive field like financial engineering, financial mathematics, econometrics or actuarial sciences. Or an engineering degree in a highly paid, in-demand field like petroleum, geological or biomedical engineering. They are much more salable on the job market than MBAs.

Oh, and Poland is not the place to do this. Try the richer countries of Western Europe and the English speaking countries, especially the United States and the United Kingdom.

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]

I probably did read more into your post than you intended, but I did get the impression that you were implying that those who retire early are either dishonest or deluded fools. Also, as far as materialism goes, having lived long enough in both countries, I have to say that Poles are much more mercenary and obsessed about money than Americans are, which is about what you would expect from Maslow's pyramid. Americans may be more obsessed about "success", but they are much less likely to define success in terms of money or material possessions than Poles are, stereotypes notwithstanding.

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]

False dichotomies all around here. I certainly earn my keep honestly, and while early retirement may be paradise, I am enjoying it to the fullest by producing at a level that I could never do before. I'm not wasting my time on the golf course, if that's what you think.

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]


Absolutely. You would be in a far better place than you would be with just a law degree, and, in spite of the late start, your lifetime earnings and savings potential would be several times higher, as well. You will make up the 5 years lost wages in the first year out of school. Students in the fields I mentioned are usually employed even before they finish their studies. They are very highly in demand, and paid accordingly.

I myself did something similar. I got a Ph.D. in research biology, and faced working in academia for the rest of my life, which was not too appealing to me. At age 28, I went back to medical school, and with a double degree, I was able to retire young, thanks to several biomedical patents.

Now I'm back in the US and trying to make another one of my patents generate a profit, which is fun because I don't have to worry about money to survive. Life is really a lot of fun when you have enough money.

The one thing that you have to realize about high-tech and engineering degrees is that they give you incredible freedom to shape your career to your taste. Without having to scratch my head, I can easily list a hundred fun, exiting, profitable and satisfying things that a lawyer with a math-intensive degree can do, and none of them involve boring drudge work behind a desk in a windowless basement of some soulless corporation, despite the stereotypes you may have in your mind. If you can't easily come up with a similar list, the failure is on your part because of your lack of familiarity with what engineers and mathematicians can actually do. The possibilities are countless, especially if you also have a law degree.

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]


Even no job in Italy would be better than what he can count on in Poland, if he uses that time to prepare for and pursue a more useful degree that can enhance his law degree.

Giving up your home-court advantage and support network of family and friends is a very foolish move indeed if its done for a girl and a lousy, dead end job in a backward country that pays peanuts and provides no hope for advancement. Better to sleep in Mom's basement, work part-time as a night receptionist in a hotel, and study like it's going out of style.

A law degree from any country can be extremely useful anywhere if it is paired with a serious degree of the type I mentioned: financial engineering, financial mathematics, econometrics, actuarial sciences, and petroleum, geological or biomedical engineering. And the earnings would be at least ten times as much as in some lousy, windowless, soul grinding SSC hellhole in Poland, where it would be impossible to save up any money for modest short-term goals, never mind retirement.

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]

Yes, you misunderstood. Totally. Read post #11 again. Carefully.

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]

I did not advise the OP to go work in a richer country.

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]


Wrong question. Again, false dichotomy. Poland sucks as a career choice for this individual, and there's no point in putting lipstick on that pig.


I listed several.


Logical failure of the worst sort here. No, that is a total non-sequitur, and utterly wrong.


I did no such thing. I just pointed out that working in a richer country would be much better than working in Poland in just about every respect, especially savings potential. Having a nest egg opens up opportunities in terms of self-improvement.

My advice to to reschool, so that he doesn't end up spending the rest of his miserable life together with all the unambitious, unimaginative losers that eke out an pitiful dead-end existence trapped in lousy SSCs in backward countries like Poland.

You asked me to define SSC, and that's as good as a definition as you will ever get: a graveyard for unambitious, unimaginative losers.

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]

I answered your question directly, completely and correctly. No elaboration is necessary.

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]

When there are better options available, and there a plenty of much better ones in this particular case, any SSC is a lousy SSC.

Work / What are the job opportunities in Poland for a young Italian with a law degree? [72]


No, no, no, no, for God's sake NOOOOOOOO! That is not the choice. Those are only two options out of many, many options available to this guy, and neither of them is even close to the best option. And working at some lousy SSC in Poland is pretty darn close to career suicide.

He could try to find work in a richer country. With or without his girlfriend. Cashwise, it would be a lot better than working a dead end, poorly-paid, soul-crushing job in a call center. But with a lousy law degree, chances of advancement anywhere are limited.

He could also cross-train in a more useful field than law, or in a field that increases the value of his law degree. Of course, I'm going to trot out my stock recommendations: financial engineering, financial mathematics, econometrics, actuarial sciences, and petroleum,geological or biomedical engineering. Combined with a law degree, a serious math-intensive degree can open a lot of doors, especially for someone who does not have connections, as the OP apparently doesn't.

To me, reschooling seems to be by far the best option for the OP. In any case, Poland does not enter into the equation, neither for work, nor for school. He should focus on finding a serious program at a good university, and, if necessary take a year or two to bring his math up to the level that he will be accepted into a good program at someplace like London School of Economics or Imperial College, for example.

And he's going to have to be realistic about the future of his relationship with this girl. He has bigger fish to fry, and she probably does, too.

Study / Studying Marketing, Branding, Communication in Warsaw, any good university? [8]


Agree on that.


Or take advantage of their youth and upgrade to a field with much better job prospects and lifetime savings potential.

Study / Studying Marketing, Branding, Communication in Warsaw, any good university? [8]


I got the impression from the OP's post that they have no experience and are fresh out of undergrad school. In any case, they say nothing about experience, so both of us are working on different assumptions.

Study / Studying Marketing, Branding, Communication in Warsaw, any good university? [8]


Classic case of sampling bias. Also, no one here on PF seems to appreciate the value of humorous hyperbole.


Dentistry opens doors, though not for a foreigner in Poland. Law doesn't, unless you have good connections. Most people who graduate from law school never work a single day as a lawyer, both in Poland and the US. It's a notoriously difficult profession to break into, and in both countries, law schools produce far more graduates than the market can absorb.


Have two humanities degrees myself. Yes, they make you richer person spiritually, mentally and culturally, but I'm glad I have my science and medicine degrees to butter my bread, as well.

By the way, I don't consider marketing, media and communications as "humanities" or "liberal arts". They are too vocational for that.


The OP is asking about masters programs, not undergraduate programs.


Which is more or less what I suggested. Watch this brief speech by Guy Kawasaki for similar advice based on the regrets of what most people consider a fabulously successful man:

youtube.com/watch?v=4PSR09ZSfTY

Study / Studying Marketing, Branding, Communication in Warsaw, any good university? [8]


A degree in any of those fields from a school in Poland would entitle you to park cars, put cans on supermarket shelves, sweep floors or wash dishes. In other words, degrees like this are just about useless, unless they are from top schools, none of which are in Poland. And even then, they are not all that useful.

Study something useful that will help you get a highly-paid and rewarding career, something with tons of applied mathematics like financial engineering, financial mathematics, econometrics, actuarial sciences or a highly-paid engineering field like petroleum, geological or biomedical engineering.

People with degrees in easy, math-free fields like marketing and communications are as common as cockroaches, and there are far too many graduates for the number of jobs available. Most end up working in low paid jobs sweeping floors, washing dishes, or putting cans on supermarket shelves, if they are lucky to find work at all. Or even worse, they end up in telemarketing or direct marketing doing cold-call sales, one of the worst jobs on the planet.

If you want a future worth living for you and your future family, hit the books, beef up your math, and study a useful field like the ones I mentioned above at a good university in the rich countries of Western Europe, the English speaking countries, South Korea or Japan. Your children will love you for it. Math is money, and as far as your future kids are concerned, math is love.

Study / Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management in Gdansk is a good or bad one? [6]


Because far too many people study easy, math-free subjects like hotel management, recreation and tourism, so there are way too many graduates each year for the few management jobs available. Everybody wants to be a manager, so management courses are very popular, and therefore useless.

Also, you don't need a degree in hotel management to get a job as a hotel manager. You don't need a degree at all. It's not rocket science, and the employer will train you in all you need to know anyway. Why spend three or four years getting a degree in something you can learn in a couple of months. Your chances are probably better if you have something like an accounting degree and certificate.

The WORST way to get into management is to study management (unless it's at an incredibly good school, not someplace in Poland). Study something useful, like the fields that I mentioned above, and you will earn a lot more than any hotel manager makes.

Also, if you think that you are going to get a job as a manager in Germany or Sweden without advanced knowledge of those languages, forget about it. And studying in Poland is not going to help to much because Polish is very different from German or Swedish. Your much more likely to end up as a low-paid chambermaid.

If you want a better life for yourself, think big and think math. Lots and lots of math. And study highly paid fields like financial engineering, financial mathematics, econometrics or petroleum, geological or biomedical engineering. If your studies are easy and not math-intensive, chances are high that you will end up earning little money, if you find work at all.

Sorry, but studying in Poland rarely makes sense for foreigners, and you are no exception. And studying management rarely makes sense unless you go to a top school. Best work, work, work at the math so that you have a very high chance of following a successful, highly-paid and satisfying career. Even if it means taking a year or two now to bring your math up to the level that you can study something serious, it will be well worth it. Your children will love you for it.

Study / Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management in Gdansk is a good or bad one? [6]


As far as Poland, Western Europe and the English speaking countries are concerned, tourism and hotel management is a pretty useless thing to study. There are many, many more graduates in these fields in Poland than there are jobs available, and that goes for most other countries, too. So make your plans on the very safe assumption that you will not be able to find work in Poland or the other countries of the EU after you finish. You have to find out whether this degree is worth anything in your home country. Best to talk to people in the field, especially those who make hiring decisions.

Generally, Poland is not a good country for foreigners to study in. There are no part-time jobs available for students, so you will have to pay for your studies and your stay all by yourself. Unemployment is high in Poland, so it is unlikely that you will find work there after you graduate. So make your plans on the very safe assumption that you will not earn a single penny in Poland during your studies or afterward.

Neither this school or Vistula is a real university, so the degrees from there are not worth very much on the job market.

If you want to find work in the EU or in an English speaking country, then study something useful with a lot of math like financial engineering, financial mathematics or actuarial sciences. You could then specialize in the tourism and hospitality industry and easily find a job.

Or study a highly-paid, highly in-demand engineering field like petroleum, geological or biomedical engineering.

Math is money, and it opens a lot of doors. It might be worth taking a year or two off and brushing up on your math so that you can get into a good program.

Language / Trying to Figure Out a Polish Logo (STO...?) [15]


A lot more common than owning a shirt with Polish words on it. Assume that the words you see on the shirt in the picture are English until proven otherwise.

Law / Student with Austrian resident permit want to continue studying in Poland [4]


Then go first thing Monday morning to the Polish Embassy in Vienna. They will tell you what is and is not possible, and how to apply for the right Polish visa. Do it first thing Monday morning. Time is short, and it might already be too late. Make sure you have all your paperwork with you, including everything from the university in Poland.

Study / Is it worth studying in Poland? International Business for a student and a part time job. [16]


Not much, if at all.


...are generally of very low quality.


Which is exactly why it's worthless on the job market, unless you want to flip burgers or stock supermarket shelves the rest of your life.

Study / Is it worth studying in Poland? International Business for a student and a part time job. [16]


Let's answer this one first. It's extremely difficult, and near impossible, to find any work as a foreign student in Poland. Make your plans on the very safe assumption that you will never earn a single penny during your stay in Poland. If you can't pay for your studies and living expenses without a job, then forget about studying in Poland.


It's useless to study international business anywhere except at top schools like Harvard or London School of economics, and even then... It's one of the most worthless things to study.

Don't waste your time and your parents money studying something useless that will not help you on the job market. This includes most business and economics-related subjects. Far too many people study these majors, and international business graduates are as common as cockroaches.

Instead, study something useful, math intensive and in-demand like financial engineering, financial mathematics, actuarial sciences or econometrics. Or study a good engineering field like petroleum, geological or biomedical engineering.

And do it either in your home country, or in a rich country with lots of R&D dollars, not Poland.

Sorry, but Poland is generally not the best place for foreign students to study. And "business" majors are just about useless.

Work / What is the average accounting/auditing salary in Poland? [42]


Between 5000 and 10000 PLN a month gross ($15,000 TO $30,000 US a year at current rates) , perhaps a bit more if you have tons of regional-level management experience or can do some highly specialized or exotic form of accounting.

Frankly, no matter how you cut it, you are going to take a huge cut in pay, and more importantly, in savings potential in absolute dollars, which will be abysmal compared to what you can save up in the States.

If you want to take a year or two working vacation to relax and learn new skills in Poland, it might make sense. But if you are interested in earning and saving, the only way that that is going to work is to get hired by a company in the States and get transferred to Poland at American wages, which is possible if you have the right skill set, qualifications and experience and know the language already.

As for preparing, I would certainly brush up on those language skills, both in terms of specialist language as well as non-specialist language. Read your tush off to build up vocabulary.

One thing you're probably overlooking is that the cost of living compared to wages is considerably higher than in the States, especially in Warsaw.

I'm assuming that you are a single male with no family to take care of, and no plans of marriage/procreation in the foreseeable future. If you are not, then getting transferred to Poland by a US firm at American wages is going to be the only way that this is going to work.

Study / What is the best medical school in Poland? [33]

What you heard about having a hard time getting into residency programs is very true. Last year, about 5 percent of US medical school graduates failed to get a residency in the US. For graduates of foreign schools, the percentage is 50%. Also, the American graduates generally get the best residencies in the best fields, whereas the foreign graduates are left with the table scraps.

As a foreign graduate, you are at a distinct disadvantage. It will be very difficult for you to visit prospective programs and make valuable contacts before you finish medical school. The goal is to have a good residency lined up well before you finish. To do this, you have to be a stellar student and a stellar person overall. And you have to have plenty of contacts from highly placed professors and physicians at your university and medical school, at the host hospital and in the profession overall, as well in the community overall, who will write glowing letters of recommendation for you. Letters that are taken seriously by the acceptance committee at the host hospital. Sadly, letters from abroad are generally given less weight.

Competition for quality residency programs, or for any residency programs at all, has increased in recent years.

You could bet the farm on the assumption that you will face about a 50% chance of landing a residency after you finish. The chances of getting into a highly desirable program are much lower, though. A good program at a top-notch research hospital can be the best, though hardest, years of your life. A bad program can be mind-numbingly horrendous.

Another thing you are not considering is that you may qualify for substantial amounts of financial aid to medical schools in Canada. Again, letters from high-quality contacts are the key.

By the way, the reason you are going to university is to make powerful and close contacts that will help you in your future career- among your peers, your professors, professors at you future medical school, perspective employers, and leaders in the profession and the community at large. Learning is secondary-

you could do that on your own at home. High-quality contacts are important not only for letters of recommendation, but also a whole bunch of "cookies" like job tips, inside info about medical schools and residency programs, and invitations to international conferences and workshops that look great on your resume, and top-notch career advice.

These cookies are doled out to the students who are the first to enter the head of the professor. Not necessarily the best students, just the first students. The other students get the table scraps, if anything. So your goal during undergraduate and medical school is to make sure that you are the first student that pops into your professors head (in a good way). When I was a student, I was shocked how few students knew this.

Bottom line: going to med school in Canada can open up a lot more doors to a much brighter future than going to a school in Poland if you plan to practice in Canada. Likewise, if you plan to practice in the US, study there. Just make sure you focus on contacts and cookies, as aggressively as you can without being obnoxious or blatantly sycophantic. Don't treat these contacts solely as a way to get a temporary career advantage for yourself, but as people you are genuinely connected with for a lifetime of mutual benefit. Contacts formed in university and medical school can be very long-lived, and very beneficial for all involved. If you can't pay a debt back, you are obligated to pay it "forward" to the next generation.

If you think you are in university to get good grades and get a diploma, think again. You could have the best grades from the best university, but if you go into your professor's or dean's office during your fourth year to ask for a letter of recommendation and he has to ask you your name, you have failed miserably. You're going to university to become an integral part of the world you will be living and working in.