Work / I want to live and work in Poland in 3 years. I'm from Québec, Canada. [16]

Thanks everyone. I am from Canada, and I'm a girl, not an "him" :)

@blank s
You mean it would be easier to get work visa since I'm from Canada and not another english-speaking country? With the Brexit I guess there will be eventually less British people in Poland...and maybe more places for north america foreigners who knows...

I know about the low salaries. From what I looked online, I can expect to get around 6000 to 10k PLN net a month as a junior developer or analyst with 2-3 years of experience. It's not a lot in CAD dollars. Considering that the cost of life is lower in Poland, even in the biggest cities (rents in Warsaw are way cheaper than in Toronto, I compared...), I think you can live very well there with those salaries if you stay in the country and do not travel abroad too often. Am I right? By the way, ExpatInPoland, your offer of 15-20k seems like a great salary in Poland for me!

Unfortunately, companies established in Canada having departments in Poland are rather rare. I may have to apply directly on jobs in Poland (like on pl.indeed.com)...

Work / I want to live and work in Poland in 3 years. I'm from Québec, Canada. [16]

Hi DominicB
You're right, my mistake, let's say it's the salary for a senior developer. I saw a job offer with 6000PLN a month, but it was in an financial institution as a data scientist. It's a different thing... In fact, I want to work a few years in Canada to get rid of any university debts easily (because as in USA, it's difficult these days to study during 6 years for free in Canada) and also to get some valuable experience. I might get a job soon in the financial department of an energy company as an analyst or in risk management. After that experience (3 or more years) I guess it will be easier to live in another country. I do NOT want to go there for money, not at all. Of course, staying in America all my life would be way more financially advantageous for me.

In Canada, right now, I am living in a small and old apartment, without car, and I'm fine with this. I'm not expecting to get something more fancy in Poland at all. And just to mention, I'm single and without child, so my only expenses are for myself. I looked for apartments in Poland (Wrocław), on polish websites, and well, like here, there's luxury apartments, and some others, small and cheap.

Why Poland and not staying in Canada? I have a very strong interest for this country and culture, and I want to live somewhere else in the world during my life. Canada is comfortable, so much that it gets boring. People can be a bit boring too sometimes... I want to learn another language. Not similar to French (not from Latin). I tried Russian, but I prefer Polish. Maybe I'm a bit crazy and I will change my mind in a few years. I don't know. But for sure I will take Polish courses in Canada :)

I read some threads on Polish forums already, and it's really confusing. For some people it seems to be a very depressing, uninteresting, and poor country, for some others it's mostly the opposite... Seriously, it's difficult to conclude something based on those discussions. Why so many different opinions about this country?

Work / I want to live and work in Poland in 3 years. I'm from Québec, Canada. [16]

@Dominic,

I understand what you mean, concerning people with too high expectations (and high salaries expectations). My plan is to applied for jobs when I will be more qualified (not fresh out of University, like now), not to earn money in Canada and go spending it in Poland. I hope it's a realistic plan.

As for my time-scale, I do not want to wait in my late thirties and it's not possible for me to move before 2 or 3 years, for financial reasons. In my domain of expertise, in big Canadian cities, we have competition from educated people coming from USA, China, Australia...I feel that we have some very strong competition here too.

@WhirlwindTobias

You're right, I expect to have a modest life. No luxury rents or restaurants... I looked for rents online, for fun, and from what I saw you can get something nice and clean in the city for around 2000PLN. Of course, it's really small compared to apartments we are used to in Canada, but it's not a problem for me. At the same time, I do not want to go there to struggle financially...

I do not want to go to Poland without a basic understanding of Polish. I heard that Poles, especially the older or non-educated ones, do not always know English very well and I think it might be difficult for me to integrate myself as a foreigner. Of course, I believe that moving there is almost the only way to fully learn Polish, unless you have Polish relatives, which I don't.

I am considering your opinions that taking university courses is not the best way to learn, and self-learning may be more efficient if I'm motivated and serious enough.

@przyjacielPL

I will do before moving for sure!