Love / Are Polish men shy and take things slow? [118]

he will not be embarrassed walking with an Asian - probably it will be cool for him ! And being with someone older would be even cooler - he will be proud of that :) so yes get over those self esteem !

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

Its a pretty good university, has a good quality student body even if the teaching aint great. You will have fun and you will get laid. If you learn Polish and come out of there with a degree you would be well set up for a reasonable career in Warsaw in a bank, insurance etc

i give it a few hours before Dom B is on here telling you to become a petrochemical engineer and safe some money for your future kids.

News / Footie hooligan punch-up thwarted in Poland [47]

Polonius, lots of these guys would not have a Dad anywhere close to hand - absent fathers are one of the root causes of this idiocy. I don't think that news from Ferguson has much impact on Knurow - there has always been a serious hooligan problem in Poland since the end of Commie times. I remember reading about live rounds being fired at Gdynia once over the heads of the rioters and I was at an amazing riot between Legia and Polonia in 97 when Legia fans were throwing javelins and shot puts at the police after breaking into a sports pavilion.

Work / Job opportunities for junior actuary in Poland??? [9]

Fall without speaking Polish and with no work experience it would be very tough for you. I recruit a lot of finance people myself and I am an open minded person but would never bring in someone who could not communicate effectively with his colleagues unless he had special skills.

your best bet would be to try Spanish banking or real estate businesses like Santander and Neinver and do some kind of intern / general work and try and learn Polish in the meantime.

Actuarial profession in Poland is very closed shop - you need to find a good contact in the profession. See if you are able to do that by linkedin or via a Big 4 firm but it will be a hard road for you.

Love / Are Polish men shy and take things slow? [118]

Its not respectful to text you - he should call you ! Tell him that if you have a date with him ! Mind you i know a lot of younger people use text not call.

You still have a chance next Monday - play it cool and dont seem desperate :)

Love / Are Polish men shy and take things slow? [118]

I think maybe he is not mature enough for you - you sound too sensible and he is still growing up. Plenty more guys available I'm sure :)

Work / Why English Teachers stay long term in Poland [30]

Don't bring me into it Jon - I'm CMS and this guy is CMC :)

My take is that there are many English teachers who have come here and after a few years of TEFL done other things - journalism, web design, remote working, media, advertizing etc and probably have as comfortable life as they would back in the US, UK, Oz or wherever. I certainly don't look down on those people and in fact I often envy them - more free time than I get, full lives, cute women. Yes they might worry about the future and pension and stuff but there are plenty of people back home with underfunded retirement pots.

And yes there are jarheads, junkies, people with personal problems but there are in every profession !

Law / Working in Poland while being self employed in the UK and paying tax and in there [24]

You can do that but if you are here for more than 183 days then you must pay polish income tax. You can potentially deduct from that any tax paid in the uk but its not totally straightforward.

Love / My Love Story: my 'good' family vs her 'bad' family in Poland [25]

My god that is awful. If you are really so shallow and care more about what your family's outdated view is, then this is not the girl for you. Hopefully she can find someone sincere to love her.

Study / Between Poznan University and University of Lodz. Which is the best choice? Business study [6]

Poznan has the better reputation of those universities. both towns are ok but Poznan probably better to live in.

Work / What kind of CV for a job in a multinational company in Poland; Europass or traditional one? Address problems. [19]

Either europass or traditional is fine. Make sure your linkedin is up to date - I would always check that as well as your cv if you were on the shortlist.

Not putting your address and not making clear that you don't speak Polish and have not worked in Poland would be pretty weird. If I invited you for an interview and then got a blank response when I asked you "kawa czy herbata" at the start then I would think both of us have wasted our time.

There are plenty of employers who would consider foreigners for some roles but they should be upfront about it.

Work / What kind of CV for a job in a multinational company in Poland; Europass or traditional one? Address problems. [19]

I do a lot of recruiting - maybe 15 positions a year

If i wanted a Polish speaker with 2-3 years of work experience and able to work flexible hours and then sat down and found a mid 30s Italian with a couple of small kids at home and an ageing mother to care for then I would be seriously annoyed with my HR dept for not sifting that information. Make it easy for the person interviewing you, as you will get one hour of their time - the recruitment process should not discriminate but it should also allow all facts to be on the table.

no a photo is not necessary but as I said before I would check your linkedin anyway and as you should know you get about 40 percent less linkedin hits if you dont put a photo there. I dont care if you are good looking or not but a jacket, tie and combed hair can be a good sign that you are professional. - yes it depends if you are going for IT or banking.

You dont have to put your age but anyone with a bit of knowledge could work backwards to your graduation date. More important is tfhat any career gaps are explained.

Good luck but really dont get stressed about that - if you have good experience that should shine through to any employer regardless of the format of your cv.

News / Polish parliament refuses to consider shack-up draft between both traditional and same-sex couples [96]

Yes it is discrimination but governments everywhere use the tax system to promote behavior that they think furthers the interests of the country - might be home ownership, might be tax breaks for military vets, tax breaks for students and obviously there are some lawmakers who think that marriage is generally something to be encouraged and should benefit from tax breaks. I don't have much of a problem with that.

The problem with this gay debate is that there seems to be no middle ground - I'm happy for them to get married but I'm much less sure about them adopting kids and I don't think there is enough history so far to decide that they are as good as straight couples in doing that. Walking out on my own flesh and blood would be a huge moral decision for me - I'm not sure I would feel as bad walking out on an adopted Malawi kid, in fact I might have a few drinks and decide the kid is probably still better off than he was in Malawi etc etc. Problem is that I'm a reasonable guy but having doubts about gays adopting kids is now almost seen as a position of extreme bigotry - if I was e.g. in educated company back in the US I would not necessarily own up to those views.

Food / Where to go for the best steak in Warsaw? [77]

Anybody tried that Merliniego place ? Gets good reviews but I never seem to get a chance to go.

Food / Where to go for the best steak in Warsaw? [77]

I stop the butter from burning by adding a little oil around the butter - not olive oil, rather something neutral.

2 minutes each side, glass of hungarian red and a good tomato salad :)

Real Estate / Poland: Swiss Franc loans come back to bite [37]

wroclaw boy, the average interest rate on świss francs was 1.10 percent during the last 15 years. In Polish zloty the average interest rate was 6.5 percent over the same period.

And no I don't think these things are arranged by "the capitalist class" on the golf course.

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

Dom is well meaning but not on his home court.

Salaries - double what is stated here. A new joiner in a big 4 would get about 4k maybe a bit more in Warsaw - managers would start around 10k and finish around 20k per month + bonus. But tax is quite high at those levels (32% plus social security charges).

Yes there is huge demand for qualified Polish speaking accountants at the moment outside the firms and earning potential can be high once you have proved yourself. If you are already a CPA then concentrate on getting your Polish up to scratch - if you are part of a Polish community in the US then that should be easy.

Sectors where you are most likely to find well paid work would be real estate, shared service (boring), FMCG, finance - all of which are short of good people. There is a good chance to advance quickly - often faster than you would in a mature economy, and that can outweigh a short term earnings hit.

In terms of living costs Warsaw is more expensive than most of the US but its much cheaper than the major markets for CPAs in the US - New York, DC, SF.

Yes there is a very intense busy season - most Polish companies have their accounts signed by 31st March and tax statements at the same time. All the Big 4 will give you shorter hours or extra holiday in the summer however.

Make your own mind up. My experience is that as a young newly qualified I took a pay cut of almost 40% from what I was earning in NY but had more fun, saved more, got promoted quicker, met my wife here (she's a PolAm too), had some great opportunities and have done well here financially (this is my second spell here). That was 20 years ago however so try and get some feedback from people your own age.

Work / Job prospects in Warsaw, Poland with top-10 MBA [25]

yes if your Polish is fluent then you should find something good - but recruiters are likely to focus more on your work experience than on your MBA - if you havent been in a leadership rope in the West then I think that might be considered a risk factor.

Depends really what sector your work experience is in - if banking, real estate, finance, marketing or supply chain then there are big shortages of qualified people.

Work / Job prospects in Warsaw, Poland with top-10 MBA [25]

Yes a premium is given to work experience because management in Poland is more hands on than in a mature economy - you will be working with people who are very smart and hard working but lacking experience and lacking savoir faire in how a big corporation works - on that basis you will be more heavily involved rather than just giving direction.

Also one of the key reasons for hiring an expat is to leave a legacy of well trained staff - your MBA won't help you with that very much. So I think recruiters will also look at what projects you have completed and what achievements you have on your CV.

In my own case, then being honest, nobody here has ever really asked me about my MBA - I had a great time doing it, am part of a great network, learned a lot of things that I still use every day but work focus has always been on my ability to get things done in Eastern Europe.

In terms of recognition of your MBA then you will get more with a US company than a European employer - there is still quite an anti American streak in European public life and if you showed a German or French company HBS or Dartmouth on your resume they would assume you spend most summers sipping white wine on Cape Cod - perversely you might get more kudos if you went to a good public school like Michigan or Virginia. If it was from Stanford or Insead etc then that would be good too.

And nobody from Duke would get past the front door of my office :)

anyway good luck - as I said with Polish, tech experience, no work permit issues and an MBA then you are in a good place.

Work / Job prospects in Warsaw, Poland with top-10 MBA [25]

If you want to do an MBA then do so while you are single and have time - it almost always pays off and you will learn a lot.

Not sure about LBS/Insead being your only options - both are going to have an expensive living cost attached. On the other hand if you can add a bit of French to your skills then that is extremely marketable in Poland. Why not also consider doing your MBA in a tech city - could be Stanford (if your GMAT is that good) or Cal, MIT Sloan etc. That would give you an excellent network and keep you at the cutting edge for a year.

If you are looking for your MBA to be a springboard into Poland then also see what links your school has to Poland - in that case you will probably find more luck in towns with big PolAm populations like Chicago Booth / Northwestern / NYU Stern or maybe U.Toronto which has a good business school.

Work / Job prospects in Warsaw, Poland with top-10 MBA [25]

Dom you are being ridiculous - the guy has a 700 gmat score and is already to applying to the best MBA programmes - why the hell would he need to improve his qualifications after that unless he wanted to be an academic ?

management salaries in Poland are lower than in the west but probably by 20-30 percent, there is no way they are one third or a quarter as you say.

savings potential is every bit as viable here as in the US. I went to an alumni function a few weeks ago and with everyone in their mid 40s I did not feel I was seriously disadvantaged against people who had stayed in the US, and in fact in most cases much better off. However there is any case there is more to life than savings potential. if that was all that mattered in life then maybe we should all just go and drive trucks in the tar sands of Alberta. by coming here young you will get plenty of accelerated mgmt experience, have a good chance of meeting a nice girl, make some good contacts and yes be able to put some capital behind you.

i know you are spending your own time to give well meaning advice but in this case you simply don't know the field you are pontificating about, and its become tiresome reading the same misanthropic advice on every thread - whether its a bangladeshi dishwasher or an american accountant.

News / Prime Minister of Poland, Ewa Kopacz, shops at.... Biedronka? [20]

Its called freedom - she can shop where she wants and spend her money how she wants

Law / What is the procedure of immigrating to Poland as a spouse of a Polish citizen? Citizenship through marriage. [11]

What nationality are you ?

Genealogy / Gleesau apud Posen, Polonia Silesia [35]

could Varzze be a Polish person trying to say "father" for the first time ?

Food / Where to go for the best steak in Warsaw? [77]

So I finally got to Merliniego and can report back.

As a venue I think its great - classy decoration, good wine list at OK prices, good service, clientele were a good mix - some expats, mostly Poles, some business, some casual, some women.

The steak was very expensive - I had a ribeye and it was something like 45 zloty per 100g. That's high even by London or NY standards. It was good but I would not put it in the top 20 steaks I have had in my life. Gorgonzola sauce was great, not enough fries.

Certainly would go back there as there were plenty of nice looking things on the menu but in terms of the perfect steak in Warsaw I think the search goes on :)

News / Dunkin Donuts to come to Poland [46]

80% of Polish paczki are awful - too greasy, fried in stale fat, too doughy inside and not helped by sitting on the counter all day. When you get good fresh ones they are really good but I would go for DD everytime and I also really like the coffee from DD. Boston Crème !

News / Poland's indecent junk capitalism? [53]

Au contraire InPolska - I would say a great many bosses in Poland work with zero or very small protection. I could be fired tomorrow with no reason and no compensation, escorted out by a security guard, leave my car keys and phone on the desk and told to fend for myself. I accept that as the flip side of good pay and interesting work and I plan my finances accordingly. I know many people with the same arrangements.

At the bottom end of the scale consider this - you are about to launch a new project and need 3-4 people. Its got a 60% chance of working. If it does not then if you have people on less formal contracts then you could send them off with a thank you note and a good reference and they would have some valuable experience, be able to improve their language etc. That seems mutually beneficial and not exploitation.

I also do a lot of work in France, really the least flexible labor market I have ever encountered and it is a massive decision there whether to hire someone.

News / Poland's indecent junk capitalism? [53]

Yes when I graduated college in 92 there was not a lot of work around so I worked on short term contracts and on a per hour basis at fast food restaurants - Waffle House, KFC and in a warehouse. I did that for about 9 months before I found a more secure job. Financially it was very tough especially as I had debts from college; but I did accounting classes 2x a week and also had time for some other life skills - learned to type, learned german. Was not ideal but I actually look back on it as a good time in my life.

I think "garbage contracts" aimed at young people are fine. Aimed at people in mid life and with kids maybe not so much.

Delph in answer to your question - yes that was my choice and made clear to me at the time I took the role but I think its the same for many senior finance people - if you screw up they want you out, not hanging round for 3 months with access to the bank accounts.

Life / Is Warsaw the most developed city of Poland? [5]

i spend time in both Warsaw and Lyon

lyon is better for food, drink, shopping and museums. Warsaw is better for work, nightlife and if you sre single. transport is pretty good and cheap. warsaw has great opportunities at the moment in my view.

News / The financial burden of the SKOK system in Poland [4]

I don't think its a Polish problem alone - the mutuals and mom and pop savings banks have got in trouble all over the developed world - Caixa in Spain, some of the Sparkasse in Germany and Austria, the Food Co-op bank in Britain and of course the US is the daddy with the MSB crisis in the 80s. The model doesn't really fit into modern capitalism any more buy I don't think its as simple as letting them go bust - it would hit small town Poland hard - might only be 1% of assets that's still a lot of marginal wealth and of course there are thousands of people employed there.

What I do think was bad was the way the PO govt made Pekao etc prop them up, still acting as though those banks were govt property when in fact they now have mostly private shareholders.