Move to Poland or UK? (Advice needed)

So I guess it's time to finally move on, Denmark is apparently the first European country to become an islamic state in the future, you'll feel right at home.

Check this:
pl.atos.net/pl-pl/home/kariera/kierunki-kariery/managed-operations.html
It's in Polish mixed with English so you should be able to understand. Atos is recruting many foreigners in call centers and similar in Bydgoszcz, so you may find something for you. Additionally, Bydgoszcz is still relatively 'pure' and multiculturalism is almost non-existent here.

Cinek

Awesome! Thanks a lot!

I know where you are coming from and will give my own comments on the subject later when I have more time.

/ Svensk som bor i Polen

Good with someone who can relate. I'm looking forward to your post!

If you want to check jobs available for Swedish speakers:
pl.jobrapido.com/?w=swedish
pl.jobrapido.com/?w=szwedzki&l=&r=
olx.pl/praca/q-swedish
pracuj.pl/praca/swedish;kw
pl.indeed.com/praca?q=swedish&l=

Much appreciated. Now I've got an A4 with different sites.

I've seen you a lot on the forum, out of curiousity, are you polish or are you a foreigner living there? Thanks again.

You can see forum users profiles, like here: ?action=userinfo&user=52023. If somebody answers yes to "Speaks Polish?" then probably is Polish, so yes I am.

Ok, so take my subjective comments for what they are.

I feel mentally much better here in Poland than in Sweden. I can look and read about the madness without caring too much. Walking in Poland late at night is much safer, and unlike Sweden you don't have to worry about the hand grenades being thrown around... ;)

To be honest, life is not that much different when you look at it. You have a flat, you might have a car, you have a job. In Sweden your flat and car might be nicer, but their function is the same and so is your life.

Polish people are friendly and open, and you won't see much difference between a 25-year old Pole, Swede or German when it comes to mentality and what they want from life. You will have easy to find friends since your colleagues will constantly (for a Swede to the brake of sanity) ask you to go out for a beer. Perfect for a single looking for company, a little enerving for someone who's not.

You will struggle a little in your daily life, when in contact with goverment (headache) or with landlord or in the shop. But for someone with the right mindset, this is really not an obstacle (i'm obviously talking about the language).

Most Swedes down here are here becasue there's no jobs, and they are hoping to gain some experience to be able to move back to Sweden. However, the outlook of life is stable for those of us who decide to stay, but there are some "buts" in your case.

You say you are in your 20's and uneducated. True is that you can find Call centre jobs with good salary as Swedish speaking (compared to national average). But I would strongly advise you to take advantage of Swedish system and get a University degree before moving down here. If you are serious in moving more permanently, this is what you should do and take the little longer road.

Being young and working for call centre will only work for so long, I think eventually you would become unhappy. I have a stable life and outlooks, but I have my native Swedish language and a degree in Business Administration.

That said, I would kill to be a little younger and single. Poland 2014 is a great place to be with those cirumstances. The nightlife is fantastic.

As for jobs and locations, there's no shortage of them (within IT-support or Accounting) in either Warsaw, Wroclaw, Krakow or perhaps even Poznan. these are the places you want to move to, don't go to the eastern parts.

You can easily get a job today, but I would think really hard about if you shouldn't get your degree first before coming. Believe me, it will make your life eaiser and 3 years is a small investment of your time.

Everything you wrote is almost spot on to what I was thinking. I'm a pretty minimalistic person, so I dont care much for nice cars and so on. What is bugging me is the job front, like you said. From experience I know that call centers aren't for the long run. But I am 25, soon 26, and didnt even get a gymnasium education (no "gymnasiekompetens"), so those studies + university would give me a job title in 6-7 years. So I would come to Poland at 32 years old... That feels a bit sad and I feel I can't wait that long.

I take my hat off for your post, it made me even more sure about moving to Poland! Cheers!

P.S Business administration from Komvux is not enough to get a job in Poland I assume? Is it needed to get it from university? Or, if I may be so impolite to ask, did you get your BA-education through Komvux? Thanks again!

I have a Bachelor degree from University. How many points do you need from Komvux to get your "slutbetyg"? I wouldn't leave Sweden without it since you are then forever blocked from higher education.

If you are motivated you can get a bachelor in 2 years (it's not even that hard) by studying at 150% pace. You could get a degree in Poland by attending University on evenings and weekends while working, but you will have to pay tuition fees for that.

I understand that you want to go right now, but I would not recommend it in the long run. Absolut minimum is to get your "gymnasiekompetens" so that you are eligable for higher things when that feels right for you.

I don't know if you have experience with work in call center. I think that Nojas tried to tell you that it's better to have a degree in order to get a job where you could progress. Many call centers do simple telephone sale. The work is boring and tedious. You can be replaced any time by anybody who can speak the language. I remember watching American movies from 70' where such office jobs are presented as the worst kind. It came little later to Poland. As DominicB says call center workers are 21 century cotton gatherers. And the problem is that such easiest jobs are first to disappear during time of crisis. So it's not enough for you to just be ready to live simple life and do simple job. You should also gather savings all the time in order to survive few years without employment (or be elastic to change a country).

You are right. I guess I am a bit optimistic. I dont have many points at all, probably between 150-250 - so according to a syo-consulent it would take around 2,5 years for me to complete it. In other means I would be 28-29 years old when It's done. And by then I dont even have a job title!

My plan was to go to Poland, get a service desk job, learn polish and after that try to get a better job. But I guess it's an inflation of educated people in Poland too. Dammit, I really messed things up as a youngin' dropping out school to start working instead! Perhaps I can get my "gymnasiekompetens" on distance, while living in Poland.

@Monitor Yeah, I've had those type of jobs all my life. I know the destruction of the body, mind and soul by working in that business. But considering my age, situation and future - I guess I have to get used to picking cotton instead of studying. I made the bed.

I guess I could study to become a baker in a year. But I dont know how attractive a swedish baker in Sweden would be.

Studying on distance is an option, plus you can always "tenta" any subject directly, meaning study hard and pass an exam but every subject costs 500 SEK each.

I would say as first step, do your Komvux by any means necessary (study on distance, try to cut off as much time as possible by tentamen directly). You can be happy in Poland, but I don't think you will be by taking a hasty decision to move today.

A couple of problems here. The call center job will pay at most 400 Euro a month, 500 if you are exceeding lucky. Without specialist knowledge of IT, it will almost certainly involve cold-call sales or low level collections, neither of which will enable you to bring in a significant amount of money on commission.

That will enable you to live like a monk at best. Forget about savings. And, as Monitor pointed out, there is little in the way of job security.


Next, learning Polish to the point that you would be able to operate on the Polish job market will take you several years. Probably closer to five or six if you are working full time in a call center.


Yep, that's right. Even after learning Polish and work in a call center for 5 or 6 years, you will end up with little salable skills or experience that you can sell on the Polish job market. There are many people with higher degrees stocking shelves at Tesco in Poland, and even working lousy jobs in call centers.


Yes, you really screwed up, but fortunately you can still repair the damage and eventually gain the qualifications to pursue a decent career path.


It's going to be A LOT easier for you to repair the damage in Sweden than in Poland. I would strongly advise you not to come to Poland without a university degree that means something on the Polish job market (and business administration is not very useful at all).

Also, if you don't want to pursue the college route, you could back and get an education in a trade like electrician, plumber or mechanic. Not very useful on the Polish job market, but can enable you to make a rather good living if you are willing to work on offshore oil rigs in Norway or Sweden. Talk to a career counselor.

Sorry, but I find your plan of moving to Poland in the near future unrealistic and unworkable. Even under the best of circumstances, you will miss out on the chance of pursuing a decent-paying career, and you will end up just as old if you spend the next six or seven years in Sweden, but without a degree, trade or anything worth much on any job market anywhere, Poland, Sweden or elsewhere.

Median salary for a person speaking Swedish is 5000zł gross. I guess a native speaker should be able to get 1000eur net. But on the other hand no diploma or IT skills works against you. If you're good with computers, perhaps do some IT courses, which could be worth more than university diploma in management and much faster to get.


wynagrodzenia.pl/payroll/artykul.php/typ.1/kategoria_glowna.503/wpis.2979

I think the problem is that SSC or BPO's are regarded as call centers with low level income employees.

@ DominicB, you will find that "cold call sales" or "low level collections" is something that you will not find too often in Poland. Reason being is that doing cold call sales requires a certain level of the language you are doing the sales in. I.e., you need to overcome objections from the person you trying to sell to. For that, you almost certainly need native speakers and getting them to work in Poland requires a decent salary offer. It is almost more lucrative for cold call sales to stay in their respective countries as there they have the workforce with the required skillset which is the native language.

All in all, SSC / BPO's can be quite attractive for foreigners. Most specialize in Accountancy or IT whereas Accountancy would be the higher paying sector to be in. As a trained accountant speaking Swedish as native language you should be able to get at least 7 - 8k PLN gross. If the salary is lower, then there most certainly would be other benefits such as company apartment which would make up for the lesser income.

It also depends on the company whether or not they are just setting up in Poland or have been here for a number of years. New SSC's tend to pay more for native speakers, mainly because they require them for the transition process.

All in all, 5k as a Swedish native speaker without any other benefits (i.e. company apartment) is too little to even consider.

One example, an Italian native speaker i know is going to move to Krakow in January to work in Accounts Receivable. His experience in this area would amount to 1 year. He has been offered 6400 PLN gross. Given that Italian is considered to be one of the lower paid language skills, i would assume that in the same area with the same amount of experience, a Swedish native speaker sould achieve at least 7k PLN gross.

I'm very happy for all these answers. Thanks you, It's helped me a lot!

Have you thought about Estonia; very homogeneous population, reasonable economy. I doubt you'd like Britain.

Hi

I moved from the UK to poland last May and do not regret it. Im in warsaw now and I love it here. It's nice to be in a community with so many motivated hard working individuals instead of being surrounded by lazy un-motivated lay-arounds that are only interested in claiming benefits.

Anyway more to the point if your interested I may be able to help you if you can send me your CV. No polish language required.

PM me for more details

Hmm, some people, even in this forum, claim that after PiS started their benefit programme in 2015, the number of lazy lay-arounds in Poland has increased.