Career Options for ExPats in Poland? English native speaker from Los Angeles.

Hello there!

I'm a native English speaker from Los Angeles. I want to relocate to Poland, more specifically, Krakow. I was wondering what my best option is given my prior work experience. I worked for Apple as a technician from home and at the Genius Bar working with software and hardware diagnoses, repair, etc. I have some experience working Help Desk support with Windows and, with a few more certifications, would feel comfortable working IT.

I have also been looking into TEFL/CELTA certifications to teach English. From what i've briefly read, though, it seems that these positions are hard to come by in major cities and don't pay a comfortable salary.

I speak English and Tagalog fluently with a little bit of Spanish.

I was wondering what other Ex-Pats with a slightly similar background or any people familiar with the local job market might think is my best route to pursue in terms of career path for living abroad for a few years.

So does everyone else.

Do you have a university degree? If not, forget about Poland.

Why would you want to move to a cold climate like Poland when Southern California is so warm and beautiful? Also, you'll be lucky to make 1/4 of what you'd earn in the states, that's if you could even land a job.

Yes, I have a Bachelor's degree in Communications.

Also, given my prior experience, I know some rather basic computer science/programming skills and have a lot of experience in customer service (although, i'd like to avoid this industry if possible). I'm still relatively young (24) and able to quickly get through any additional schooling or certifications that may be required of me to better secure a stable (and comfortable) income.

As for why i'd like to leave Los Angeles... I was born and raised here. I've recently been traveling throughout Asia and Europe and Poland struck a chord with me. I'd like the possibility to stay there longer and explore career options while i'm there. I've had my fair share of warm California weather.

Pretty much useless on the Polish job market. Even more useless than in the States.


At 24, you don't have "a lot of experience". You're a mere dilettante. Your rudimentary IT and customer skills and (presumably) native English may land you a job in an outsourcing center, if you're lucky to find an employer that is willing to go through the hassle of getting work permission for you, but you would be very dissatisfied with the wages. Poland is a great place to live if you have lots of cash. It $ucks big time if you don't.


That would be near impossible in Poland without advanced knowledge of the language, which will take you several years of extremely hard work and copious amounts of time to acquire.

Also, if you're looking for a stable and comfortable income, Poland is not the place for you. Competition is fierce (especially for non-EU citizens), wages are low, the cost of living relative to wages is high, and savings potential is abysmal. There are very few Americans for whom Poland offers viable career opportunities, and you are not one of them by a long shot.

Your best option would be to reschool in the US and get a degree that is actually useful on the job market. You wasted valuable time pursuing a degree in communications. If you want a stable (and comfortable) income, then study something with lots of advanced applied mathematics like petroleum, geological or biomedical engineering, or super math-heavy non-science fields like financial mathematics, financial engineering, econometrics or actuarial sciences (not useless non-math majors like finance, economics, business, administration or marketing). Non-math majors are practically useless nowadays, and basically enable you to flip burgers and stock supermarket shelves on the night shift.

We live in a technocracy, kid. Wake up, smell the coffee and get out your math book. Or practice saying, "Would you like fries with that, Sir?"

Tell you what Dom - I graduated 23 years ago but lets get my economics class and your nuclear engineering class together one day, now there is their 40s and test them over a few metrics - health, wealth, attractiveness of spouse, job satisfaction, happiness, amount of countries visited, and of course your famous savings figure. i doubt the econ grads would come off second best.

You are prrobably a nice guy in real life but you should change the record - there is more than one way to skin a cat and it sounds like this guy is polite and well adjusted and is working hard in interesting jobs but just taking a few years to find his direction - nothing wrong with that.

Thank god someone said it. Fair play to you cms.

Non-math majors are practically useless nowadays, and basically enable you to flip burgers and stock supermarket shelves on the night shift. is probably the stupidest thing I've read on the internet in the last hour - and given the internet is awash with people saying stupid things that is some achievement. Why don't you take a time out from this thread, find a pin and pop that ballooning ego.

@Unruly given you already have a handle on IT, have you thought about computer coding? There is plenty of demand for it in Poland (althought more Warsaw and Wroclaw) and the workplace is English speaking.

:D :D :D

Poor old Dom. He's really a nice chap, he just gets in a bag mood sometimes and has a rant about people daring to come to Poland in case they might take some of his work. His bark is worse than his bite though and his heart's in the right place.

OP, think long and hard about coming here: money is crap and needing a visa makes it pretty unworthwhile (I think I just made up a word) unless you're got sh!thot skills that Polish or EU citizens don't have.

Like you're gonna want 5000zl after tax to have a decent lifestyle here and demanding wages like that and getting an employer to jump thru hoops for a visa is as likely as finding a gay unicorn at a reunion of football hooligans.

Then again, you can come, just give private lessons and survive on 2000zl a month, you won't save money but you'll have a good time....you won't eat much eaither, but y'know, you're American and from what I know of Americans (other than your strange love for Donald Trump) is that almost all of you could do with losing a few lbs.

Godspeed!

@inwarsaw
Even Krakow is pretty strong in IT with lots of outsourcing offices where they speak only english.

Poland is very strong country for outsourcing IT and with good wages for polish standards.
Krakow, Warsaw, Wroclaw are the top cities, you can find IT corps even in Katowice, Lodz and Poznan, problem is that you need to be senior (so it means something like 5 years of experience) to get in the range of 5500-8000 PLN net a month.

DominicB, that was a very blunt post and borderline rude BUT very true. Unfortunately our leftist, PC crowd finds the truth as being offensive. Thanks for the post, i have no doubt it will help some people in the future reading this thread.