Why I moved to Finland for a DevOps job and love it
I’m working in Finland as a DevOps consultant. I’m originally from Honduras, so you can imagine there have been a few turns on my way here. Here are my tips on making relocation easier.
My story starts in 2018 when I got an exciting job offer from a startup in Singapore and decided to move there. I was happy to be working there, although the relocation was quite a bit of work and I had to be away from my family for the first three months.
In 2019, I was in Spain for a conference and stumbled upon a job posting. It was from Polar Squad, a Finnish DevOps agency. They seemed to have a fresh take on things, so I spontaneously messaged them.
Relocation done right
I was surprised to get a response in 20 minutes. They had a few people at the conference, so I had my first interview barely 40 minutes after contacting them. Pretty daunting for someone as introverted as me! We had lunch, and luckily we struck all the right notes in our conversation and took things from there. A few days and a couple of calls later, my family was already planning the move to Finland – something I was not expecting at all.
In my experience, relocation is a flurry of arrangements, new things and uncertainties. How easy or stressful it becomes is largely up to the company hiring you and the country you’re moving to. I had some reservations; moving to Singapore was quite stressful, as I had to figure out the red tape myself. Visa, living arrangements, insurance, education for my kids, healthcare – it’s a hassle to handle all this while taking on a new job and dealing with being apart from your family.
I’m glad to say the experience between the Singaporean Startup and Polar Squad was night and day. Here are a few things Polar Squad got right:
My plane ticket was paid for, with extra luggage. I had planned on paying for those three pieces of extra luggage myself, mind you.
I got help finding an apartment. A wonderfully helpful person was tasked with helping me. She asked for my preferences concerning the number of rooms, style of the apartment and so forth. She soon came back with pictures and details of various apartments. Once I had a potential apartment in mind, she talked to the landlord, offered some local knowledge regarding location and helped me rent the place. I was able to secure a place from Honduras, where I was on holiday.
The red tape was no issue. Again, my helper came to the rescue, handling everything I needed help with. She saved me so much time.
Once the plane landed, a taxi was waiting for me and took me to meet my new colleagues. We just took it from there.
Making Finland home
I didn’t know a lot about Finland beforehand, but as I like to do my research, I started reading up on it as soon as the move was confirmed. After a couple of years, I’ve learned quite a bit about the country and its culture. It’s worlds apart from Singapore or Honduras in many ways.
I actually have a lot in common with Finns. I like my space and am not always in the mood for small talk. The conversations tend to be on point, and Finns are honest – when you forge a friendship, it’s real.
Finns speak great English and accommodate newcomers by switching to it if they see someone struggling with Finnish. That said, I’d encourage anyone moving here to learn some Finnish because it opens up so much of the culture.
I learned to invest in quality clothing. The Finnish expression ‘There’s no bad weather, only bad clothes’ is on point. It can get cold as the snow piles up. I was surprised to learn that the weather works well for me – I’m not moving back to a hot climate country again. But I do need good boots in Finland, as the icy roads get very slippery!
There were some concerns, of course – we were concerned about racism, for instance. I’m happy to say that we’ve encountered none of that so far. The biggest problem in our two years has been that somebody tried to steal a bike from the backyard of our previous apartment. That’s it. Those have been our troubles over here. In Honduras, that bike would be gone.
So how is Finland compared to Singapore? The Finnish system is based on the idea of a Nordic welfare state. We get the same benefits as the natives have – healthcare, free education and so forth. That was not the case in Singapore. These topics and the cost of healthcare were fundamental factors when we were thinking about having our second child. It’s so nice being able to rely on the system having your back.
Here to stay
I tried to come up with the good and the bad, but unfortunately, I have little to offer in terms of the bad. We’re living here as a family and loving it.
Our kids are in school and daycare, I’m enjoying work and my wife likes it here. We’ve also had our brushes with illness, and the healthcare professionals took such good care of us. That’s something I’m eternally grateful for. We’re currently looking into starting a savings account for an apartment.
My relocation advice is this: Be inquisitive about the way your employer-to-be would handle your relocation and read up on the country. These two are the biggest factors in what your relocation is going to be like. Especially in the tech industry, professionals are so much in demand that it’s expected for an employer to help make the experience of starting a new job as nice as possible. That’s how it should be.
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Interested in hearing about our job opportunities? We’re hiring in Finland, Germany and Málaga, Spain, so let’s talk!
Camilo Rivera is a DevOps consultant for Polar Squad. He has a Developer background and firmly believes he is doing his job right when he is making himself unnecessary.