Job Abroad seeking process
Nostalgia :)
I’ve been living in Tallinn for the latest 2 months here and thinking of my professional path with a feeling of proudness and it hurts at the same time. How everything happened in this way, why I am in Estonia exactly as for now. And it turned out to be awesome and wonderful :)
For the first time, I got a thought about relocation about 5 years ago, and I started this job-hunting abroad process 4 years ago. When I close my eyes, I can see: dozens of screenshots as “thank you, but we are not ready to call you for an interview”, not personalised feedbacks after the interview, non-accepted invitations, unread messages in LinkedIn, and so on.
A couple of years ago, my enthusiasm started running low. But when you do not expect it at all, magic happens! On April 26–27, 2019, a fateful meeting with my future boss, charming Julia Jolkin, took place at #HR API. Frankly .. this was my first experience of participating in a huge IT-recruiting conference, and I was incredibly happy to get such a big amount of useful information, get acquainted with people from different companies, people with so rich background. After the conference, I added to Facebook everyone I had seen at the official part and the famous after-party on the boat.
Communication with some participants continued even afterwards but somehow there was always more cooperation, chattings, calls with Yulia. Estonia in recent years has long been in my mind.
In January 2020, on Yulia’s FB page, I saw a post that she would be ready to strengthen her agency, hire new teammates, relocation was possible. I stuck for a minute and applied!
But “hello, covid” and “please forget about your intentions and plans again!”
Then I gave up. I dipped into work and other personal things. In October 2020 I caught covid and experienced it, luckily it was the lightest form ever could. You can imagine that period and my mood, everything was just on fire!
And at this moment by coincidence, we synced with Yulia and continued the hiring process on the same position again. In 2 months I passed an interview, greeted my future team, Julia received permission to hire a foreign specialist, we made a set of documents for D type work visa and Estonian residence permit.
On the 10th of December, I was already with a visa and job registration and I could move to Estonia at once.
Wow! It was cool, very dynamic! When I left the Estonian Embassy in St. Petersburg with a visa stamp in my passport, I was shocked that I had no emotions. Delight, tears of happiness came later, with a delay!)
About documents, difficulties of relocation in the pandemic period in the next episodes, guys. Too many words here already.
Let me hug you in gloves and kiss you on the cheek through the mask. Keep safe! =))
