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Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Is the Grass Greener in Romania?
According to a statistic carried out by BestJobs.ro, some 19,000 users of the largest headhunting portal in Romania look for work in Romania, rather than abroad.
BestJobs.ro officials said that the figures is constantly growing this year. The most interested are Romanians living in Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy and Spain.
Interesting, but quite incomplete...So I checked the article in Romanian, hoping to get more details. Not much though. What I wanted to know is: -19,000 of how many? - is the proportion the same on other portals? - is there an estimation of how many people actually work abroad? - do most of them want to come back?
Using a Romanian jobs portal seems inappropriate. First of all, because the majority of jobs offered by it are in Romania. So if you offer only a few jobs abroad and they are not interesting for all users, of course you get such proportions...This seems like a nice and devious way to promote BestJobs. Am I wrong? I doubt it. I do have to say they chose an interesting approach. It does catch one's eye. But then again, to make the story work, it needed more data.
I, for one, will always prefer a job in Romania over a job abroad, although if the abroad one pays significantly more, I'd probably take it. But, these days, jobs either come from countries that joined the EU recently, or they're about picking strawberries, both paying the same. This means, although it's quite a leap in absolute money terms to get a programmer job in the Czech Republic for 1200 Euro/month, I'm not interested in going there, because, in relative terms, the different isn't that great, as there I'd have to pay rent, probably have to deal with higher prices, and other costs that would make the income balance a romanian income. Now, a job in the US or Canada would be a totally different topic.
I share your point of view, Radu. The balance income/costs, if you would were to work abroad is at times daunting. Not mentioning that adapting to a different culture has always had its challenges. As for the statistics, you might be right, Alina, it can be a marketing tool. I hope though, things are going towards a positive way and the job market flourish even more in Romania. :)
That's a very interesting study. It should have really said something if it would have taken into consideration the number of people that already left the country (they will surely not enter a romanian page to search for a job). There are already over 1 million Romanians in Spain, and there are lots of Romanians in other countries. So, basically 19.000 romanians would work in Romania while more than one million are already working abroad, so what's the trend here? I'd say people prefer to work abroad. The study did not take into consideration lots of points that, as you say, may change the conclusions completely.
I have chosen to work abroad, but if I'd have to choose again I'd think twice about it. For a programmer or any informatics-related profile it's better to work in Romania: some of the new multinational companies really pay good money for this. Other than that, we actually believe that Romanians are much better than others in this field (which is true), so now they pay more so that our high-skilled Romanians stay in Romania
Radu, I would say it depends on the job mostly. Cause if you actually made more money in the Czech Republic after paying rent and stuff like that, you might still go for it. Yes, money is a big issue to a lot of people.
Trisi, true, the income/cost balance should always be taken into consideration before actually leaving.
Sim, you are right, they are now striving to keep competent people in Romania now. And yes, the conclusion of the study is not relevant at all
If I wasn't so lazy, I would make more money from freelance jobs than from the mentioned job in the Czech Republic, right here, in Romania :D But that's another story.
Name: Alina Home: Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania About Me: "This is my church. This is where I heal my hurts". It's also where I feel free and my preferred means of expression. See my complete profile
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I, for one, will always prefer a job in Romania over a job abroad, although if the abroad one pays significantly more, I'd probably take it. But, these days, jobs either come from countries that joined the EU recently, or they're about picking strawberries, both paying the same. This means, although it's quite a leap in absolute money terms to get a programmer job in the Czech Republic for 1200 Euro/month, I'm not interested in going there, because, in relative terms, the different isn't that great, as there I'd have to pay rent, probably have to deal with higher prices, and other costs that would make the income balance a romanian income. Now, a job in the US or Canada would be a totally different topic.