Too smart, too good?
“I reckon something is wrong with me. Perhaps I am too clever for Alytus, an industrialized town. Perhaps local hirers think I will demand higher pay once I get a job,” Inga, a resident of Alytus, says, wondering what is wrong with her tedious, though seemingly well thought-out and multifaceted, job search.
She, like hundreds of other young people, can’t nail down any job in her hometown, let alone a job as lawyer, the specialty she graduated with.
She has sent out dozens of CVs both to possible employers and local employment agencies, talked to people at Alytus Labor Exchange, all in vain – not even en entry level job was offered.
“I believe all good jobs are taken by relatives and good acquaintances of local big shots. Unfortunately, I am neither a niece nor bimbo of a local money bags. Definitely, it makes a huge difference in trying to nail down a job in a sleepy town like Alytus,” Inga said.
Before considering packing up and getting onto a UK-bound bus, she is determined to try her luck in Vilnius and Kaunas.
Before considering packing up and getting onto a UK-bound bus, she is determined to try her luck in the largest Lithuanian cities, Vilnius and Kaunas.
The best ones aren’t up for grabs
“Our company has been looking for a promising IT specialist. Alas, with all the schools out there forging these kinds of specialists, we couldn’t find anyone up to our requirements. Obviously, most gifted IT specialists leave the country to where this kind of job is paid at least three times more,” Viktoras Jonynas, owner of an IT company, said to The Baltic Times.
While fishing for the right specialist, he admits he has been tediously and futilely scouring the databases of numerous employment agencies and occasionally mentioning to his peers of the need.
Some top jobs never go public
Valerija Buzėnienė, director of Simplika and CVO Recruitment, human resources companies, agrees that, particularly in the crisis years, employers, in hunting the right person, mostly rely on themselves rather than trusting local human resources companies. “This was probably unavoidable, as our services were among those many companies cut off first in the downturn,” Buzėnienė told The Baltic Times.
Now, she says, hirers’ paths often cross theirs, as both are looking for workers through job Web sites.
“However, this seems to be changing as more and more enterprises apply to human resources agencies instead of searching for the personnel themselves. Recruiters start understanding that quite an investment, time, effort, and money-wise is needed to find the right employee,” says Buzėnienė.
But there also are some top management jobs that never go into the databases of recruitment agencies. “Usually, there are very few unadvertised or unannounced jobs,” says Valdas Strazdas, a board member of Starjobs, one the largest Lithuanian recruitment agencies.
“By deciding not to make some job offers public, employers perhaps expect recruitment agencies to work through their personal connection networks, or social networks. However, if a company needs to fill up several top management positions it, as a rule, uses traditional means – advertisements,” says the Starjobs representative.
Additional services are rendered
The recruitment agencies’ representatives say that some services – like access to vacancy databases – they render free of charge. Consultations for those in a lengthy but futile job search are also free. “Consultations are sought by more and more job seekers. Especially by those with a prolonged history of job hunting. We always try to help these people to comprehend why their job quest has produced no desired result, what hampers their efforts. We also advise what personal traits and qualifications should be stressed, and which should be kept quiet,” Buzėnienė says.
She notes that the recruitment companies she heads, upon requests by employers, provide consultations for laid-off workers. “In order to have them better accommodated in the labor market, some ex-employers would pay for outplacement services,” Buzėnienė notes.
In order to have them better accommodated in the labor market, some ex-employers would pay for outplacement services.
She, however, says that Simplika and CVO Recruitment staffers lately see increasingly more people frustrated with job searching. “This is due to a bit worse economic situation lately as many labor market processes have been on a slower pace. Therefore, there are fewer openings,” the recruitment agency director says.
Employers are engaged in process
Starjobs helps employers find not only permanent staffers, but also temporary workers. “For a permanent job, employers usually search for more skilled workers. When it comes to less-skilled positions, employers tend to look for workers themselves or take advantage of the service of temporary staffing,” says Strazdas.
He says that several dozen enterprises are signed up for Starjob recruitment services. “From the very beginning, we are trying to engage our clients in the process of choosing the right candidates. Usually we come up with 3 to 5 candidates for one position, letting the employer pick the most suitable person,” the recruiter relates.
He maintains that high emigration often hampers search for the best workers. “A lot of both skilled and blue-collar workers have decamped. And many low-skilled workers would rather depend on social payouts than work for basic pay. The emigration scale creates a big gap in certain specialty segments in the country,” he says.
With the labor market still struggling, for many Lithuanians out of job going abroad for a better life is still the most common option. And though the ban on work-abroad mediation services went in effect last year, many job seekers still get trapped in dishonest recruiters’ schemes.
Law amendment didn’t curb all scammers
Gediminas Krutauskas from Kaunas is one of those who have suffered from the schemers. Having applied to a Kaunas-based employment agency, he was quickly promised a builder’s job in Germany and was asked to cough up 1,200 litas (350 euros) for the mediation service. Hearing the recruiter’s repeated notifications of postponement of the work, his suspicions and impatience grew and, six months into the flattery, when asked to wait another two weeks he finally reported the scam recruiter to the police.
With the investigation yet underway, Gediminas has not yet gotten back his money. On the brighter side of things, he was lucky to get a construction job in Vilnius.
What is better - the UK or Norway?
For two consecutive years, from 2010 to 2011, Lithuania lost the most workers in the entire European Union to emigration, reports the European Commission. According to its data, roughly 2 percent of all the population decamped last year. The bulk of the exodus went to the UK and Ireland, but the Commissions statistics note that, starting in 2010, Norway has been catching on.
“England is definitely better for one reason: it is a part of the European Union, therefore, EU legislation is in effect. Besides, English is a language most Lithuanians know a bit. Norway is a lot tougher in terms of learning and is a lot more expensive for living,” reads a post by Viktoras, who has been living in the UK for seven years.
“Well, Norwegian laws may be more intricate, but Norway is best for its social benefits as, for example, compensation is paid for expensive medicine and hefty pensions are guaranteed with the right work experience,” counterargues Arūnas from Norway. He maintains: “I’d suggest going to the UK for those who are planning to stay abroad temporarily. And Norway perhaps is the right choice for those who aren’t planning a return to Lithuania.”
Others compete for a spot in the sun
Boguslavas Gruzevskis, director of Labor and Social Research Institute (LSRI), says a high appreciation of Lithuanians as excellent job performers serves as the reason that Lithuanians are more likely to immigrate to Norway and be hired there. “A certain Lithuanian diaspora has already formed in Norway, which means most Lithuanians, before going, already are aware of somebody who will extend them a helping hand in finding a job. The bottom line is Norwegians usually speak highly of Lithuanians as laborers,” the LSRI director notes.
With Germany having opened up its labor market for Lithuanians last year, many expected that it will become a new trendy emigration destination for Lithuanians, but this hasn’t happened. “Although there are no hurdles for Lithuanians willing to work in Germany, in reality Germany has not been swarmed with Lithuanians. One of the main reasons for this is that Lithuanians speak poor German,” says Liutauras Labanauskas, commercial attaché in Germany.
He says Germany is mostly in need of qualified workers, especially of doctors and engineers. “However, both doctors and long-distance drivers, which are also very much needed in Germany, must have a really good command of German,” the Lithuanian attaché said.
“Interest in learning German has been bigger lately, but not as big as you would expect with the German labor market for Lithuanians opening. Anyway, interest in work possibilities in Germany has increased. Over the last year, we saw roughly a 10-15 percent hike in enrollments for the language courses,” Raminta Gustaitė, coordinator at Deutsch Zentrum, told The Baltic Times.
