'We have discussed this with my Canadian half and came to the conclusion that Ireland might not be the place to be for us...'

I'm not dead!

Not yet at least - turns out attempting to write your postgraduate thesis full-time while working full-time leaves you on the brink of insanity. Take my advice: sleeping four hours a night is not, repeat, NOT enough rest in the long run.

Yes, you heard it right. I got a job. It was a series of weird events and unplanned job interviews but in the end I actually landed a pretty decent position here in Dublin, nevermind the hardships immigrants occasionally face to get employed to a position that matches their level of education.

More stories of that in a bit - before that, I wanted to share this interview I did for ExpatFinder.com, a website providing information, technology and support services for a global network of expats. Their questions really concentrated more on the everyday aspect of my life in Ireland, so in case you're interested in learning how the daily ramblings of a Finnish migrant in Dublin have worked out for me, read the interview here:

So as mentioned, life has been a rollercoaster during the last month. My last semester in Trinity College Dublin is finished, which brought along the insane project of writing my postgraduate dissertation. For the past five weeks I've been running back and forth Ireland - and even flew to Scotland for a weekend - interviewing people and transcribing the data. My research concentrates on the role of cultural heritage in the creation of a sense of belonging amongst children of Russian-speaking immigrants in Ireland - in other words, how children of Russian-speaking migrants from the former USSR navigate their way with this kind of hyphenated identity, belonging to multiple places and nowhere at once. I'm head over heels with this project, and hearing people's stories and thoughts about growing up in a country different to their parents has been a truly eye-opening experience. I've also had a chance to brush up on my rusty Russian and drink a glass or two of kombucha.

As for the job, it was a bit of an accident. After working for Activision I swore to myself never to land a similar kind of top-secret confidential job where I'm not allowed to share a thing about my day since it gets really lonely, tiring and draining in the long run, but you can guess how that worked out.

I work as an outsourced contractor for one of the largest technology companies in the world holding their EU-headquarters in Dublin. Perks are great and breakfast is free. I'm happy. Also I was late from the second round of interviews so I have no idea how I actually got this job but here I am.

For this entire time living in Dublin I've felt like I'm somehow in-between: not Irish enough to get an actual good job, my CV having written IMMIGRANT with large red letters all over it, and too educated and experienced for more casual, lower-level positions at the same time. I didn't even get a call back from a cafe despite having a vocational qualification and work experience as a restaurant cook. At the same time, whilst applying for higher-level jobs, interviewers seemed to have been genuinely surprised about my level of English - this I find a little odd. I mean, look at my CV for god's sake! I studied in a British university for a semester, lived in Canada for a year and now I'm about to finish a postgraduate degree in an Irish university - you'd expect someone like that to be pretty decent at speaking English, right? No. A quote from a recruiter: "But I mean... Your English is perfect! I really didn't expect that!"

The stigma of an immigrant in the employment market wears me out sometimes: I wish it was possible for me to attach a video recording of myself speaking English to my job applications, giving me the chance to prove I can handle this language pretty damn well. Being from Finland has turned out to be a weird paradox of expectations and prejudices - whilst majority of people have the conception that "all Scandinavians speak perfect English", there's that small portion of people who are not even sure if Finland is considered part of Europe ("Well it's not part of the EU at least, is it?"), asking me for work permits and visas. However, turns out speaking Finnish in the Dublin job market is a true blessing: the companies needing someone for their Nordic market are ready to fight for you. Once I submitted to the inevitable and decided to enter the localisation game, I accidentally created a salary bidding war between two employers who needed a Finnish-speaker with quality assurance and IT experience. I still wish it was possible for me to be useful to someone for my professional skills, not just for my Finnish language.

New blog posts about actual topics are on their way, but in the meanwhile, bear with me and my sleepless life! If you have any suggestions about topics for blog posts, hit me up!

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