Moving to another country. Dark side
Disclaimer. This article does not aim to disencourage anyone. Neither it is to put down or promote any particular country / company / people. This is my side, my timeline, my luck. It does not pretend to be unified around all other possible experiences when moving to… Estonia.

6 month before moving to Tallinn I couldn’t even show exactly where Estonia is on a map, maybe just “generic North”.
3 month before moving to Estonia I still was more confident about the Netherlands or Germany.
1 month before moving out of Ukraine I was absolutely sure I’m going to finish my Master’s in Kyiv-Mohyla academy.
3 weeks before boarding on the plane to Tallinn, 2 hours before boarding on the train to Odesa I received a notification from TUT (Tallinn University of Technology) that my application was accepted. And so the fun began :)
The following 3 months scored in stress levels both by its amount and intensivity. In 2–3 weeks I had to do all those things, that most of my groupmates had 2–3 months for. Visa, accommodation, translation of the documents, diploma transcript etc etc. My Alma Mater International department was on vacation for a couple of weeks, the Independence Day was coming (meaning visa centre won’t work) and in general — everybody else was relaxed and enjoying their summer :)
[TIP] Do all the translation and notarisation of your study documents (such as grades, diploma, certificates) as soon as you receive them. Nobody, yourself included, will have time for that later. Later is too late.

Accomodation. This was almost hysterical. I needed a confirmed place to live before applying for a visa. By that time all dormitories were taken and I spend 3 crazy days writing to almost every house advert that I saw. Mostly I surfed on the resources stated on my University web-page, but nobody replied. It was end of August, a lot of students were doing just the same.
I knew one guy who already lived in Estonia for a couple of months, so I asked him how long did it take to find a room there:

Lucky me he knew the guy who knew the guy… who had a room available for the price I could afford :) Actually, that was indeed a very good luck because even though I’ve already moved to a separate apartment I’m still in contact with that initial landlord, as his wife is now my landlady, and I am very much pleased with our relationship :) We all know horror stories about bad landlords, so I consider myself quite lucky in this sense.
[TIP] Already posted some resources as a link above, but more efficient were Expats in Tallinn and accommodation oriented FB community (this one is in Estonian, but there is always Google Translate and most landlords speak English or Russian well enough).
Visa and my residence permit. At that time Ukrainians still needed visa for a short-term visit so I applied for a usual tourist multi-visa, which gave me right to apply for a temporary residence permit (TRP) for study, but did not allow me to work. Usually process of obtaining a TRP can take from 2 weeks up to 2 months — for me it was ~1 months. Somewhere in between it appeared that there were some issues with my documents, so I had to ask my parents to get, translate and send some additional verified copies.
[TIP] Not much to advise here, it was something I couldn’t control. If you can, again try to make sure you have enough time for all of this. And read the list of required documents thoughtfully. Following the next section, don’t wait for your TRP to start applying for a job! This process can take months depending on your qualification and market demand. I had my last interview just one day before obtaining my Estonian ID.
Job. Before moving to Estonia I had very brief working experience in my field, some study oriented internship which gave only an approximate idea of a working process and basically nothing about applying for a job. All my previous CVs were written for my University applications so my very first ever job resume looked like this:

On a bright side, I had a couple of friends who were very upfront with me and didn’t let me send it anywhere :) One of them with sufficient working experience spent the whole day with me formating and polishing the whole thing so it looked much more representative and adequate.

3 pages, yes, but this is a restriction of the format. In Estonia there are couple of widely known resources for creating and sharing your CV:
- CV Online — also gives you possibility to download your CV in pdf format for printing and further usage, which is exactly what I did (as most job seekers in Estonia). Employers are used to this format and if you are not a graphic designer, keep it simple :) (inlined [TIP])
- CV Keskus — another resource with the same purpose and more or less the same functionality.
[TIP] Just posting your resume/CV on those resources very unlikely will get you a job, you need to be proactive. And for that these platforms showed to be the most useful:
- Work in Estonia — the whole organisation that takes care of relocation foreign specialists to Estonia. They usually have the most “alive” offers and it’s easy to navigate. All you need to do — find all positions that you are interested in and write them.
- Just google companies based in your country, their offices, HR contact and write them! As straight-forward as possible.
Yeap, cover letter is a must! I was just after my Bachelor studies, looking for my first job and our HR then confessed to me, that I was the only one who attached a cover letter to their CV so I was already in a priority queue for that position (and yeah, I got it).
[TIP] Would be obvious to say “Do write a cover letter. Don’t just copy paste information. Make it personal” etc. But it could be quite exhausting to write personalised messages to every company (and you will have to write a lot!). To make it easier, write a short (1 paragraph, half of A4 is enough) general intro of who you are and even more emphasis on what you can. Still in a general matter, they will check your CV for details. To give it a personal touch start with “Dear [insert HR’s name here], …”. Definitely mention company name there and briefly what caught your attention in what they do (to show that you actually checked their web-site). That’s all it takes in most cases to make you stand out for a potential employer.
In one week I sent around 60 CVs and letters to different companies. Out of it I got 7 interviews, 3 offers and accepted 1. In total from sending out the first resume to signing the contract it took 1 month and 2 days.
Stress part? I came to Estonia with certain amount of money and knowledge that my family won’t be able to support me from Ukraine if I exceed that limit. I had days when I knew that if in 2 weeks I won’t find a job, I’ll have to come back and my chance to get education here will be wasted, I would lose. This was time of great uncertainty, and barely any support as all my friends and family were far away. Every day I was worried about my TRP, about my job and of course about my studies, which have already started and needed my attention. New country, new people, more intense usage of a foreign language. In addition as usual I was homesick as hell :) It was colder here, less tasty food, less smiling people around, less familiar customs.
Personal. It also happened that at a time I was going through some personal issues on all, family-friends-heart, fronts. The war with Russia just started and some of my friends were in direct danger, my Dad lost his job, I lost my best friend. None of that is blamed on Estonia, but these were things I put to my carry-on luggage and had to deal with them on the fly while relocating to another country. We remember bad experiences better so we won’t let that happen again so all of it at first built up an unhealthy association with my new home and it took awhile to feel comfortable here. To be honest, I still work on that, even though all primary issues are resolved long time ago.
2 years later I feel very different, but it was dark and intense during my first 2 months in Estonia. My adjustment skills were tested hard. I passed :)
Some time later I will write (maybe, if needed or requested) about the bright sides and what for I’m grateful for now in Estonia, but that’s not the topic of this post. If it was helpful to at least one person, I’m happy already. If not, it let me put on the side all that struggle from the past and it’s enough for me. If you feel angry now, please read the disclaimer at the top again ;) Aitäh!
