Finding startup jobs in Finland — The Beginners guide
“I’m looking to find something meaningful and challenging and would like to work in a startup. Where should I start looking for openings?”
“I’m moving from <<Pick a small Finnish city>> to Helsinki and would like to start working in a startup. Where to find the jobs?”
These are the two questions I get asked a lot. Slush and the startup communities have done their work and that has been visible for a while now but during the recent year many people I know have been jumping off the corporate bandwagon and are looking towards startups. And the reasons are obvious.
People are more and more looking to do something they can find deeper meaning and connection to than work in a big company which might or might not be able to create a common vision towards something bigger than the monthly payroll. In addition for many the corporate ladder seems to be too slow and people are thirsty for more responsibilities faster than it used to be and startup are able to provide with that promise. Biggest factor of course is that the job creation ability of big companies has been severed and there is no indication for better.
“You get to work in a startup, and you get to work in a startup. Everyone gets to work in a startup!”
Let’s jump to the moment when you have decided that startups is the way to go for you. Where should you start looking?
I’d say that for me there are four main channels you should be actively looking into: Startup events, startup job bulletins, LinkedIn and Finnish Startup100 -listing by people behind San Francisco.
Startup Events
Snatching a job in a early stage startup with relatively small team is not only about your skills. In addition to your talent the willingness & ability to learn and cultural fit are the defining factors on your recruitability to a startup. That’s why getting to know the possible candidates outside work context is extremely important. In each of the big cities you can find the startup societies, co-working spaces and few persons who are in the epicenter of all the startup happenings. These are the places you should regularly visit and people you should get to know.
Step One: Open that Facebook, Meetup.com or start googling away.
Step Two: Attend the events and get to know people.
TIP: Always look for a way to help other people — not how others can help your agenda. #givefirst
Helsinki: You should definitely look into what’s happening in Maria 01, Microsoft Flux, Aaltoes, Startup Sauna and different meetup groups and start from there. NewCoHelsinki is occasionally organizing a “Find a Co-founder” event so check that out too. Find Maria’s Erika Halonen , Microsoft Flux, Aaltoes and Startup Sauna from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and get your personal pitch ready.
Turku and startups equals Boost. Also SparkUp, newly opened Hub Turku and Turku Game Hub Hive are the places to check out. Anssi & Juhis from Boost and Leo from University of Turku are the persons who can guide you in Turku ecosystem so be sure to ping them.
Oulu ecosystem is currently in a state of change as their main startup hub Business Kitchen was scattered into three smaller co-working spaces around the city and Fingersoft’s Pelikampus is just starting up. If you happen to be in Oulu you should also ping Jean Speville from Vessla, The founder of Asmo Solutions Asmo Saloranta and Anne Sorvari as they are highly connected in Oulu. Vessla and Asmo are also running a small private shared office in downtown Oulu which has always welcomed new friendly entrepreneurs to stop for a coffee and chat.
Tampere from my perspective looks a bit dim currently. The old Finlayson area with NewFactory has been under turmoil with diminishing resources which has not had positive effect to the scene. Fortunately the newly opened privately run Tampere Startup Hub works currently as a beacon for something which hopefully in the coming years will become the renaissance of Tampere startup scene.
Job Sites
Recruiting platforms are of course one crucial part of finding the right startup to join. The Hub is the newest entry to Finnish market and is run by Maria01 and Danske Bank. Even though it was just launched it seems to be gathering speed pretty fast.
One good source to look into is venture capital firm Inventure’s web page job section where they are listing open positions in their portfolio companies (currently over 100 positions!). Other platforms where you can find startup jobs are FinlandStartupJobs, the job platfrom by Arctic Startup and Startup100 Jobs. Angellist has also some job postings from Finnish startups.
Of course in 2017 when talking about jobs you can’t miss LinkedIn. Many of the companies are using their people as part of their recruiting engine and you can find multiple persons with “we are hiring” -texts in their description.
So spin up that LinkedIn search and look with the right keywords with geographical limitations of your choice. If your LinkedIn network is not that broad getting that one month free Premium trial or paying for it might be worth the investment as Premium enables you to search also 3rd degree contacts.
Remember also to make your LinkedIn page shine before reaching out. Hubspot has created a good post on starting the journey to perfect Linkedin progfile here.
Startup100
One good source for spotting your perfect startup job is to look into the listing of Startup100.net — Startup100 lists the Finnish startups in their database monthly according to visibility in media. This is a good place to start finding the startup you really are interested in and working your way towards getting that next opening from them when the time is right.
This was my short listing for all of you looking to secure that dream startup job of yours. Hopefully this information will be helpful for you and you get that position.
If you have some suggestions or think I’m missing a important page or information please throw me a message through Twitter at @toniperamaki and I’ll be happy to add/modify.
Yours, Toni
