Hi,

I'm doing a PhD in Helsinki, Finland. I did my masters and bachelors in Sheffield, UK. I had other offers from big engineering firms in the UK, Holland and Belgium, but the sense of adventure was too much to resist. Finland it was!

From beginning to end, the application period took 10 months. There were some rather complex funding requirements related to filling certain quotas. After initially being accepted for the position, they revoked the offer and gave me a 6 month trainee contract. I rejected that and they reinstalled their original offer. This was quite frustrating as I had turned down my offers in the UK, Holland and Belgium!

I've been out here for three years. I was promised full funding, interesting projects, the opportunity to work with Finnish companies and to work in English in a friendly, multicultural environment. None of those promises were kept. For the last 6months of my contract and the following 12 months, i have had/will have 50% funding and no projects. The Finnish companies I have worked with don't want to have foreign PhD students on their projects, so networking is rather difficult! I've had 4 meetings with my supervisor in the past 3 years. It seems that i was brought in to satisfy company directives that state that a certain number of persons employed should be non-Finnish. But rather contradictory to that, I'm the last foreigner in my team of 120 people after they sacked the other 6 non-Finnish persons due to corporate restructuring. I have a fixed term contract which can't be annulled, however i can be ignored until the contract ends.

But it's not all bad. I've become very independent and self-reliant. I've presented at 14 conferences across Europe and the US. I'm familiar with most tests in my research area. I made a lot of friends in other research centres and i hope to use that to my advantage when i leave this company.

My recommendations?

1) Go to a place that has a track record of success when integrating non-natives. Countries such as France, Germany, Sweden and Holland appear to be good for this, from the experiences of other students i've met at conferences.
2) Arrange a paid trial period first. Get a feel of the place
3) Don't come to Finland!