If your dream is to live and work in Italy and you don’t know where to start! Then you’re in the right place.
In this article I will tell you the five fundamental foundations, taken from my academic research, that will help you find a job in Italy.
When you are planning to move to another country, you will generally experience a combination of emotions ranging from excitement to fear. Generally the decision to change country is motivated by a positive push or expects a better future in all spheres of life. It often happens that this push is linked to love, many women and men move to Italy for marriage reasons and this is a double change. However, no one has ever taught us that this better future must be built over time. Without forgetting that knowing what to do is not always intuited.
And that’s what happened to me … I came to Italy to spend the Christmas holidays and I decided to stay here to study. It seemed to be a dream coming true, but not knowing how to speak Italian and not being familiar with the Italian culture has slowed my dream of working as a psychologist in Italy.
This is the reason that motivated me to write this article, thinking that maybe you are in the same situation. Maybe you wonder “Where can I start from?” I mentioned before that we have a mix of emotions when we decide to change country and anxiety plays a strong role right at this moment, because we don’t know what will happened and we can’t control the future. However, you can build an action plan to have strategies and predict future obstacles.
• The 5 fundamental foundations that will support you in finding a job in Italy:
1- Learning Italian
Italy is a very traditional country and it has a very rich culture. Italians are proud of their food, products, art, fashion and language. Italian is the official language of Italy. Even if you are going to live in a city like Milan, which is the most international city in Italy, you will have to speak Italian daily. When we talk about work, knowing how to speak Italian is a must!
It is true that some companies may not even put a weight on this aspect, obviously if we are talking about a multinational company, however knowing the Italian language will ALWAYS be an added value to find a job in Italy. One of the strongest observations I have had from my thesis is “The more Italian you speak the more Italians will respect you”. So, I invite you to put on your to do list “start an Italian course”!
2- Learn about the Italian culture
It is very important to understand what it means to live in Italy, I know many customers who became frustrated because they had an image of Italy and of Italians that was very far from reality. Then, it’s worth considering the city you’ve chosen to live. There is so much difference between the North and the South off Italy, as well as from a large city to a small city. Whereas there are always exceptions. I try however to give you a general rule: the smaller the city in terms of tourism, the more the population will tend to be more closed to innovations and foreigners.
3- Labor market
As I had already mentioned, Italy is a country that tends to value tradition, in other words, what is best known. This also has an impact on the Italian labor market. In fact, according to ISTAT data, 50% of candidates are chosen through the informal network. This means that they are referred to by customers, suppliers or employees. All this happens for historical reasons, which I will write about in another moment. In order to meet the needs of the Italian market it is necessary to work towards creating a professional network. The more people you know who knows of your skills, the more chances you will have in finding a job! Be careful, because it is very common that after the “falling in love with Italy”phase, many people tend to close themselves towards the Italians and their culture and this is counterproductive. So, our motto is #getoutofthehouse ;)-
4- Be realistic
Such thoughts as “I’m going to Italy and soon I’ll be rich” is not realistic! I work by supporting people to reach their goal but nothing happens overnight. Unfortunately! Nothing is automatic, but the more information you have, the more realistic you will be; the more you will be able to make consistent forecasts and have a systemic view of the labor market and of your situation. As a result you can foresee situations and possible obstacles. Knowing reality gives you the opportunity to create strategies that are consistent with the context. Don’t forget that one of the tools to be able to be realistic is to have an excellent source of information. Information is power!
5- Preparation
During this article, I have mentioned many times words like: planning, strategies, forecasts … Because the preparation makes you avoid losing time and leads you to a faster result. And I tell you this as someone who has not planned anything before arriving in Italy and I know very well the consequences of this act. However, once I arrived in Italy, I wrote my action plan and I executed it. If you haven’t yet left your home country yet, try to write your action plan and prepare yourself economically, psychologically, bureaucratically, etc.
If you are in Italy, don’t waste any more time and make your own action plan. Here are the four things you could do today to be more prepared:
- Inform yourself with someone who has already done what you would like to do, in order to better understand the situation
- Make a list of all the things you need to do
- Put it in chronological order
- Start with the simplest things
Right now, I think you’ll have some ideas in mind about what you should do. So, don’t waste time and start today or better now!
If you don’t know my story and my academic work, I invite you to read the About Us page to get to know me better.
I am a career coach and I support people in achieving their professional goals. If you want more information on our coaching program go to Career Coach, I’m looking forward to know your story and for being able to collaborate with you on your journey to your dreams!
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