
How can a guy from Western Europe start a life in Russia/Ukraine? - boeien
I want to find a job in Russia or Ukraine. I have been fascinated about this part of the world since I was 10. It&#x27;s my dream to live and work there for at least a couple of years of my life.<p>I&#x27;m willing to go to great lengths to reach my goal. This is why I started learning Russian (currently at A2&#x2F;B1) and have devoted much of my traveling time (about 9 months in total) in Russia&#x2F;Ukraine. To succeed I think I need a job first. That&#x27;s why I quit my job (12 years in financial&#x2F;banking sector) and applied to 30+ relevant vacancies. This has resulted in only one second round interview.<p>Considering the investment&#x2F;return ratio it seems nearly impossible to find a job in Russia&#x2F;Ukraine.<p>What else can I do?
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hackermailman
It's nearly impossible for Russians and Ukrainians to find a decent job there
too, you'll need to work remotely unless you plan on making $3/hr like
@Homakov made as a Rails dev in Russia. Get a remote position with your EU
citizenship look at boards like jobspresso.co even for just answering support
emails.

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alltakendamned
My understanding was that in Kiev a senior dev could easily make ~3000 USD.

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hackermailman
Could yes, if they had a good network and weren't fired after the probationary
period being paid $400-650/mth (avg salary in Ukraine is $200/mth) in order to
be replaced by cheap incoming graduate students. Senior software dev at EPAM
in Lviv makes $10kUAH/mth to start which is ~$375USD. This is why outfits like
Toptal have so many Ukraine/Polish/Russian developers since the lowest wage on
Toptal is still at least 2x what they would make domestically.

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badpun
Dunno about Ukraine and Russia, but here in Poland it's standard for senior-
ish devs to make $3k-$5k per month. More than that is also possible, but
uncommon.

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danielvf
Do you have a pile of expat Russian/Ukraine friends? If so, they’d be the
first ones to ask. Otherwise, if you live in a US or U.K. metropolitan area,
they are pretty easy to find.

Also, have you visited as a tourist already?

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boeien
@danielvf - I have a couple of Russian/Ukrainian friends here which have given
me tips and have asked around a bit, but that has not lead to anything yet.
Also I know some 'countrymen' working there, but with the same result. Perhaps
I need to expand my network further, thank you.

I have spent around 9 months across the whole of Russia and Ukraine of which
around 2 months each in Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and Kiev.

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danielvf
Best of luck to you then!

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poushkar
Have you considered applying to privatbank.ua/ru/work? It's quite a modern big
bank, I am assuming it should be interesting to work there.

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boeien
@poushkar: I have considered applying there, but haven't done it yet, because
I didn't see any relevant vacancies. Normally the success rate of sending open
applications is quite low, but I guess it is worth a try. Thanks for the tip.

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genbit
few ideas: \- find local dev/IT shops and offer your services as a
sales/project manager. With your English and if you have a good network from
your financial/banking sector - you should be able to find a good fit. \- it's
hard to find a job in Russia even for locals if you don't have
network/connections.

what are your skills? What vacancies are you applying?

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boeien
@genbit, thanks for your answer.

You could say I am an expert (valuation and risk wise) in Interest Rate
Derivatives and various other (more simple) financial products such as FX,
loan/depos, stocks and bonds, etc. I have been responsible for translating the
business needs into requirements for IT departments and Financial Engineers.

The roles I had were more informal than what you see in the typical business
analyst roles in IT companies. I have also been training colleagues in Front
Office, Market Risk and Product Control departments on these valuation and
risk topics.

As an IT person you might think this is not real programming :-), but I have
built various Excel VBA tools for the department.

Education wise I am educated in Investment Theory & Investment Management.
Meaning that I should know how pension funds and asset managers should invest
their money in the financial markets.

Also, I have been investing and later on trading on various products in the
financial markets since the age of 13!, while I am now in my mid thirties.

I have mainly applied to business analyst, financial analyst, business
analyst/project manager, risk analyst, investment analyst roles.

