Nav­i­gat­ing the Job Mar­ket in Fin­land – Prac­ti­cal Job Search Skills and AI Tools

Ready to take your job search in Fin­land to the next lev­el? Dis­cov­er the hid­den job mar­ket, learn how to sup­port your well­be­ing dur­ing the job search and prac­tise the skills you need for your next inter­view.

Look­ing for new ways to boost your job search in Fin­land? Join our free work­shop series, Job Hunt­ing Tril­o­gy, at Oulu City Hall and gain prac­ti­cal skills, fresh per­spec­tives and use­ful AI tools to sup­port your job search.

You will learn, for exam­ple, how to:

• find oppor­tu­ni­ties beyond tra­di­tion­al job adver­tise­ments
• devel­op a strong ele­va­tor pitch and pre­pare for job inter­views
• use AI respon­si­bly as a prac­ti­cal tool in your job search
• man­age the ups and downs of job search­ing and main­tain your con­fi­dence.

Designed espe­cial­ly for uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents and tal­ents look­ing for oppor­tu­ni­ties in the Oulu area.

Join all three work­shops or choose the ones that are most rel­e­vant to you. Par­tic­i­pa­tion is free of charge, but places are lim­it­ed and reg­is­tra­tion is bind­ing.

• 28 Octo­ber: Under­stand­ing the Hid­den Job Mar­ket, reg­is­ter here.
• 4 Novem­ber: Well­be­ing Dur­ing the Job Search, reg­is­ter here.
• 11 Novem­ber: Prepar­ing for a Job Inter­view, reg­is­ter here.

When and where? 12:00–15:30 | Oulu City Hall

Find out more about each ses­sion below.

1. Under­stand­ing the Hid­den Job Mar­ket

What is the ses­sion about?

Not every job oppor­tu­ni­ty in Fin­land is adver­tised pub­licly. In this prac­ti­cal work­shop, we explore how the hid­den job mar­ket works and how you can become more proac­tive in your job search.

You will learn how to:

• How to iden­ti­fy com­pa­nies and organ­i­sa­tions that could need your skills
• find oppor­tu­ni­ties beyond tra­di­tion­al job adver­tise­ments
• under­stand the role of net­work­ing in the Finnish labour mar­ket
• approach employ­ers direct­ly in a pro­fes­sion­al and nat­ur­al way
• use LinkedIn more strate­gi­cal­ly for net­work­ing and job search­ing
• com­mu­ni­cate your skills and pro­fes­sion­al inter­ests clear­ly
• use AI tools respon­si­bly to sup­port employ­er research, net­work­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion

Meet your facil­i­ta­tor

The work­shop will be facil­i­tat­ed by Rima Depo, Head of Employ­ment Pro­gram North at Start­up Refugees.

Rima works with inter­na­tion­al job­seek­ers, employ­ers, com­pa­nies, pub­lic-sec­tor organ­i­sa­tions and oth­er part­ners to cre­ate prac­ti­cal path­ways into employ­ment. Her back­ground com­bines employ­ment pro­gramme devel­op­ment, recruit­ment, employ­er coop­er­a­tion, career coach­ing, train­ing, inter­na­tion­al busi­ness and cross-cul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

Hav­ing worked close­ly with both employ­ers and inter­na­tion­al pro­fes­sion­als, she brings a prac­ti­cal per­spec­tive on what hap­pens beyond the job adver­tise­ment: how employ­ers search for peo­ple, how pro­fes­sion­al con­nec­tions are built, and how can­di­dates can make them­selves vis­i­ble before a vacan­cy is even pub­lished.

Why attend?

If your job search cur­rent­ly con­sists main­ly of apply­ing for adver­tised vacan­cies, this work­shop will help you widen your search.

You will leave with prac­ti­cal tools for iden­ti­fy­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, expand­ing your pro­fes­sion­al net­work and tak­ing more con­trol of your job search instead of wait­ing for the right vacan­cy to appear.

2. Well­be­ing Dur­ing the Job Search

What is the ses­sion about?

Job search­ing can become a full-time job in itself. Long appli­ca­tion process­es, uncer­tain­ty, rejec­tion and lack of feed­back can affect moti­va­tion, con­fi­dence and well­be­ing.

This work­shop focus­es on how to cre­ate a job-search rou­tine that is pro­duc­tive but also sus­tain­able.

We will dis­cuss

• how to man­age the emo­tion­al ups and downs of job search­ing
• deal­ing with rejec­tion and unan­swered appli­ca­tions
• main­tain­ing con­fi­dence when the job search takes longer than expect­ed
• sep­a­rat­ing your pro­fes­sion­al val­ue from indi­vid­ual recruit­ment deci­sions
• cre­at­ing real­is­tic rou­tines and bound­aries around job search­ing
• recog­nis­ing progress even before receiv­ing a job offer
• strength­en­ing resilience and iden­ti­fy­ing the things you can influ­ence
• using AI respon­si­bly as a prac­ti­cal sup­port tool dur­ing the job search

Meet your facil­i­ta­tor

The ses­sion will be facil­i­tat­ed by Rima Depo, Head of Employ­ment Pro­gram North at Start­up Refugees.

Rima has worked for sev­er­al years with inter­na­tion­al pro­fes­sion­als nav­i­gat­ing employ­ment and inte­gra­tion in Fin­land. Her work includes career and employ­ment sup­port, train­ing, recruit­ment, pro­gramme devel­op­ment and coop­er­a­tion with employ­ers and oth­er employ­ment-sec­tor organ­i­sa­tions.

Her aca­d­e­m­ic back­ground in Edu­ca­tion­al Sci­ences, togeth­er with years of work­ing direct­ly with inter­na­tion­al job­seek­ers, gives her a par­tic­u­lar inter­est in learn­ing, moti­va­tion, resilience and the human side of employ­ment ser­vices.

Why attend?

A suc­cess­ful job search is not only about CVs, appli­ca­tions and inter­views. It also requires enough ener­gy and con­fi­dence to con­tin­ue.

This work­shop gives you space to look at how you are search­ing for work, not only how many jobs you are apply­ing for.

You will leave with prac­ti­cal ideas for build­ing a health­i­er job-search rou­tine, main­tain­ing moti­va­tion and focus­ing your ener­gy on actions that can actu­al­ly move you for­ward.

3. Prepar­ing for a Job Inter­view

What is the ses­sion about?

A job inter­view is your oppor­tu­ni­ty to turn the expe­ri­ence and skills list­ed on your CV into a con­vinc­ing pro­fes­sion­al sto­ry.

This prac­ti­cal work­shop helps you pre­pare for real inter­view sit­u­a­tions and com­mu­ni­cate your com­pe­tence with greater clar­i­ty and con­fi­dence.

The ses­sion cov­ers

• what to expect from job inter­views in Fin­land
• how to pre­pare before an inter­view
• how to intro­duce your­self and explain your pro­fes­sion­al back­ground
• answer­ing com­mon and chal­leng­ing inter­view ques­tions
• using con­crete exam­ples to demon­strate your skills
• devel­op­ing a strong ele­va­tor pitch
• com­mu­ni­cat­ing con­fi­dent­ly with­out mem­o­ris­ing answers
• ques­tions you can ask the employ­er
• respon­si­ble use of AI when prepar­ing for inter­views.

A major part of the work­shop is prac­ti­cal. Par­tic­i­pants will prac­tise inter­view sit­u­a­tions, test their ele­va­tor pitch­es and receive con­struc­tive feed­back.

Meet your facil­i­ta­tor

The work­shop will be facil­i­tat­ed by Min­na Jar­va, Recruit­ment & Part­ner­ship Spe­cial­ist at Start­up Refugees.

Min­na’s work is focused on bridg­ing the gap between inter­na­tion­al tal­ents and Finnish employ­ers. She spe­cial­izes in devel­op­ing employ­ment prac­tices, dri­ving recruit­ment col­lab­o­ra­tions and oth­er part­ner­ships, and train­ing & coach­ing employ­ers and job seek­ers toward suc­cess.

With a back­ground in Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Mar­ket­ing and years of close col­lab­o­ra­tion with employ­ers, Min­na offers a unique insid­er per­spec­tive on what hir­ing man­agers look for—and how you can make a last­ing impres­sion in your next inter­view.

Why attend?

Know­ing what you want to say and being able to say it clear­ly under inter­view pres­sure are two dif­fer­ent things.

This work­shop gives you the oppor­tu­ni­ty to prac­tise before the real inter­view.

You will leave with a clear­er pro­fes­sion­al pitch, stronger answers to inter­view ques­tions and prac­ti­cal feed­back that you can use imme­di­ate­ly in your next recruit­ment process.