Talent Call Extras: Why Did I Apply…

Even though Talent Call Turku 2019 is over, we have lots of extra material. Occasionally, we will be sharing them with you. As you know now, many cities throughout the world have held similar talent attraction contests. The overall goal is to fill its worker shortages. Bringing the skilled workers for a visit lets the potential employee see that the city offers more than just employment and a salary. In Turku, our unique features are the proximity to nature and great work-life balance. To make sure to highlight these aspects, we brought the five winners and their entire family. Along with visiting local companies and seeing the beautiful archipelago, the winners and their families visited schools and met city officials to learn about available services. Here is what they had to say about why they decided to apply.

Audrey and Ryan, Singapore – “I was born and raised in Singapore but I always wanted to live abroad. I have a good friend who now lives in Belgium. She knew my wish and told me about the contest and encouraged me to apply. Also, I love doing random things that require me to step out of my comfort zone.”

Yllka, Albania – “A friend of mine posted the Talent Call contest announcement on Facebook. I had never heard of Turku so I started searching the internet for more information. The pictures, videos and articles made me fall in love with this city. One of the videos that convinced me to apply was Mayor Minna Arve’s video for this competition. What the mayor promoted was what I wanted: a city in which I could balance family and professional life.”

Maris, Latvia – He said the professional format of the campaign caught his attention. “I liked how they followed through…all material was done according to the brand.” He also praised the key message of the text, which was work-life balance. 

Andrius and Viktorija, Lithuania – “I was updating my CV and started to get a lot of ads that said things like “Work in Germany.” He said the only ad that popped to him was Talent Call Turku. “It seemed almost too good to be true. It was directed to the whole family.” At the time, their son Vainius, was around eight months old, so he was thinking about how the family would be affected as well.

Jinu and Meera, India – “I have a friend who has worked in Finland and he always talked about how it is such a wonderful place to live. When he found out about the contest, he sent me the information. “

Meera noted that Jinu speaks so much about Finland, “you would think he has already lived there.”