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Friday, August 5, 2011

EURES: the European Job Mobility Portal

This is a great resource for anyone seeking employment in a European country.

EURES (European Employment Services) is a network coordinated by the European Commission to "facilitate the free movement of workers within the European Economic Area; Switzerland is also involved. Partners in the network include public employment services, trade union and employers' organisations."  According to their website, they have three objectives:
  • to inform, guide and provide advice to potentially mobile workers on job opportunities as well as living and working conditions in the European Economic Area;
  • to assist employers wishing to recruit workers from other countries;and
  • to provide advice and guidance to workers and employers in cross-border regions.
I have the impression (I could be wrong here) that this organization was originally designed to facilitate movement for work purposes between European countries.  However, since very few EU citizens take advantage of this (about 2%), I think that their scope has expanded to providing guidance for both mobile workers within  Europe and work migrants from non-European countries.  In any case, the site is available in 20 languages and has a number of good links to resources that you might find helpful:

My EURES: Here you can create an account, post a CV, set up database searches and receive alerts by email.

Jobseekers:  On-line database of jobs available in over European countries.  I ran a search on "Computer Professionals" and hit the jackpot - over 1000 IT jobs in France alone.

Are you a graduate?:  See the section "6 Tips to starting a Professional Career Abroad" which has links to tips for finding a job, preparing a European-style CV (resume), applying for a job, interviewing and the practical and legal aspects of moving to a new country.  The information is ostensibly for students but I think everyone can benefit from this information.

Living and Working Conditions:  A really fine database of information about labor conditions, cost of living, housing and social services in European countries.  Just go to the map of Europe and click on the country you are interested in.  I pulled up labor market information on Bulgaria and was really pleased by the content and its timeliness - the site was last updated in March of 2011 so this is really up to date information.

Hope this helps all you jobseekers out there.  Good luck!

2 comments:

syeds said...

Took me time to read all the posts, but I enjoyed the article.
Cv Template

Victoria FERAUGE said...

Hi syeds,

Thanks for reading and leaving a comment. Had a look at your site - very interesting. CV's are tough especially when you have to adjust the format to comply with local cultural and legal requirements. On my French CV, for example, I put my marital status, the number of children I have and their ages. I understand that in the U.S. you don't do that. If you or anyone else has any tips for CV writing where you are, feel free to post them. Might make for a very interesting discussion. All the best,

Victoria