Job Search in Finland 2026 — No Photo on the CV, Referees Instead: How Recruitment Works

1. The Finnish CV: no photo, no age, but referees

The CV format taken for granted in Türkiye, Russia or Ukraine works against you in Finland. No photo, date of birth, marital status, number of children or nationality. The reason is legal rather than aesthetic: those details create a discrimination risk and good employers do not ask for them. A CV containing them signals that the candidate does not know local norms, which costs at the first sift.

What Finland does expect, and what many candidates omit, is referees. At the end of the CV you name two people who have seen you work, with their title and contact details, and they are genuinely called. You must ask their permission before naming them. A former manager abroad who can speak English is a perfectly valid referee.

2. Where the adverts are, and where the jobs are

The main channels for open vacancies are Työmarkkinatori (the public job platform), LinkedIn, Duunitori and Oikotie. Municipalities and wellbeing services counties advertise on their own sites, and applications for public posts usually go through the organisation's own system. Sector-specific sites also exist, and in construction, healthcare and logistics a large share of adverts appear there.

But a considerable share of jobs in Finland are never advertised: the vacancy is filled through a network, on someone's recommendation. That means approaching employers directly works better than waiting for adverts. Writing a short, concrete message to companies you are interested in, attending industry events and being visible on LinkedIn are methods many candidates never try, and which are entirely normal here.

3. The language requirement varies sharply by sector

There is no single answer to "is English enough in Finland". In technology, games, engineering, research and the head-office functions of international companies English is usually enough and the team language is English anyway. In healthcare, social work, education, retail, customer service and public posts, Finnish or Swedish is effectively mandatory, and a lack of it is on its own a reason for rejection.

The line also depends on where you live: the capital region has markedly more English-working jobs than the country as a whole, while in smaller cities Finnish may be expected even in the same sector. The realistic plan is to start with the work English can reach while continuing to learn the language; stopping the job search until a language course finishes is usually wasted time.

4. The tone expected at interview: understated and concrete

The strong sales register that works in some countries works against you in Finland. The expected manner is calm, understated and concrete: saying what you did, what result it produced and where you struggled lands better than praising yourself in general terms. Saying "I don't know, but here is how I would find out" is read as maturity rather than weakness.

Punctuality is taken seriously: arriving exactly on time, a few minutes early, is expected. Hierarchy is low in most workplaces and managers are addressed by first name; that informality is the norm, not a lapse. Talking about pay is ordinary and usually comes up in the first or second meeting, and arriving knowing the floor set by your sector's collective agreement reads as solid preparation.

5. Checklist before applying