Success Stories

TOLGA
Tolga is 31 years old and comes from Turkey. Hel left his home country with his family as a young boy and settled in Germany. He finished school there and got his first job in the sales and customer service department of a telecommunications company.

During his first holiday he went to Turkey and there he met his current wife – Kasia, who comes from Poland and just as Tolga spent her holiday in Turkey.

The couple got married and they live in Poland now. Tolga does not regret his decision to move to Poland from Germany. However, the beginning in Poland were not easy. It was difficult for him to find a job because he did not speak Polish.

After a long time he found a job in a restaurant, which was visited mostly by foreigners. It was not his dream job but at least he could use the languages he knew there: German and English.

Besides, at work Tolga could improve his Polish language skills the knowledge of which was passive when started work – he could understand much but did not speak.

He attended to the foreign guests, at the same time he listened carefully to the conversations of his colleagues and Polish guests. This way he learned more and more words and, with time, he also started to speak Polish.

Today, Tolga does not work in a restaurant any more. He got a job in an international telecommunications company. This was possible thanks to his knowledge of foreign languages: German, English, Polish and his mother-tongue Turkish. When he started he had a position in the hotline customer service for Polish customers as well as foreigners. He could use his Turkish because the company operated on the Turkish market as well. Recently he got a promotion and is now the manager of customer service section.

ANNA
Anna is 36 years old and originally comes from Poland. She left her home country to start her new life together with her German husband. It was supposed to be the best part of her life. Falling in love with Andreas, who was open-minded towards new challenges and other cultures, made her expect that only positive events will happen in her life in the new country. After all, she was the one who respected and defended the Germans and the German language towards pupils of the school she used to work in.

The move to Germany was a tough experience, one that defined her life, on a personal as well as on a professional level. The struggle against prejudices toward East Europeans was the hardest experience she made. At her first work position – she again worked at a school but this time as a secretary – she met great people.

The job at the school was time-limited; therefore, she had to find new job opportunities. The thought to study again was a hard one because the university was far away from the place she lived with her husband. Nevertheless, she applied to a university as an interpreter and got in. Due to her first study degree she was able to proceed with her studies quickly and soon became an authorised interpreter and translator of Polish, German and English.

The world started to smile at her J – this is a Polish expression for happiness. After she returned home to her husband after college, she established a small company as a freelancer and started to look for clients. At the same time she additionally wanted to work as a teacher again, to make use of her second job qualification.

That decision turned out to become the absolute favourite one on the scale of the best professional activities: Adult teaching – German as a foreign language. She loves languages and remained faithful to her predestination. Depending on assignments she receives nowadays, she is one time at the court interpreting or at her home office translating documents. Right now she just tries to make the world a better place by combating the prejudices towards “other-speaking” and “other-thinking” people.

ISA
Isa comes from Iraq. He came to Poland to study in the mid 1980’s. Before he started studying at the Warsaw Technical University Isa had studied Polish for a year. Having been in Poland for 6 years he completed his education at the Land Engineering Department of the Warsaw Technical University. Then he started to seek employment in the area he had studied. He did not succeed so for many years he took up different part-time jobs. However, they were below his qualifications and were not satisfactory for him.
As he felt he was losing his motivation to work, Isa decided to take on one more effort and search for a more stable and satisfying job. In the nineties more and more people began to spend their holidays in countries where Arabic language is spoken. Isa started to look for a job in travel agencies. After a few months he got a job as a guide of tours to Egypt.

Isa now works in a renowned travel agency. His work gives him satisfaction as well as the possibility to support his family. He earns well enough and wife does not have to work, she can devote all her time to their 3-year old daughter.

MARINA
Marina is 27 years old and comes from Ukraine. She came to Poland to study 8 years ago. After 5 years of studies, she graduated and got a Master’s degree in sociology. After she finished the university, Marina returned to Lviv, her home city in Ukraine. Unfortunately, for a long time she was not able to find a job that she would like and feel qualified for.

While she was staying in Lviv, she spent days looking for a job and trying to help her Ukrainian friends who wanted to go to Poland to work. They asked her about the life in Poland, asked her to recommend Polish companies where they might ask for a job, asked about formal procedures concerning the application for the Polish visa etc.

Problems with finding a job in Lviv made her think about returning to Poland. While thinking about what she could do in Poland she realized that her knowledge of Ukrainian, Russian and Polish was a great potential. She came to the conclusion that she can benefit from them and do professionally what she was already doing in Lviv for her friends. Marina decided to open a job agency for Ukrainians seeking employment in Poland.

Nowadays, Marina lives in Warsaw and runs the job agency with a Polish colleague. The company successfully recruits Ukrainian employees for Polish companies.

FEVRONIA
It was in the summer of 2006 when Fevronia and her husband decided to start up a new life in Spain far from Romania, her family and friends. They decicded to go to Madrid even though they didn´t know much Spanish. They were confident on finding their way for succeeding in this new place.

During these five years they have experienced difficulties to find the right job but they have also found many people who let them learn from. Fevronia tried to improve their Spanish; she studied hard because she thought being able to communicate in Spanish was the first step to find a job.

Fevronia`s first job was in a toy store. Working face to face with customers helped her improve her language skills in Spanish abd trained her for future job interviews. Then she got a secretary position in a lawers firm. The firm provided legal services to a good number of Romainain customers at that time, and an employee with Romanian language skills was very valuable.

She stayed in this position for some time but most of her tasks were administrative so she couldn´t keep thinking of changing jobs. She was graduated in Law and she decided to keep looking for a better job.

And it worked! Her mother tongue worked as an added valued for her to find a new job: a well-know local company was opening a new office in Bucharest and they needed someone to be in charge of this new branch from the headquarters in Madrid.

She has been working in this company for the last three years. She had gained recognition and the confidence of her superiors during this period. She belives the key to succes in starting a new life abroad is to persist and a strong will to work hard.

JAROSLAVA
Jaroslava is 30 years old and comes from Slovakia. She left her home country and came to Spain to study at the University. She finished her studies but even though she was fluent in Spanish she couldn´t find a job according to her education background. The economical and employment situation was hard for everyone: her class mates and friens were also struggling to find a job. And for her was even harder.

She loved travelling so when a job in a call cente in India was offered to her she decided to accept it. She moved to India and worked there for a couple of years. She had studied English at school wich allowed her to communicate during her stay.

Nevertheless she wanted to go back to Spain after her job in India she had return to Bratislava because she couldn´t afford living in Spain without a job. After some time performing all kinds of jobs in her home town, she decided to go back to Spain again and give it one more try. Then, she found a great job opportunity. She started working for a tour operator. She was in charge of organizing visits for groups of Slovak tourists all over Spain. This job allowed her to combine her love for travelling, her choice for Spian as place to live and her Slovak language skills.