Thread: Careers in St. Petersburg

Let me preface this by saying that this is all speculation right now.

I'm graduating in May with a B.S. in Mathematics and Physics Minor. I'm curious what job opportunities would exist for me in St. Petersburg. How would I go about finding U.S. companies located in Peter for the purposes of landing a job? I would imagine that would be the easiest route to moving and getting a job over there, of course apart from all the legal procedures and requirements. Also, what are some new and developing hot careers/industries in Petersburg?

There is a trend of people with educations like yours leaving Russia, not moving there. Another thing to consider is the language.
Sounds like you might find something in the IT market though, or maybe as a financial analyst.

As I understand, there is not a massive amount of such jobs in St Petersburg, the majority are in Moscow and for IT, possibly Novosibirsk. You have to be very cool headed and realistic about salary and living expenses if you were to work for a local company or as a local hire employee.

Odds that a US company will hire you as a new graduate and send you to Russia, seem relatively slim - it tends to be more experienced employees that are seconded on expat packages.

All and all I think this idea would only work if you can speak decent Russian and find something that requires both a smart science graduate and also fluent English.

And don't forget that your employer would have to set you up with a work permit.

I think this CAN be done, but it would require enormous commitment and a lot of risk taking and hard work to make it happen.
What motivates you?

Originally Posted by Hanna

There is a trend of people with educations like yours leaving Russia, not moving there. Another thing to consider is the language.
Sounds like you might find something in the IT market though, or maybe as a financial analyst.

As I understand, there is not a massive amount of such jobs in St Petersburg, the majority are in Moscow and for IT, possibly Novosibirsk. You have to be very cool headed and realistic about salary and living expenses if you were to work for a local company or as a local hire employee.

Odds that a US company will hire you as a new graduate and send you to Russia, seem relatively slim - it tends to be more experienced employees that are seconded on expat packages.

All and all I think this idea would only work if you can speak decent Russian and find something that requires both a smart science graduate and also fluent English.

And don't forget that your employer would have to set you up with a work permit.

I think this CAN be done, but it would require enormous commitment and a lot of risk taking and hard work to make it happen.
What motivates you?

I've been talking to this girl online since the end of February. We're planning on meeting and spending a week in NYC the first week in January. Nothing is definite yet. Her busiest time of the year is the end of year. If everyone goes well, and of course that's a big if, moving would be an option. Why? Well, she's a working professional and has a career. I work, too, but I haven't finished my degree yet. I'm a late bloomer. Basically, I'm just wanting to get a picture of the possibilities if everything goes well. We're both in our mid-to-late twenties.

Oh, that's a lot of ifs....
I think you should try to meet up with her face to face before you consider this any further.
In the event that your friendship should turn into something more, you might not (and she might not) want to be living in Russia necessarily.

My advice would be to meet with her first, then if everything still feels right, discuss the idea with her and see what she feels about it.

If she is a young professional working in St petetersburg she probably knows the local job market quite well. Even if she is not in the same field as you, she is bound to know others who are and can help identifying the options.

Hi,

I read this topic with interest. My project is to live few years (2 or 3) in Russia. I would like to live in Saint-Petersburg.
I'm French and I'm currently studying computing. Our educational system in France allow us to study for example 2 weeks in university and work 2 weeks. It means that half part of the year I study, and the orther part I work. So I'm working already and I can save money for my project.

I plan to apply my project in 2 or 3 years. Firstly because I think I have to save money, and mainly because I have to learn Russian. I already started but I have to progress.

Do you have advices about how I could find a job in Russia ? Maybe you know websites where we could apply ?

I imagine you would need to have a pretty good level of Russian language. Just from my experience in Norway, most places require a pretty good grasp of Norwegian. And having lived in St. Pete for a month, I think it would be even more required there, as the overall usage of English is much more scarce in Russia (at least so I've experienced).

In Norway there is a site called Finn.no that most places use for jobs. Almost no places take resumes in person. I'm not sure the extent of this in Russia, but is good to keep in mind the increasing use are preference for online application.

Yes, I found some websites like this and I keep them in mind to apply for a job in few years.
However, I used this type of website in France to find a job and it never worked. I found my job thanks to a company database that I bought.
Anyway I hope it will help for Russia.