Dreams, reality collide in spring hiring ritual
"What's important to me is the chance to develop a career," Kopczynska said at the fair run by the international students group. "And the chance to get some money. Some good money."
Kopczynska expects that when she leaves the University of Poznan next year her "creative personality, willingness to work and education" will land her a net salary of zl. 3,000. And this salary should increase significantly as time goes on, allowing her to travel and purchase a car and home.
In seven years, when the tough, early days of work are behind her and she has bought the important things, Kopczynska will be ready to settle down and enjoy the ride, she said.
"At 30, I would like to say I have everything I desire and just live," Kopczynska said. "It sounds very materialistic, but it isn't. Life is very hard for young people."
That's the dream. But as employers at the fair tried to impress on students, the reality of the work world is often different.
The two, sometimes conflicting visions usually meet head on during spring when employers begin courting students who are preparing to graduate from universities around Poland in either June or September. And although nearly a decade has gone by since Poland's economic transformation began, many students here have yet to be taught all the ins and outs of getting a job and working in a competitive market economy.
Kopczynska is a case in point. She might want "some good money," but before it comes she has some work cut out for her.
Unless a student has already done an internship with a major international law firm such as Hunton & Williams Poland, there is little chance that they will start there, said Danuta Kaminska, that firm's Poland office manager.
"We usually employ those students who worked with us as students," Kaminska said, adding that she gets about 80 resumes per year but has only six, part-time student positions. "This is the only way we can recognize whether a person is suitable."
And a newly minted lawyer fluent in English, but lacking in experience, will be lucky to earn a net salary of about zl. 2,100, said Francois Nail, president of NAJ International Personnel Management Consultants.
"What we've seen among law graduates is that they're generally overshooting," he added. "They've got quite high expectations."
School failure
But students don't think they're necessarily to blame if their dreams are out of whack with what's happening in the corporate sector. Many point to a failure on the part of Poland's educational establishment to instruct them on what to expect and how to prepare for the real world.
Kamilla Marchewska, a 25-year-old graduate of the Poznan Economic Academy, learned this the hard way when she had her first job interview with Pudliszki's investment department.
"The first question was what is your motivation," Marchewska said, adding that she was caught off guard and left speechless. "It was terrible."
And while schools may not properly prepare students for what to expect when they get out of school, this is most visible in the lack of direction many new Polish graduates have, Nail said.
"Young graduates after management school say they want to go into finance," Nail said. "Many think they can do both at the beginning. But these are very different skills."
Tomasz Bystry, a 24-year-old banking major at the Poznan Economic Academy, has run into just this problem.
"According to my major, I should be looking for a job at a bank," Bystry said. "But I'm looking more at accounting and finance."
One of the main reasons that Bystry wants to leave his course work in the classroom is that the market seems to be growing much faster in other areas, he said.
"There are more enterprises, and a better chance to find work, in other sectors," he said. "And I think I'll earn more there, too."
But Bystry is not concerned with the fact that many of his colleagues are graduating with more sector-specific economic degrees.
"It seems like there is very heavy demand for economists and that this demand will continue to grow," Bystry said. "There are so many firms starting up that they're in a position to absorb them."
But while Bystry may be fast in choosing which sector to work in, his plan for selling himself to potential employers is moving a bit slower.
"This is a big problem. There are economists everywhere," Bystry admitted. "Maybe my knowledge of languages."
Playing the language ticket for the most sought-after positions is likely to get harder and harder, though.
According to a 1997 AIESIC survey of 2,570 students studying some form of economics or law, almost 60% claimed to speak English very well or well, with more than 85% saying they have at least an intermediate-level command of the language. German came in second, with 30% of students saying that they speak the language at an advanced level.
Still, fluency in English is the key to the door for management positions at Eurocash, said Marian Jaskowiak, human resources manager at the company. With 70 distribution networks across the country, Eurocash is part of a larger trade company, Jeronimo Martins, which has 5,000 employees in Poland, Jaskowiak said. For any students hoping to get ahead in a company like this, they need English, he said.
"We need people with open minds who are creative. We have no limits regarding majors," Jaskowiak said.
This year the company plans to hire more than 50 new employees and is hoping that many of these will come from the ranks of new graduates, he added.
Jeronimo Martins has been represented at the AIESEC job fair in Poznan for three years now, Jaskowiak said. Besides Poznan, the company has also gone to AIESEC fairs in cities such as Szczecin, Katowice and Wroclaw, Jaskowiak said.
Money matters
But when it comes to salary, students do often overvalue themselves, Jaskowiak said. "I think their expectations are a little high," he added. "But graduates all over the world are convinced they know everything."
The average starting gross salary expected by students responding to the AIESEC survey was zl. 1,688. But students from schools such as the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH), Poznan Polytechnical University, Warsaw University and Lublin Polytechnical University survey wanted a gross salary of zl. 2,240 to start. SGH leads the pack, with students expecting to earn zl. 2,865 per year in their first job out of school.
But not every student has zloty signs in their eyes. And they're not all racing to fill positions in the world of finance.
Unlike many of his peers, Jacek Czenko, who will graduate from the chemistry faculty at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznan next month, is looking for a net salary of about zl. 1,000.
While the 24-year-old Koszalin native's main interest lies in chemical reactions and the periodic table, Czenko doubts chemistry is a future in and of itself. "I know it will be very difficult to get this kind of job," Czenko said.
So he hopes to use his background in chemical production to land a job in the sales department of a major company such as British Petroleum, he said.
"I'd like to develop my interests and get a lot of money," Czenko said. "But salary is in second place."
Ironically, Czenko's interest in chemistry, not accounting or finance, may make him more valuable than he thinks. While many chemical and engineering companies were only establishing sales networks in the early 1990s, more and more are building an industrial presence now, said NAJ International's Nail.
"Young engineers (and chemists) who graduated six years ago went into different professions," Nail said. "The problem is we now have a lack of engineers (and chemists) on the market."
Out of 2,570 students who took part in the 1997 AIESEC survey, more than half were management and marketing majors (54%), while other areas of concentration were banking and finance (16%) and international economic relations (11%).
But as the market changes, employer needs are changing as well, said Barbara Potrykowska, head of Lech Browary Wielkopolskie's personnel department. Lech has been coming to AIESEC work fairs since they began, and four years ago it founded its entire 20-person marketing department with new graduates, Potrykowska said.
"Marketing was completely neglected before," Potrykowska said, adding that there were few Polish marketing professionals. "There was nowhere else to go. We built up a very good, strong marketing division."
But now that Polish schools have churned out a wealth of marketing majors, who have had more opportunities to gain experience, employers such as Lech are hard up for other, less popular positions.
For Lech, this leaves a hole in the heart of its business: brewing.
To remedy this problem, Lech is beginning an internship this September for up to 10 recent graduates to go to brewing school in Munich, Potrykowska said.
"In general, over the years a whole lot of students have graduated but still don't meet the demands of employers," Potrykowska said, adding that the local Agriculture Academy hardly addresses the problem. "They need to get the qualitative knowledge from us."
Kopczynska expects that when she leaves the University of Poznan next year her "creative personality, willingness to work and education" will land her a net salary of zl. 3,000. And this salary should increase significantly as time goes on, allowing her to travel and purchase a car and home.
In seven years, when the tough, early days of work are behind her and she has bought the important things, Kopczynska will be ready to settle down and enjoy the ride, she said.
"At 30, I would like to say I have everything I desire and just live," Kopczynska said. "It sounds very materialistic, but it isn't. Life is very hard for young people."
That's the dream. But as employers at the fair tried to impress on students, the reality of the work world is often different.
The two, sometimes conflicting visions usually meet head on during spring when employers begin courting students who are preparing to graduate from universities around Poland in either June or September. And although nearly a decade has gone by since Poland's economic transformation began, many students here have yet to be taught all the ins and outs of getting a job and working in a competitive market economy.
Kopczynska is a case in point. She might want "some good money," but before it comes she has some work cut out for her.
Unless a student has already done an internship with a major international law firm such as Hunton & Williams Poland, there is little chance that they will start there, said Danuta Kaminska, that firm's Poland office manager.
"We usually employ those students who worked with us as students," Kaminska said, adding that she gets about 80 resumes per year but has only six, part-time student positions. "This is the only way we can recognize whether a person is suitable."
And a newly minted lawyer fluent in English, but lacking in experience, will be lucky to earn a net salary of about zl. 2,100, said Francois Nail, president of NAJ International Personnel Management Consultants.
"What we've seen among law graduates is that they're generally overshooting," he added. "They've got quite high expectations."
School failure
But students don't think they're necessarily to blame if their dreams are out of whack with what's happening in the corporate sector. Many point to a failure on the part of Poland's educational establishment to instruct them on what to expect and how to prepare for the real world.
Kamilla Marchewska, a 25-year-old graduate of the Poznan Economic Academy, learned this the hard way when she had her first job interview with Pudliszki's investment department.
"The first question was what is your motivation," Marchewska said, adding that she was caught off guard and left speechless. "It was terrible."
And while schools may not properly prepare students for what to expect when they get out of school, this is most visible in the lack of direction many new Polish graduates have, Nail said.
"Young graduates after management school say they want to go into finance," Nail said. "Many think they can do both at the beginning. But these are very different skills."
Tomasz Bystry, a 24-year-old banking major at the Poznan Economic Academy, has run into just this problem.
"According to my major, I should be looking for a job at a bank," Bystry said. "But I'm looking more at accounting and finance."
One of the main reasons that Bystry wants to leave his course work in the classroom is that the market seems to be growing much faster in other areas, he said.
"There are more enterprises, and a better chance to find work, in other sectors," he said. "And I think I'll earn more there, too."
But Bystry is not concerned with the fact that many of his colleagues are graduating with more sector-specific economic degrees.
"It seems like there is very heavy demand for economists and that this demand will continue to grow," Bystry said. "There are so many firms starting up that they're in a position to absorb them."
But while Bystry may be fast in choosing which sector to work in, his plan for selling himself to potential employers is moving a bit slower.
"This is a big problem. There are economists everywhere," Bystry admitted. "Maybe my knowledge of languages."
Playing the language ticket for the most sought-after positions is likely to get harder and harder, though.
According to a 1997 AIESIC survey of 2,570 students studying some form of economics or law, almost 60% claimed to speak English very well or well, with more than 85% saying they have at least an intermediate-level command of the language. German came in second, with 30% of students saying that they speak the language at an advanced level.
Still, fluency in English is the key to the door for management positions at Eurocash, said Marian Jaskowiak, human resources manager at the company. With 70 distribution networks across the country, Eurocash is part of a larger trade company, Jeronimo Martins, which has 5,000 employees in Poland, Jaskowiak said. For any students hoping to get ahead in a company like this, they need English, he said.
"We need people with open minds who are creative. We have no limits regarding majors," Jaskowiak said.
This year the company plans to hire more than 50 new employees and is hoping that many of these will come from the ranks of new graduates, he added.
Jeronimo Martins has been represented at the AIESEC job fair in Poznan for three years now, Jaskowiak said. Besides Poznan, the company has also gone to AIESEC fairs in cities such as Szczecin, Katowice and Wroclaw, Jaskowiak said.
Money matters
But when it comes to salary, students do often overvalue themselves, Jaskowiak said. "I think their expectations are a little high," he added. "But graduates all over the world are convinced they know everything."
The average starting gross salary expected by students responding to the AIESEC survey was zl. 1,688. But students from schools such as the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH), Poznan Polytechnical University, Warsaw University and Lublin Polytechnical University survey wanted a gross salary of zl. 2,240 to start. SGH leads the pack, with students expecting to earn zl. 2,865 per year in their first job out of school.
But not every student has zloty signs in their eyes. And they're not all racing to fill positions in the world of finance.
Unlike many of his peers, Jacek Czenko, who will graduate from the chemistry faculty at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznan next month, is looking for a net salary of about zl. 1,000.
While the 24-year-old Koszalin native's main interest lies in chemical reactions and the periodic table, Czenko doubts chemistry is a future in and of itself. "I know it will be very difficult to get this kind of job," Czenko said.
So he hopes to use his background in chemical production to land a job in the sales department of a major company such as British Petroleum, he said.
"I'd like to develop my interests and get a lot of money," Czenko said. "But salary is in second place."
Ironically, Czenko's interest in chemistry, not accounting or finance, may make him more valuable than he thinks. While many chemical and engineering companies were only establishing sales networks in the early 1990s, more and more are building an industrial presence now, said NAJ International's Nail.
"Young engineers (and chemists) who graduated six years ago went into different professions," Nail said. "The problem is we now have a lack of engineers (and chemists) on the market."
Out of 2,570 students who took part in the 1997 AIESEC survey, more than half were management and marketing majors (54%), while other areas of concentration were banking and finance (16%) and international economic relations (11%).
But as the market changes, employer needs are changing as well, said Barbara Potrykowska, head of Lech Browary Wielkopolskie's personnel department. Lech has been coming to AIESEC work fairs since they began, and four years ago it founded its entire 20-person marketing department with new graduates, Potrykowska said.
"Marketing was completely neglected before," Potrykowska said, adding that there were few Polish marketing professionals. "There was nowhere else to go. We built up a very good, strong marketing division."
But now that Polish schools have churned out a wealth of marketing majors, who have had more opportunities to gain experience, employers such as Lech are hard up for other, less popular positions.
For Lech, this leaves a hole in the heart of its business: brewing.
To remedy this problem, Lech is beginning an internship this September for up to 10 recent graduates to go to brewing school in Munich, Potrykowska said.
"In general, over the years a whole lot of students have graduated but still don't meet the demands of employers," Potrykowska said, adding that the local Agriculture Academy hardly addresses the problem. "They need to get the qualitative knowledge from us."
