Product Designer Svitlana Lutsenko has been working in IT since 2007. In 2018, she moved to the USA, where she spent almost two years looking for her first full-time job in her specialty. Nevertheless, it was successful, and that's why Svitlana got a job at Xandr, which was later bought by Microsoft.
During this search, she noticed several interesting differences between Ukraine and the USA. For example, in self-presentation and terms of receiving an offer.
The difference between looking for a job in IT in the USA and Ukraine
Svitlana said that the process of receiving an offer from American companies is often much longer than that of Ukrainian ones.
“If three months pass from the first contact to the start of work, that's fast. Usually it lasts longer,” Svitlana added.
She explained that some companies search for a person until they find a pool of candidates, and only then choose. Or vacancies are opened only to monitor demand, but in reality there are none. It happens that the vacancy is closed when the candidate is already at the last stage of interviews, because the needs have simply changed.
Svitlana added that American companies pay a lot of attention to the soft skills of candidates, because there is often a long queue of specialists who meet the technical requirements.
“American companies were somewhat scared of my Ukrainian work experience”
The specialist said that she worked as a Front-end Developer in Ukraine. But, in addition, she also performed a lot of other work, not related to what was in the job instructions or indicated in the job title.
“It seems to me that this is an unusual experience for American companies, and they took it quite skeptically. When I told them about my work experience, I usually downplayed my achievements and was too modest. It also scared them,” she shared.
Praise and (not?) praise yourself
Svetlana also noticed another difference.
“At one of the classes, the professor asked as an icebreaker how many languages we know. I answered that two and a half: Ukrainian, Russian and half English. Sitting next to me was an American woman who said she spoke three languages. After the lesson, I asked what languages they were, and she answered that English, British, and Japanese […] It turned out that the girl simply knows how to count to five in Japanese and can write several hieroglyphs,” the Ukrainian woman shared.
She assumed that American recruiters are used to boasting in the style of “I know Japanese”, so when Ukrainians come and devalue their experience, it is strange for them.
In addition, Svitlana noticed similar doubts about her skills in other Ukrainians with whom she works or communicates.
“We constantly struggle with impostor syndrome. We often underestimate ourselves, and this greatly interferes in life and work.”.