I'll jot down the highlights (or perhaps lowlights):
To start with, 12-18 months of active search before finding a job was not uncommon. Interview cycles were shorter than the current norm, but you needed personal connections to reliably even land an interview.
Very few companies were actually hiring. They had roles open, but were unwilling to fill them with anyone other than the perfect[tm] candidate. Majority of the jobs were never advertised openly, but got filled based on, you guessed it, personal networks and existing professional relationships.
There were essentially no entry level jobs in technology sector. This feature was amplified by a peculiarity of the Finnish education system: people took longer to get through the uni, but pretty much everyone started working ~full time during their studies. (And how did you find a job as a student? Through personal networks.) As a result, fresh Master's graduates were expected to have 2-3 years of industry experience out of the gate.
Practically all job descriptions had hidden requirements, and as a result, the people who were hired were suitably overqualified.
As a result of all of this, the scene was equally grim for trying to actually hire someone. Open roles either got NO applications, or they were flooded by hopeless hopefuls. The need for personal networks went both ways, and you needed them to find quality candidates at all. I never saw or heard anyone actually pulling the Random Cull ("we do not hire unlucky people"), but I know several who seriously considered doing so at some point.
Ghosting was the norm.
I left the country in 2013, but from what I have heard since, the main changes have been:
- Ghosting is no longer a standard practice
- Universities now enforce faster graduations, so the initial career speed boost is gone
- Hiring cycles are longer, and use more leetcode style hazing
- There are less hidden requirements, and the job descriptions are actually representative
- Roles in general have to be posted openly, filling them only through networks is not the norm
- Universities now enforce faster graduations, so the initial career speed boost is gone
Today lots of IT university students just drop out after finishing bachelor's degree, or get extended time to finish their degree (you can easily get a couple of years). So, market is still very brutal for fresh grads if they have no working experience.
Can't coomment on other points, since I wasn't in the job market back then. But finding a tech job in Finland sure is much, much harder than two years ago, just like in rest of Europe. Ghosting seems pretty common as well. I'm considering leaving the industry.
