“Honey, We Move To Iceland!” English Jobs in Iceland
Nelly Bogilova is telling us about an English job offer in Iceland. Listen to this episode about Iceland, Biotech and Geysir in your neighborhood. Here you find the link to the job offer. (PS You can also listen to this podcast on iTunes.)
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Transcript of “Honey, We Move To Iceland!” English Jobs in Iceland
Chris Pyak: Welcome to the Immigrants Spirit Podcast, I'm Chris and I'm here today with Nelly Bogalova in park. Hello Nelly.
Nelly Bogalova: Hello Chris. Many thanks for reaching out and many thanks for wanting to speak.
Chris Pyak: Yeah, I couldn't resist inviting you to the podcast because I found you first through Linkedin, through common associate of ours, George Watson, and you're really the go to person for unusual workplaces. Can you tell us a little bit about what was the most unique job offer that you ever placed.
Nelly Bogalova: The most unique place has to be Iceland. I'm working with a company in Iceland regarding a couple of positions where they are opening, due to expansion and a lot of finance coming in.
Chris Pyak: Mm hmm and that's also what attracted me in the first place. Many people offer jobs in Germany and the UK and the United States. How Iceland, how did this come, how did this happen.
Nelly Bogalova: Well its really interesting actually story. The company I'm working with, the company that I started doing equipment for called Nonstop Equipment, approached this biotech company, biosimilars company in Iceland. When they started up as a small company, small start up company, in 2014. One of my managers, John McNab, he's quite well known in this area. He reached out to them and then later on met them and understood their culture. And understood the companies desire and plan for progression and has the go to person when it comes to professional talent acquisition for that company.
Nelly Bogalova: We reached out to that them, knowing that they have an industry, a small industry, and they need help with recruiting for talents. They have found our help and they're in standing in of their business, very needed and we have been [inaudible 00:01:49] with them, since almost their beginning.
Chris Pyak: Personally what's your relationship to Iceland? What comes to your mind when you think about Iceland?
Nelly Bogalova: Iceland, it's number one on my bucket list to go and explore, spend at least a month. Rent a car and explore this fascinating location. When it comes to Iceland, what I think of, I know this is the place two of the techtonic blocks meet, two of the techtonic sheets meet right where Iceland is. They are rubbing and they're meeting there, causes a lot of unnatural phenomenons. Such as, in Iceland you would be able to dive underneath the water in one of the lakes and witness this bridge in the surface and go farther down, farther than anywhere else in the world and see what light there is underneath the water. Also, witness what sort of anomalies they are, nature will present to you in gazers, hot water lakes, different kinds of minerals that are there nowhere else, that can be found nowhere else in the world.
Nelly Bogalova: For me this is a country that offers you to see something, like an outside world of nature. See tide power, wind power, it's a fascinating location if you like nature and you like challenges.
Chris Pyak: Yeah, I also mention, I think as we lead, there in no place like Iceland anywhere else in the world. Its really unique in this regard and what I personally what I find also quite interesting it's a very modern society. When you think …
Nelly Bogalova: Yeah.
Chris Pyak: … about equality at the workplace and so on. It's a very up and modern society, how does this relate to international professionals coming to Iceland? I assume you don't need to speak Icelandic in order …
Nelly Bogalova: No, no. Iceland has, as you said, I agree with you. They are very open minded and very 21st Century people there. They are so welcoming, they have passed a law in the government that eases up the docs for professionals that come from abroad. They don't ask as much as they would for nationals and they don't ask beyond a certain percentage of what you earn in Iceland. As they are wanting to motivate talented people to move there and find there future in this wonderful location. Because it's a little bit separated, it's an island beside Europe. It's often neglected as a destination because they are not in the European Union, even though their rules for immigration are very similar and they are very open to Europeans coming in. They are actual promoting this in their policy and secondly it's just left out economy is not attractive for investors to come in.
Nelly Bogalova: On the far side it looks like a country outside of here that doesn't trade much, doesn't have a stand in this industry. But when you look at how many companies have their headquarters or a base in the Icelandic companies that started from scratch. You realize it's a very forward going country that's quickly catching up with the rest of the world powers. And I believe hopefully with yours and my help we will be able to promote people to consider this location. First it's an amazing natural reserve, amazing natural site, as well as a good place to build your career and build a name for yourself.
Chris Pyak: Absolutely, and talking about career, you brought us today one position specifically with this company in Iceland. Tell us a little about this position is for us?
Nelly Bogalova: The position its working within one of the leading, at the moment, companies in biosimilars and bio pharmaceuticals. They have secured about 500 hundred million US dollars in funding from companies around the world that want to invest in them. And they're wanting to find, explore, and produce a molecule that is going to be able to treat rare disease. For this they need someone who would be able to manage the project and be in charge of those manufacturing and development team. They need someone to be helpful to them, to help them [inaudible 00:05:46] this project and put this molecule in the pipeline. Help manufacturing for treating this rare disease.
Chris Pyak: Can you tell us what would be the ideal outcome if the person that they hire will be successful?
Nelly Bogalova: Yeah, what this position would look for as a result would be somebody who would effectively handle the technology, so they would be able to use the technology that they are using in the company. They would be able to know what to do in each situation from development of the molecule, to do manufacturing large scale. They would know everything about the technical side, travel, sheeting, process validation, purchase establishment, and because of how new the company is, they're start up still within the company. This position is also really varied, so you would be helping the laboratory team, and you would be helping the manufacturing team. You have to have small scale manufacturing experience as well as large scale manufacturing experience. And the ultimate results to achieve in this role is bring out a molecule that would be able to treat cancer, treat diseases that we were never thinking of treating a couple of years back in the past.
Chris Pyak: Quite a fascinating position.
Nelly Bogalova: Yes it is a very fascinating position, it's a really honorable position to be in. If you have the background in bio pharmaceuticals and you have the background and interest in innovating healthcare and helping push it forward. I think you would be a very very valuable candidate for this.
Chris Pyak: What kind of skill set are you looking for?
Nelly Bogalova: I'm looking for someone who has experience small scale manufacturing and large scale manufacturing and bio pharmaceuticals. Somebody who has scaled-up a process and has pharm-tech transfer. Somebody who can troubleshoot and can organize the process, some development of that little molecule to its large scale productions. Somebody who is confident, about five year or even more experience, that has some managerial skills and is really keen to join the leader in bio pharmaceuticals.
Chris Pyak: And what can the company offer for such a candidate?
Nelly Bogalova: The company is one of those companies that have a family feeling because they started quite recently, they didn't start more than 5 years ago this past June 2013. But have grown massively through a lot of sponsorship and a lot of funding from the state. They offer from [inaudible 00:08:22] a lot of support from a lot of people in similar situation that have immigrated for this opportunity. They also full relocation help, as they believe that professionals that are suitable and keen to join them should be encouraged and supported in everyway from the relocation process. The company will actually transport all your processions, all your belonging, that you wish to take, they will ship them for you. They will arrange all flights for your family, so children, spouses and wives. Their flights would be paid by the company. They will offer a place to stay and they will offer a huge amount of support when it comes to finding a good house for you and your family.
Nelly Bogalova: They are more than happy to encourage people thinking about this location and opportunity. People that wouldn't of thought of it based on the fact that they will make everything they have in their power to help to them and their families take this opportunity. They have excellent connections with the International School Of Reykjavik, that's very renowned, so the children of professionals that work in the company go to school there. They have excellent connections with healthcare system so they offer a really nice package when it comes to relocation and support.
Chris Pyak: They also help with the immigration process, I assume.
Nelly Bogalova: Yes, they're more into see people from everywhere in the world, they don't really differentiate between professionals from different countries. They are happy to sponsor visa for the right candidate, they have done in the past. They take you from day one if they see the potential in you, they will make sure you feel supported and help with the immigration process.
Chris Pyak: One question that I often get from international job seekers is, How is the application process in this company? What would be the different steps until you get to the final stage where they make the decision to offer you a job or not?
Nelly Bogalova: It's actually an unusual process as it is with most things in this company, in this country, in this location. Firstly they trust one of their managers very much so, John McNab, they rely on when it comes to talent acquisition. They would firstly speak with us regarding you, regarding your profile, and regarding what you've done in the past. They will have a quick word, and they will see your CV and if they see the talent in you, they will firstly give you a short call. Very informative and quite informal as well, to have a chat and get to know you and let you get to know them. And secondly, if that goes well then they will invite you to see their sites, pretty much for a holiday. They will invite you and your partner, or your wife, or your husband, to come and see their new facility in Reykjavik. They are very proud of it and want to show off kind of. So they are going to pay for your travel expenses and pay for accomodation, and they are going to make a short vacation for you are your partner to come and see this. And then afterwards if that goes well, and you like that you see, and you're fascinated by the country. They will offer you a position and start the relocation.
Chris Pyak: Okay, so that is pretty straight forward. I assume you can give us a rate idea as far as things like salaries, holidays and this kind of things?
Nelly Bogalova: I could think about this actually. They are very transparent as an organization, they do well financially, so they offer the industry standard for Europe with the salary and they are open to negotiations if the candidates have earned more in the past. They obviously don't want you to step down, so they are open to negotiation when it comes to salary. With regard to holidays, they offer more than the rest of Europe. They offer about 30 days of holiday, and they also realize that many of the people working in the company are family people. They have other things to care about so they offered flexibility for working from home from time to time and flexibility when it comes to hours. It's not your very rigid very structured company that has this amount of holidays, this amount of working hours and they want to see a 9-5 in their office. They are flexible and understanding of your situation.
Chris Pyak: Nelly thank you very much, that was really interesting. Final question, if I'm an international professional, I'm interested in this position as a project manager in Iceland, how should I best apply? What would be for you the easiest way to validate my application?
Nelly Bogalova: The easiest way really is to drop me an email with your CV in word formate and to let me know why you think you would be good for this position and I'll give you a quick ring right away. I will have a quick chat to see how can I help out and I'll try to understand what you are looking for. I'll let you know what there is on the market. If we agree that this is an opportunity that is going to be the best thing for you and your career, I am going to be more than happy to give the company a call and start this process from scratch. Also, if you just find the link on Linkedin for the job application you can just click apply to this.
Chris Pyak: I would also add the link to the job offer in the show notes for the podcast. Nelly Bogalova at last, is from Nonstop recruiting with really exciting opportunity, project manager in Iceland. My name is Chris Pyak I wish your success.