Finding a Job in Italy: Some Tips for Young and Diverse Talents

Looking for a new job, but don’t know where to start looking? People of all ages face this dilemma as the job market is extremely wide, but in some geographical contexts like Italy, work is limited. Despite this, there are still jobs and careers out there and proper preparation on how to approach the job search will better equip you to have more success throughout this journey.

According to a case study titled, “The Study of Motivation to Work in the Youth of Italy”, Matteo Brunel goes into how motivation and the “posso fisto” mindset are often prohibiting factors within the job search. Brunel says, “The negative well-being and impact of mental health from unemployment can and has led to diminishing motivation around drive to become employed, settling for low paying season, or no work at all.” Along with this, the “posso fisto” mindset refers to Italians generally having a fixed mindset when it comes to obtaining a certain number of jobs. In Brunel’s interviews with young Italian men and women from the south region of Italy, many of the interviewees explained how they only wanted to continue with what they are currently doing for the rest of their lives, or were looking to maintain 3 jobs maximum throughout their lifetimes. Furthermore Brunel then discusses how this inherently diminishes new experiences to add to your list of qualifications and skills, also known as, your resume. To combat this, some advice here would be to gain any experience you can that is relevant to the work you want to be doing in the future. This can be a seasonal position, volunteer work on top of a consistent job, and internship, etc. If you have an end goal on where you want to take your career, having relevant and consistent experience within the general field will allow you to put that on your resume and strengthen your qualifications within the field. Lastly to this point, a fixed mindset on the amount of jobs you want to obtain may be limiting you! You may have to work quite a few jobs to be able to do what you want to do both socially and professionally and that is okay! There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to have a stable career in the future, but just know to get there, it may be unstable at first.

An article titled, “How to Find Work in Italy” explains that in looking for a seasonal job which will unlock many experiences you can use for future careers, one could turn to agriculture, tourism/catering, and customer service. My freshman year of college, I took a class called “Becoming your own Career Expert”, and my professor told us how it is not the title of your major or your current job that makes you equip for further education or future jobs, but it is about the skills you acquire in school or in jobs that make you the right person for whatever route you may turn to next in your life. This website further explains how medical professionals, engineers, teachers, and computer scientists are always in demand in Italy. This website also highlights how your location in Italy might be a  prohibiting factor in finding work. They say that it is harder to find a job in Naples and Bari, turning our attention to job markets in Turin, Bologna, and Florence. When searching for jobs, N26.com suggests:

• Infojobs.it
• LinkedIn
• Bakeca
• Kijiji
• Jobbydoo.it
• Lavoroteca
• Monster.it
• Indeed.com
• Jobrapido.com
• CarrerJet.it
• EuroJobs.it

When it comes to specific types of employment N26.com lists the types of contracts, those being full-time, fixed-term contracts, part-time contracts, administrative, intermittent work, and professional training apprenticeship contracts. The latter is aimed for younger people looking to gain certain skills, but does indeed have some requirements one must meet to be considered for this work. Understanding the time you can give to your job is vital as contracts will be set in place right away. With that, these tips are aligned to give you a clearer headspace on where and how to begin your job search journey. Have an open-mind throughout the process and do your research thoroughly to make sure you are applying and securing a job that best suits you and your life-style.

Reference:

https://huntsman.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/the-study-of-motivation-to-work-in-the-youth-of-italy.pdf

https://n26.com/en-eu/blog/work-in-italy