Designer Nadiia Siedina from Zaporizhzhia raised a topic on LinkedIn about finding a job from a front-line city and provided some tips on what to emphasize during an interview. In the comments, IT specialists shared their own stories.
Designer Nadiia Siedina from Zaporizhzhia raised a topic on LinkedIn about finding a job from a front-line city and provided some tips on what to emphasize during an interview. In the comments, IT specialists shared their own stories.
«Sometimes I was just amazed. You talk to a recruiter for an hour, you have a great interview, you hear hints that «you’re a good fit for us,» and you already imagine yourself in a new team. And then you say: «I’m from Zaporizhzhia.» And that’s it. The recruiter’s face changes, his voice loses its intonation, and after a couple of days you get the standard «Sorry, we chose another candidate.» There were also those who said directly: «Are you from a front-line city? It doesn’t suit us.»
Men are often turned down because of the risk of mobilization. And I was rejected because of my location, although I immediately explained: I am mobile, always in touch, I have ecoflow in case of outages — I can work from anywhere. But that didn’t work either.»
Nadiia provided some tips that helped her during her job search:
In addition, she advises looking for companies with values that are close to yours. And most importantly, don’t give up. «Because if we can work to the sounds of sirens and explosions, then we can definitely cope with any task,» the designer emphasized in her post on LinkedIn.
Here are a few stories shared in the comments under Nadiia’s post.
«I’ve been familiar with this since 2022, when I mentioned the location „Kharkiv“. One employee admitted that the company hires people only from locations from Kyiv and further west to Transcarpathia. They were skeptical even when the front moved away from the city,» — wrote QA Engineer Anton G.
«I understand you, because I’m also from Zaporizhzhia and I’m looking for a job. Fortunately, I wasn’t rejected outright for this, but I spend a few minutes at every interview talking about how I’m energy independent, etc. But sometimes it really seems that after talking to a recruiter, the rejection is because of the point of hiring me — tomorrow they’ll come down with a rocket and look for a new person. And the fact that people outside of Ukraine also die at a young age (accident, illness, robbery, etc.) no one pays attention to that. On the contrary, our stress tolerance is off the charts. We are flexible and ready to overcome any obstacles,» — shared Python Developer Olga Mageria.
«Are you from a front-line city? Okay, we’ll make you happy with an offer to work for us for free, and then maybe we’ll hire you. Anyway, your life has no value and no prospects, since you haven’t left yet. Appreciate how we’ve ennobled you with our offer!» Something like this happened to me once,» — said Nelya L, Marketer and Media Buyer.
«To be honest, these requirements are now almost for all Ukrainians. And the requirements often say: „We will give preference to Ukrainians abroad.“ And it doesn’t matter whether you are from Kharkiv or Lviv, whether you have Ecoflow or not:(And this construction is decorated with a ridiculous salary, on which, according to the customer, these Ukrainians have to survive in Europe. Sadness…», — IT Recruiter Oksana Fateeva.
