Getting your career started can be a drag in 2023

It’s not easy getting on the career ladder these days. Especially if you’re a young professional or just fresh out of college. Just take a look at this rather sobering statistic: according to a survey conducted by the job search website Indeed, 61% of employers prefer to hire candidates with work experience.  And this situation is even more complex for specialists in such competitive fields as ICT who are anxious to progress to senior positions like team leads. Saturation of talent in such countries as the UK and the US, and some parts of Europe means that potential gets wasted, and aspiring innovators can miss their chance to shine.

A shortcut for climbing the ladder of success. Relocate to Lithuania

So, where do you go if you want to shine? Which country is 2nd in the entire EU for the share of under 35’s joining the ICT sector? Lithuania. Here you’ll find ample opportunities for fast and fun career growth in globally renowned companies, matured startups, and up and coming local unicorns. Upward mobility here is not just a dream, and you’ll be given full responsibility for your work.

The best proof. The people who’ve made it happen

Just take a look at some of the success stories of people from all over the globe who have come to Lithuania only to discover that it can help them kick start their career in new and exciting directions.

Discovering new horizons.

Just look at the story of Emma Young from the US. Originally from New Mexico, she finally settled in Lithuania after a period of globe trotting. When she applied for a position in Customer Service at Hostinger ( a local startup and global player in the web hosting world) she was surprised to be offered a job in content:

“Well, the position I applied to was Customer Success Agent, but during the last stage of the interview process I talked to a different HR person who asked me if I wanted to become an editor. I said that I was terrible at editing, but, to my own surprise, I did well on the test and got the job.  From there I’ve gone to training lead, writers lead, content lead, and have recently been promoted to Head of Content.”

As you can see, her ascent has been swift and now she’s heading up an international team.

But Emma’s story is not some outlier. It’s representative of the experience of a number of expats who’ve discovered their calling in the land of opportunity that is Lithuania. Take Stefano Accossato, an Italian who originally came to Lithuania as a volunteer indoor climbing instructor. He happened on an ad for a position at a local indie gaming company TutoTOONS. Although he didn’t have any sector experience, he took his chance.  And his trajectory in the company has been swift and steep.

“At TutoTOONS, I started out in Quality Assurance. First, I playtested the games we develop, not only finding bugs but also fixing some of them on the graphics side. That was fun! By now, I think I changed my position four times, thanks to my experience in AdTech and curiosity to try new things. I was then offered to move into ad monetisation by one of the co-founders. As before in Lithuania, career progress was really fast. No one cares about your age – what matters is your skills and motivation.”

Turbo boost your career path

Lithuania is not only a great place for people who are looking to discover their career path. It also offers a secure and speedy runway for talent wanting to gain seniority in their chosen field.  With its matured ecosystem of well known foreign companies that’s buoyed by a healthy startup scene composed of both local and international disruptors, the country is the ideal place for building your experience and know-how. For proof of this, we need only look to the experience of Giovanni Proietta, currently an Outbound Sales Team Lead at Oxylabs, a rising star in the Web Data Gathering field.

“I knew I wanted to do sales in Lithuania at some point. But I didn’t have the network and, perhaps, the experience to sell myself as a salesperson. So first, I spent two years at Barclays in an HR role before getting a sales position at Elsis Pro, a software development company working in the defence sector. There, I had the chance to work with Brussels-based institutions, which was very interesting. I then moved to Interactio, where I led a team of account executives working with small and medium businesses. Now, I’m a Sales Lead at Oxylabs, heading up a team of eight people that’s supposed to grow to twelve soon.”

Variety is the spice of life

But opportunity and a faster career trajectory are only part of the picture. In Lithuania, you will also find that your job provides a scope of tasks that means you’ll never get bored. Andrea Coifman arrived in Lithuania from Venezuela, and is now a Senior Data Analyst at Devoteam Lithuania, the local branch of the leading tech consultancy firm, headquartered in France. As she herself explains:

“What I like the most about my job is that I get to do different things. I’m not going stale working with one technology. We work with the cloud, and the company invests a lot of money into new technologies. Any technology that I want to use, I’m able to. Every day I could say, “Oh, I like this new thing, I’d like to try it out”, and it’s fine. That’s pretty awesome.”

And it’s this sense of variety and challenge that’s also a draw for Bernard Mayer, an American who heads up content at Omnisend, another local company that’s thriving internationally:

“I take care of all the content here. So we have a lot of different types of content, you know, not just the blog, but also content for the website, content for guest posting, content for reports, content for case studies, any content that needs to be done, even helping people with their LinkedIn posts. So, in this sense, the job is very varied and interesting.”

How can you make it happen for you?

You’re off to a great start! But, how can you turn your career aspirations into reality in Lithuania? The first step is to sign up on the Work in Lithuania platform. Once you’re registered, you’ll receive notifications for job opportunities that match your experience. Additionally, you can search for jobs based on your desired level of seniority. Keep in mind that job postings are updated daily, so keep searching and your dream job may appear in just a few days!

If you’re looking to kick start your career, or turbocharge your career growth, Lithuania might just be the fit for you.