# How hard is it to find a job in Turkey?



## armino

I visited Istanbul a few months ago and fell in love with it!
I am a mechanical engineer with 3 years of experience working in Dubai.

What are my chances of finding a job in turkey and moving there?

Thanks a lot!


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## Hunter85

well unless you get an offer it is really hard.

First of all you need to have work permission and non of the companies will do it for you because Turkey has more than 80 million population which 65 % of it is between 18-30 years old so we have a huge labor supply.

Unless you have extra ordinary skill sets it is really unlikely for you to find a job. Salary is a really big burden for any business so the only reason anyone may hire you is to give less salary than they should be giving for that job.

Which means less than 2000 Turkish Lira per month (1000 USD). Expats live happy in Turkey but non of them just arrived here and got a job. I would suggest you to start searching for jobs in your country which are offering a position in Turkey. Or you can also look for jobs in international job search forums. In this way you will get a really good salary and live even better than Turkish citizens. 

I think it is close to zero % for you to find a job by just grabbing your bag and coming to Istanbul. Turkey has a really high unemployment rate and those who have a job work at least 55 hours per week without getting paid for over time and with a really low salary. (Also they work on saturdays)

As i said even really talented Turkish people are having hard time to find a decent job (40 hours per week, no saturday work, a salary which is more than 2000 USD and benefits) and i highly recommend you to search jobs outside of Turkey


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## tuba

I definitely agree with you! My husband is a mechanical engineer, we moved to Turkey 2 years ago after staying in Dubai and Qatar for 6 years. He could only find a job after 3 4 for months of searching. And his english is very good compared to others, graduate of one of the 2 best technical universities but still... And just last week his company went downsizing, fired 67 people, 10 of them were engineers. It was a near miss! And the salary is not good either. 
In our 9th month staying in Turkey, we decided its not for us and trying to immigrate again now.


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## Dominic S. Montgomery

Can you please guide me what kind of jobs are easily available in IT departments.


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## Hunter85

Dominic S. Montgomery said:


> Can you please guide me what kind of jobs are easily available in IT departments.


I dont think you will be able to find any IT jobs in Turkey, I have BS in Computer studies and IT, for more than 1 year i was unemployed and i ran to Europe hoping to find a job (which i did).

The only kind of job in IT which you can find in Turkey is service desk / help desk. The country gives no interest in IT. The serious IT jobs in Turkey are generally in banks but to be employed there you have the attend their yearly exams and pass it and after that you have to pass 2-3 rounds of HR interviews. I dont want to be pessimistic but being an IT person in Turkey is the worst.


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## belgarath

For an expat, there will be no entry level opportunities.

If you have knowledge in a special area (example :SAP consultancy expertise) you will have a chance to find employment.


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## mssajith

Just so said, you said IT is with major banks. Are there prospects for Mainframe programmers? I am asking because mostly banks process huge data and tend to have openings for programmers in Mainframes. I remember someone contacting me in the past. But it did not materialize for some reason. Thanks!


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## belgarath

If you have the necessary skillset (senior consultant for instance), yes. Otherwise - good luck.


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## mssajith

belgarath said:


> If you have the necessary skillset (senior consultant for instance), yes. Otherwise - good luck.


Yeah, I agree. Few months back someone is US, called me up as he wanted to fill a COBOL opening in Istanbul. I was so excited to move to Turkey. But after few rounds of discussions (not technical), I did not hear from him. So I assumed, either he got a consultant from within Turkey or he might have seen VISA restrictions. So, I just asked. Appreciate the response. Thanks!


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## AlexDhabi

Take a look on a professional networking website (sorry can't name the site but think of a link and you can probably guess) and there are ads for IT jobs in Turkey. Ads are quite often posted in English, but almost all require a good level of Turkish as well as English, in addition to experience. 
Realistically, salaries are not likely to be high and they would only consider non-Turkish employees if they could not find Turkish to fill the position.


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## beast

Hi,
My husband would be shifting to Istanbul soon.
I am a Chartered Accountant currently working in Bangkok .
What are my chances of getting a job in Istanbul.
Any suggestions please. 

Thanks


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