Your first EURES job gives hope to young Italian woman

Desirée Monterisi, from Vercelli in Italy, had recently left a seasonal sales job and decided to attend a small job fair with a friend. At first, she wasn’t very optimistic and expected to go from desk to desk, with the best result probably being another temporary contract. However, what Desirée found instead was an opportunity to live and work abroad.

“On this little table I saw an announcement: ‘Looking for thirty customer experience specialists – Italian speaking’. It was with a company called Euroccor, located in Sofia. I knew nothing about Bulgaria, but I thought ‘Why not?’” explains Desirée.

Desirée’s previous experience had been in a series of temporary jobs in the customer care field, which she had enjoyed and learned a lot from, but the short contracts were not sufficient to be independent. “I needed to prove to myself that I was able to create something for myself,” she adds. “It really was a case of being in the right place, at the right time.”

After the first contact at the job fair, Desirée was invited by Euroccor to a presentation in Turin and was interviewed the same day. She was successful and offered the position of Contact Centre Agent, which she readily accepted.

At that point, Desirée registered with YfEj to apply for assistance in moving to her new home in Bulgaria.

YfEJ also helped Desirée’s employer with the recruitment process: “The programme facilitated the recruitment process and access to the local international labour markets,” says Euroccor’s Diana Milotinova. “The advisors helped out throughout the process and focused on the specific company needs.”

“We actively use both Reactivate [a similar EU job mobility scheme for jobseekers aged over 35] and YfEj, benefiting from the recruitment process, finding candidates and the financial support provided to companies for the integration programme,” Diana explains.

Euroccor’s international work requires staff with different language skills, particularly native speakers of French, Dutch and in Desirée’s case, Italian. Diana says the company turned to YfEj when “the need to recruit native speakers brought the necessity to look outside Bulgaria for potential candidates”.

In fact, as Euroccor’s Managing Partner Reinhilde Muys tells us, Euroccor was the first company in Bulgaria to start using YfEj when it launched.

After using the job mobility scheme for several years, around 60% of Euroccor’s staff is now made up of international workers, the majority of whom were employed through the intra-EU job mobility initiative.

“The company is pleased with the services and support of YfEj, as it gives the possibility to look for candidates in their home countries,” Diana says. “The Advisers are always helpful, providing up-to-date and on-time support for the questions the company has.”

For Desirée, the hardest part of all was leaving the people she loved, but also the fear that she might make the move and find a city or job that she didn’t like. But everything has worked out better than she expected.

“I have been here for three months and I really like the city and the job. I am really happy about my choice. If you are reading this, maybe you have the same doubts I used to have. Stay or go? I would suggest you go, and just try it,” she says. “What have you got to lose?”

Your first EURES job is a European Union job mobility scheme. To find out more about employment and training opportunities across the EU or to find employees with the skills you need, contact one of the scheme’s employment services or get in touch with your local EURES Adviser via the EURES portal.

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