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Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

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Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#331

Post by fogihujy »

dmix wrote: post #277
deanc wrote: post #190

Overall my experience in Helsinki has been hugely positive. I’ve been here now over a decade and have settled with work and family life. Work life balance is great, there’s a beautiful outdoors to enjoy all year, and the people are warm and kind, if not difficult to start with. All that said, there’s a lot of bullshit and hot air here in this thread: - public healthcare is great until you have something difficult to…

What time do the stores close in Helsinki? I heard in Sweden from a friend who lived there briefly that everything was dark and closed early like 6-7pm. The opposite of a place like NYC or even here in downtown Toronto where it's normal to find plenty to do until midnight. They said it was some sort of strict cultural thing. Everyone wakes up early and you got to get used to that early schedule. And I've been a life…

Specialty stores usually close around 6-7 PM, larger ones at 8 PM. Grocery stores are usually open to between 8-10 PM. If you move here you want to be up early. At least if you like seeing the sun once every 6 months.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#332

Post by danjac »

waihtis wrote: post #311
nextlevelwizard wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As extra for the language. Even in tech you should just accept that you NEED to start learning Finnish. You don't have to be proficient speaker, but for normal office chat you need to be good enough to interrupt and step in with English if you want to participate. I've seen many foreigners quit because they felt like they were intentionally left out of casual conversations, but you really have to understand that spea…

Problem is that it's a super difficult language where you can't draw any help from any other languages you might now. Plus it's obscure and if you move out of Finland you'll likely never use it again. I can see why people don't want to invest huge amounts of time learning it unless they plan to stay for the rest of their lives.

It's not that difficult. Grammar is logical, few exceptions, not many hard sounds to learn for English speakers. I found it easier than Russian for example (took the YKI test for citizenship some years ago).

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#333

Post by vianneychevalie »

bedobi wrote: post #308
deanclatworthy wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finland is not Scandinavia and its systems are not necessarily comparable. You have shortcomings in any healthcare system, but I'd take this and all its flaws in a heartbeat over the absolute shitshow that is the US healthcare system.

Finland is very much Scandinavia, but that's a complete side note. The point is, it's absolutely not true that health care in Finland or the rest of Scandinavia is anywhere near as good as popularly imagined by Americans or even by many Scandinavians themselves. Anyone who moves to Scandinavia thinking the high taxes will give complete access to instant top notch treatment in case of cancer or many other conditions w…

Finland is not a part of Scandinavia [0]. It has linguistic, geographic, ethnic and historic differences.

[0] https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/is-finland-part-of-scand...

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#334

Post by theshrike79 »

howlgarnish wrote: post #265
Dig1t wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2.5k - 4.5k sucks :/

Yes, but if you're starting a family, essentially free child care and schooling up to and including university is pretty nice. Hell, if you're accepted for full-time studies at University, the government pays you to keep studying (opintoraha).

This is the correct answer.

If you're a single software engineer, don't come to Helsinki. Go to SV or somewhere where they pay you mid six figures to work your ass off 16 hours a day.

But if you're either too old to find that exciting or have children, Finland is a great place to live. Just the subsidised child care itself will make it worth it. No "college funds" either.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#335

Post by theshrike79 »

Devils-Avocado wrote: post #27
brryant wrote: post #2

This is honestly a great way for tech entrepreneurs to experience Nordic living. The fact is Finland has one of the most startup friendly environments around: — top schools (Aalto U. produces incredibly talented engineers) — startup friendly ecosystem (cheap rents, cheap internet) — Finnish work culture (direct, no nonsense, hard working but balanced) — fantastic food and beverage scene in downtown Helsinki My wife i…

Also: 24% VAT (sales tax) 18% employer payroll taxes 10% employee payroll taxes 20-30% typical income tax Take your American disposable income and cut it in half. Still worth it for 'free' education and 'free' healthcare? Also a lot of cold and darkness.

4-5 weeks paid vacation. No "sick days" to keep track of, if you're sick you still get paid.

It's only dark half the year, the other half is all light all the time.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#336

Post by monkeyshelli »

c1sc0 wrote: post #280
antris wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can you pay for private dentists, or similar, if you need more immediate service If you need immediate service, you get to a fast track queue and can get free dentist care on the same day. If it's non-acute, you can go to a private clinic which is highly subsidized but does costs some money. But nothing like in the US. > And is the wait similar for major things like cancer, brain tutor, or heart surgery If you have…

Wait, so you are saying there are no long queues after all?

It took me 4mo to get my old ankle injury that I've had since the teens, to get operated. I was in the lowest priority category and this happened just after Covid-19 hit. I got a quote from a private healthcare provider for the operation for 6000e. In the public one it ended up costing 120e.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#337

Post by serpix »

brobinson wrote: post #102
nstj wrote: post #17

> Experience four seasons: changes in weather and daylight are a feature and not a bug This looks like a wonderful offering. With phrases like the above it looks to be one of the first of its nature where government _gets_ the needs of remote tech workers.

I've heard from Finns that summer is the "nicest week of the year" so I'm gonna take the four seasons claim with a grain of salt.

Some years summer is on monday and some years it can last over a month!

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#338

Post by ed »

bedobi wrote: post #288
antris wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can you pay for private dentists, or similar, if you need more immediate service If you need immediate service, you get to a fast track queue and can get free dentist care on the same day. If it's non-acute, you can go to a private clinic which is highly subsidized but does costs some money. But nothing like in the US. > And is the wait similar for major things like cancer, brain tutor, or heart surgery If you have…

No offense but OP is right and you are wrong. Health care in Scandinavia is great in many ways and not so great in others. People do suffer, even die, waiting in line for public treatment, and health care lawsuits aren't really a thing.

You may want to talk to folks who actually use national healthcare services. By and large they are happy with it. Instead you’re just repeating industry FUD https://www.npr.org/2020/10/19/925354134/frame-canada

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#339

Post by magicpin »

dmix wrote: post #296
deanclatworthy wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding dentisty: Yes, but they can be pricy. I think I had some minor filling work done once and it ended up being around 200-300e. There is absolutely no issue if your issue is acute or serious with the public healthcare. But as mentioned, if your issue is complicated (e.g. i have an undiagnosed hip issue for a year) it takes ages to get scans and such.

In Canada our wait times aren't so bad but the quality of service is much to be desired. A lot of the most talented move to the US for higher pay, which most 'average' people probably dont notice but as someone who takes pathology courses for fun online I've noticed we don't get the 'best'. The major thing beyond that perception though is you get a ton of doctors offices who work like mills, they try to get as many p…

Can I ask what the pathology courses you take for fun are?

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#340

Post by hervature »

BurningFrog wrote: post #131
hervature wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Helsinki is 600,000 people and 400/km^2. That's essentially the same as Oklahoma City. I know OKC has a basketball team and city is in the name, but most people wouldn't call OKC a big city and wouldn't be surprised by better air quality compared to places with millions of people.

Helsinki is the capital city and cultural center of a nation. The best of the best in Finland live, work, and perform there. For cities, as so many other things, it's not all about size.

For the great people of Oklahoma, the best of the best also live, work, and perform in OKC. OKC is also the capital (of Oklahoma). I won't touch culture because it's pretty pompous to assign culture to a single location. I'm sure the Sami people disagree with your location of the center of culture,

I'm not comparing cities and I certainly am not implying OKC is the same as Helsinki. Merely pointing out that the OP's comment about Helsinki being a large city with clean air sounded as silly to me as saying OKC is a large city with clean air.

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