Eastern European consultants not good enough for the UK

[gixxer1k]

completely agree, just trying to rationalize about their reasons. They're obviously biased or the end customer is (e.g. they're providing services to BNP hq)

[diseasex]

Nope I worked in Poland before coming here (obviously). Although I was applying for permie roles but the first question I was usually hearing was "have you got UK experience?". Saying "no" would put me to the lowest paying roles. Things are different here and like a sponge, you need to absorb work culture etc, and that takes time.

That said , I fully understand what they are saying.

[stek]

Nope I worked in Poland before coming here (obviously). Although I was applying for permie roles but the first question I was usually hearing was "have you got UK experience?". Saying "no" would put me to the lowest paying roles. Things are different here and like a sponge, you need to absorb work culture etc, and that takes time.

That said , I fully understand what they are saying.

+1

Here in Copenhagen now - work language is English but as 90% of the staff are Danish they speak Danish to each other, ie most of the time in conversation, not in rude/excluding way, but I'm listening, and learning, I love language and already speaking patterns are emerging.

Danish on the face of it isn't that hard, non-inflected, regular verb conjugations, just none of the written down words sound like the spoken ones.....

"ikke" is 'igge", 'Kvinder' is 'Kvinner', and ''Broen" ie The Bridge as in the TV series is 'B-ever-so-slight-R-sound-but-if-you-do-it-slightly-too-much-they-don't get-you-at-all, then 'ur' like vomiting 'ur' and 'n''

Swedes told me that Danish, despite being very similar, is just mumbling, ie no Swedish Hurdy-Gurdy....

[SueEllen]

+1

Here in Copenhagen now - work language is English but as 90% of the staff are Danish they speak Danish to each other, ie most of the time in conversation, not in rude/excluding way, but I'm listening, and learning, I love language and already speaking patterns are emerging.

Danish on the face of it isn't that hard, non-inflected, regular verb conjugations, just none of the written down words sound like the spoken ones.....

"ikke" is 'igge", 'Kvinder' is 'Kvinner', and ''Broen" ie The Bridge as in the TV series is 'B-ever-so-slight-R-sound-but-if-you-do-it-slightly-too-much-they-don't get-you-at-all, then 'ur' like vomiting 'ur' and 'n''

Swedes told me that Danish, despite being very similar, is just mumbling, ie no Swedish Hurdy-Gurdy....

Swedish isn't that bad and neither is Norwegian but Finnish....

Also while some people learn how to adapt to a culture very quickly others don't.

I worked with Europeans including Eastern Europeans who have and haven't. Though I've found if people have been watching mainstream British comedies for years e.g. Only Fools and Horses, The Office, Outnumbered they adapt faster.

[DodgyAgent]

Would a British contractor working in Poland as a consultant (in English) be any better/different from a Polish contractor (who speaks advanced/fluent English) working in the UK?

[DimPrawn]

Would a British contractor working in Poland as a consultant (in English) be any better/different from a Polish contractor (who speaks advanced/fluent English) working in the UK?

Still importing the cheapies then DA, before the Brexit wall is built.

Must be nice work getting 95% of their pay in your pocket.

[SueEllen]

Would a British contractor working in Poland as a consultant (in English) be any better/different from a Polish contractor (who speaks advanced/fluent English) working in the UK?

Yes.

The British contractor in Poland would only be taken on because the client believed that a person with English as their mother tongue would be better in a particular role even if they don't know the cultural stuff and speak the country's language.

Point is your client doesn't want a Pole with no experience living or working in the UK.

Your client rightly or wrongly, and personally I presume wrongly, has an inbuilt idea that someone who is Polish will not be able to quickly grasp cultural stuff so they can deal with business in a professional manner.

Your client also could be completely racist - I would try out a few other nationalities e.g. Spanish, Greek, Nordic then if the client rejects them all tell them to f*** off.

[sal]

Is it a specific EE person they are referring to or people from EE in general? If it's the former it might have anything to do with him/her being from EE. If it's the later:

The possible reasons from the most to the least likely:
- Senior management at ClientCo are racist bigots
- ClientCo clients are are racist bigots
- something else

I get all the cultural fit concerns, but IT is full of misfits by default and i have seen plenty of Brits that are less culturally fit in their work places than the immigrants.

I know first hand about case where at ClientCo a Brit was preferred, over an EE guy with fluent English despite much worse technical skills, can't comment on the reason might have been the case where he knew someone at ClientCo

[gixxer1k]

IT is full of misfits by default

[logozz]

I was told today that an ERP consultant from Eastern Europe would not be suitable to work with UK clients. Anyone care to comment on the reasons why this would be the case (yes he does speak advanced/fluent English)

The person/company who said that is obviously discriminating against EU citizens - this is a serious offence under EU AND currently British law and you should report them to the authorities. Heavy fines awaits them.
EU law IS - without any restrictions whatsoever - in effect, and will be until (if) the UK formally has left the community.

As far as Western European IT people goes, I have had quite good experiences. The ones I have been working with (Romanians) have been very hard working, very knowledgeable both technically and “organisational/business acumen” wise and also really fund and friendly people in general. The only slightly negative thing I can say is that they are perhaps a little too eager to “please management” – e.g. not question ill advised decisions as much as "other" Europeans would do – which sometimes can lead to “quick but not the most sustainable solutions”. In their defence, they are much less like this compared with Indians (no offence to Indians in general – just sharing my experience).