@Daphne

“I have one son who moved from Facebook to one fund management company to another fund management company, by the age of 23 and while still a PhD student.”

Not to detract anything from his merits, but assuming that the PhD is on a full time basis (which is the logical thing to do at that age), he’s either pulling off a Joseph Muscat (without a ghostwriter, I should hope) or the three jobs must be part time or (paid) internships, both of which are significantly easier to get into. There’s more competition for full time jobs. Apples and oranges.

[Daphne – I’m afraid you’re completely wrong, largely because, I suspect, you see mediocrity as being the top standard. Somebody who grew up with a mother who read full-time for a degree while also working long hours is going to take that as the norm and not believe it is impossible or exceptional. Also, what are the genetic and environmental odds, do you think, of him needing a ghost writer? The comparison is unfair to Joseph Muscat: not that I mean to diss him or anything, but you have to compare like with like and going on the available evidence, I don’t think there was an ice-cube’s chance in hell of Muscat being selected for a PhD programme at the LSE at just 21, after having completed a master’s there by 20.]

“They are part of a network of Maltese people their age, all of whom have good jobs in London. Were businesses waiting for people to arrive from Malta to fill those jobs? Not really. But people from Malta filled those jobs and ‘native British students’ did not. That’s the way it is. Your generalisations are off the mark.”

I never said it’s any more difficult for Maltese people to find jobs in London than it is for other candidates (you were the one blaming the inadequate manners and what not of most Maltese), but the market is what it is. As I said initially, don’t make it sound so easy.

[Daphne – It isn’t easy for those with unmarketable skills and degrees in theatre studies and English, but believe me, it’s pretty easy for the others. Yes, there’s a lot of competition, but a lot of it is dross, and besides that, Maltese people have a USP in the pile of thousands of CVs: a stand-out nationality that immediately attracts attention and interest and helps make it through the sorting process. If you have a thousand CVs from British, Chinese and Spanish people, and one from a Maltese, it’s the Maltese you’ll remember.]

You are making the following wrong assumptions:

1. You made it seem like ALL the qualified (academic AND otherwise) Maltese who apply get chosen. Wrong. The existing ‘network of Maltese’ could be much larger if the market wasn’t as tough as it is now. The same applies for candidates of all other nationalities because the problem is the market, not their nationality.

[Daphne – Where are all the Maltese looking for work in London? I know of two, and they’re both on internships anyway. It’s all very well to sit at home in Malta and say ‘Oh if the market were better in London, I would find a job there.’ But they don’t actually pack their bags, move there and try looking, do they. Those who do that find a job within weeks and at the most, a few months. The initiative principle applies: if you don’t have the initiative to move to London to look for work, the chances are you don’t have the initiative employers are looking for. The fact that you’ve taken a risk and moved to a different country is already a big plus in a prospective employer’s eyes.]

2. No matter how many Maltese young adults ‘with good jobs’ there are in London right now, the Maltese community will forever remain a very small sample and there is NO WAY you can extrapolate the Maltese success stories to reflect the general situation of the UK job market right now. Not if you care about statistical significance anyway.

[Daphne – We are talking at cross purposes. I never said the UK job market is good. I said something quite different: that Maltese job-seekers seem to have an unfair advantage over others in this market. Those who come here to look for work seem to have no problem finding it.]

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t have a chip on my shoulder when it comes to job hunting, but I thought I’d correct the general misconceptions because your assertions about the UK job market are plain wrong. Seems I wasn’t the only one pointing this out to you.

[Daphne – Given that you insist on anonymity while talking to a person who isn’t anonymous, I can only guess that perhaps you know far fewer people in their 20s and 30s who moved to London from Malta than I do.]

@Snoopy
You cannot compare technical research with the rest of the job market. There are only as many suitable researchers in the world whose specialisation fits the requirements for particular research projects. It is certainly very common to head-hunt researchers from other countries. It happens all the time in top universities and research projects. Your typical candidate for a job in London, on the other hand, is very rarely a unique snowflake.

@Snoopy

“When I quoted 95%, I was referring to work related to their qualification.”

A bit late in the day and I don’t expect you to see this, but I’d be interested to have a look at these records you mention. Can you point us to the source?

“I am very happy that my son, who has just finished his uni course and is already working, shall be in one of the best uk universities reading for his masters, come next September.”

You’d think no Maltese person had graduated from a UK university before 2004.

[Daphne – Very few did so, and it was mainly those with well-to-do parents who could afford the STG15,000 – 20,000 a year in tuition fees (for the top universities), and the several thousands over and above that in rent and living expenses.]

@ Gakku
Ma rridx nkun negattiv, imma meta isemmi Malta, hafna nies tan-Nord Ewropa jassocjawna mal-kacca. Ir-rapport li deher fuq RTL ghadu ma ntesiex. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120508/local/german-broadcaster-screens-cabs-feature-on-hunting-in-malta.418961
U lanqas dan il-galantom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHcU-o_odd0
Jew dawn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh8gwVPuFTQ.
L-aktar haga inkwetanti ghalija ma hiex il-kacca illegali, lanqas l-injuranza ta min kien iffilmat, izda l-kummenti fuq Youtube. Min minghalih hareg ta hero, u qabez ghal-Malta u hutu Maltin, aktar tefana fit-tghajn, ghax uriena li ahna nies li ma naccetawx kritika.

Ghax minflok ikunu proattivi u jghidulna x’bi hsiebhom jaghmlu jekk ikunu fil-gvern qed jistennew il-posters tal-PN u jwiegbu lilhom.

U dan jidher ovvju ghax ta’ pappagalli li huma irrepetew l-istess image tan-nies fil-kju li hemm fil-poster tal-PN. Inkredibbli x’nies dawn! Mhux ta’ b’xejn li spiccaw iduru fuq Karmenu Vella biex jaghmel il-programm elettorali ghax m’ghandhom l-ebda ideja x’se jaghmlu jekk ikunu fil-gvern ghax ghamel kollox diga’ l-gvern Nazzjonalista.

Allura l-uniku haga li jibdew jaghmlu hi li joqghodu jikkritikaw lill-gvern ta’ qabilhom u jivvintaw il-gideb dwar kif ikunu saru l-affarijiet fi zmien gvern tal-PN. Bhal tal-hofra u ta’ taht it-tapit li kien ihobb isemmi Alfred Sant.

U ghall-gideb u biex ipingu l-affarijiet kif jaqbel lilhom, tilghabilhomx.

I dislike Rome and lived in London with an ex partner who worked in ICT. True there are opportunities in London but only in certain fields and even in those certain fields, no matter how qualified you start off at the lower rungs and the 24/7 culture means you often have to work nights.

You probably pay through the nose to live in shoe box and your working hours are too long to enjoy perks such as the theatre. Public transport grounds to a halt because of engineering works and going out at the weekend is a nightmare. The weather is depressing to say the least.

In the not so in demand fields, most of the work is temporary. True, salaries are good but temping is the best way to reach burn out.

London is still my spiritual home but despite the lower salaries in Malta, I can afford services and luxury I could not afford in London. Just to give an example, a small patch of laser hair removal at a private clinic in Malta costs Euro 25. In London I paid £200. Dyeing of roots at a low end hair salon in London costs £80. Here I pay around Euro 20 at a hairdresser in the heart of Sliema. Personal training in Malta costs anything between 20 – 40 Euro an hour. In London it’s between £80 -140.

As to shopping, I don’t even have to leave my laptop as I buy everything online from English department stores.

We have spacious homes in Malta and affordable services. Malta has changed for the better since EU membership and the grass isn’t always greener. The high end London salaries don’t stretch that far if you rent somewhere central and you really have no option as otherwise you have no life at all renting in Zones 3 outwards.

Your 20s and early 30s are a time of financial struggle if you are self-made and want to get on to the property market on lower salaries. In London, though you would probably not want to get onto the property market at all. The last flat I lived was valued at £150 k and it barely offered an equivalent space to the living room of my much cheaper Malta flat.

An EU passport is a good thing to have because it gives you choice and leaves you open to experiences we could only dream of pre-EU. We really don’t have it too bad here. Yes salaries will eventually rise but so will the cost of services and taxes. Incidentally forgot to mention council tax. How many owners of the crop of vacant properties would hang on to their properties if they had to pay council tax.

“The trick is to keep them happy for as long as possible, and to have a Plan B. That’s why I don’t vote Labour, among other reasons.”

They do not even have plan A.

My experience with my graduate students and my son’s experience are the same as Daphne’s. I have been involved in high tach science for over 20 years now, and my difficulty is not obtaining research funds, but finding researchers.

Most end up either working (mostly in industry) or else be head-hunted by institutions outside Malta. At least now I can (and have done) head-hunt European researchers, though the language barrier in both cases is a problem.

@ Qeghdin Sew

When I quoted 95%, I was referring to work related to their qualification.

So your comment on packing bags is a figment of the imagination.