A tendency is in place of an equal number of young Bulgarians graduating abroad and finding a job outside this country, and the number of people deciding to look for a job inside Bulgaria.

These are the findings of the organizers of the exposition Career Beehive which aims to help Bulgarians returning from abroad find the job of their desire inside Bulgaria. According to unofficial data, there are close to 2 million Bulgarians living in other countries. Many of them want to return to Bulgaria but are unsure whether they will be able to have a successful career in this country. This is the reason why the organization “Here, there” which prepared the career fair endeavors to bring Bulgarians around the world together in a community and help those who wish to return to the country. The “Career beehive” platform came into being as a natural continuation of “BG Careers Fair. Why not?” which has mediated in the contacts between Bulgarians who have graduated and worked abroad and businesses in this country for 12 whole years.

Gulsever Sali came back to Bulgaria just recently after completing one year of training in EU law in the Netherlands. She says that the standard of living of her fellow students with the same qualification who stayed behind to work in Western Europe is considerably higher compared to Bulgaria. In spite of this she made the decision to return to Bulgaria because she believes that the country offers good prospects to young and educated Bulgarians.

“What I noticed right away here, when I came to Sofia from the Netherlands, was that companies were much more welcoming. Education abroad offers new and better job opportunities,” Gulsever Sali says. “Education matters a great deal to each and every person, whatever the field of study. I think I shall be able to get the job of my desire, and for my part, shall be able to contribute with the experience and knowledge I have. One of the biggest problems young people in this country encounter is precisely finding a job to suit their education. Modern technologies are developing at lightning speed, yet in this country it is difficult to find a university offering training in the modern fields of the future. This is the reason why young people look to the other European countries and to the US. But what is most important is that once they have graduated in another country, they still want to come back to Bulgaria. It is educated and motivated young people that will bring their experience and their knowledge to the Bulgarian labour market and enrich it. We must have faith that it is all in our own hands, we must not expect anyone else to take care of our own future.”

Highly educated, motivated and active people in Bulgaria can now obtain salaries comparable to salaries in the more advanced European economies.

“Big multinational companies are opening offices here, and they don’t come to Bulgaria for the cheap labour but because they are expanding their activities and have the potential to offer high-paid jobs to ambitious people,” says Miroslav Milkov, team leader at one of the biggest technological companies hiring young people in Bulgaria”

“We ourselves are very much interested in Bulgarians coming back from other countries because we can see their energy and their expertise when they come for a job interview at the company. Those applicants who know what they are looking for and are prepared to learn and to develop, who are open to acquiring teamwork skills and who want to advance within the structure of the multinational company - they are the applicants with the biggest potential. We are seeing motivated and highly qualified young people here more and more often. It is evident that even as they entered university – in Bulgaria or abroad, no matter – they carefully selected their sphere of interest, the sphere in which they want to advance.”