Luxembourg
Graduates' Best Kept Secret

Luxembourg is an ideal location for recent graduates with a degree in business or economics, looking to gain first-hand experience in an international environment. Luxembourg is a major financial centre, boasting the greatest banking concentration within the European Union, thus providing an opportunity for young graduates to gain experience in a multi-cultural environment, with exposure on an international level.

As an important financial centre, Luxembourg offers a wide variety of opportunities on all professional levels. Having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, there is a constant variety of positions, enticing international professionals to seek further employment there. The employment market provides possibilities for every level of experience - from recent graduates to professionals with over 10 years experience.

Luxembourg has many other advantages that financial centres such as Frankfurt and London cannot offer. For example, the working languages here are English, French and German, with 'Luxemburgish' being the language used by the local population. Exposure to these languages on a daily basis provides both novices and experienced linguists with the possibility of learning or enhancing their own language abilities. Luxembourg also enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the world, with high incomes and low unemployment rates, crime rates and levels of pollution.

The location of Luxembourg in the heart of Europe is another one of its attractions. It is termed the 'Green Heart of Europe', with 33% of its surface being forest. It is bordered by France, Belgium and Germany, and within a 500km radius of Paris. Brussels, Amsterdam, Bonn, Zurich, Venice, Vienna and London are also nearby attractive destinations, creating unlimited weekend possibilities, as well as a lot of cross-border business.

One of the fastest ways to secure employment in Luxembourg is through the use of a Recruitment Consultancy, often used by companies to fulfill their recruitment needs. Consultancies tend to select and retain young graduates demonstrating ambition, maturity, flexibility and motivation, complemented with good computer, communication and language skills. All consultancies go through a similar recruitment process, involving an in-depth interview with one of their consultants, a series of tests (both written and computer-generated), and a test which examines an individual's behaviour within the work environment.

One system used by a Recruitment Consultancy in Luxembourg is the Thomas International System. The Personal Profile Analysis (PPA) provides the consultancy with a series of reports and graphs, which help identify a person's working strengths and weaknesses. This system is useful for both the company and the candidate. For the candidate, the tool can be used as a means of defining a suitable career path, identifying training needs, and clarifying current stresses within the work environment. For the Consultancy, acting on behalf of the Client, the tool can be used in the selection and recruitment process by matching the Personal Profile Analysis of the candidate with the Human Job Profile (a definition of the job requirements), and seeing whether the two match. This helps ensure that the correct person is put in the correct job, helping to limit job dissatisfaction. Additionally, it provides information on the ideal career for the candidate, suggesting motivational factors for the individual and identifying their possible coaching needs. However, this is just one of the tests used within the Recruitment Industry in Luxembourg, as different consultancies use different systems, all designed to measure similar traits.

The transition to the Euro currency on January 1st 1999 was a success in Luxembourg, helping to consolidate the already buoyant recruitment market, especially within the financial sector. Now is an ideal time to join the group of dynamic professionals relocating to Luxembourg to reap the benefits of a growing market.

Author
Simona Agolini
Rowlands International