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Welcome to Greece
A Survival Guide for Foreigners
“When can you start?”
This question always sounds exciting and promising, especially when you just landed your dream job.
Answering this question in the appropriate way, though, is very important and requires time and information, especially if the company you’ll be working for is located in a different country.
“When would you LIKE me to start?”
I took the first flight available. It was January 2018, right after the Christmas holidays, and I was very excited to begin. That’s probably why I forgot to take everything into consideration before answering the when-can-you-start question.
It’s easy to over-commit to an early start date, but you first need to evaluate if that date is realistic for you if you want to get the new job off to a good start.
So do be careful when answering. It’s difficult later to go from telling your employer that you can start in two days to ask for more time. Think about what you really need, believe me.
When I moved to Greece, I didn’t realize it wasn’t realistic for me to start right after getting off the plane. Thankfully, the company gave me one more week to get my papers in order.
