Reflections on Finding Work in Italy as a Non-EU Graduate

Northern Italy, 2025

I remember when I first graduated from my bachelor’s degree, job searching felt relatively straightforward. I took a page out of my university/mentee handbook: doing internships and getting involved in extracurricular activities. I barely looked at LinkedIn, which at the time was still relatively new.

Now, as a fresh graduate from a master’s program abroad, I’m drawing on the lessons I accumulated in between: language ability, internship experience, portfolio, and networking. The difference is the job market in 2025.

I finally landed a job (and in Italy—often cited for its brain drain). I remember looking for guidelines for the job-search residence permit at my university, and what struck me was the impression that the system largely assumes graduates—Italian and foreign alike—will leave. There are countless infographics showing how Italy is failing its young people. But here I am. Lavoratrice dipendente. Had I been an EU citizen, you would probably already see me across the border, like many Italian and international students.

As a non-EU citizen, I can’t move as freely to live and work in other EU member states. The non-EU students who did make the move across the border were largely in sectors that enabled mobility, mainly STEM fields. This brings me to my next point.

My Laurea Magistrale (master’s degree) allowed me to enter the Italian job market with a bit more ease compared to the average non-EU graduate. With the job-search permit offered to graduates of Italian universities, you don’t have to fulfill quotas, and it’s easier to switch to a full work permesso. Plus, I was already about 80% invested after living here for almost three years. I decided it was worth giving it a shot.

In the meantime, I took Italian classes at the University for Foreigners in Perugia. I was fortunate to be able to do so, and like all job searches, the process required a fair amount of luck. This blog isn’t meant to give advice so much as to share what I learned about the Italian job market through my own experience.

Learning Italian

(Yes, even if you want to work for an international company or in an English-speaking role)

It may sound like a no-brainer, but there are countries and sectors where fluency in the local language isn’t strictly necessary, and where English is actively used as a selling point to attract foreign talent. Italy is not one of them.

Even if a company is international (or aspires to be), chances are internal communication will still be in Italian, or at least strongly preferred. Even in my English-taught international master’s program, I still needed some level of Italian to secure an internship.

For job interviews where the working language was English, I still needed Italian during the interview itself. True story: I once applied to an SME with a primarily English-speaking client base, and the interview was conducted entirely in Italian.

This doesn’t require complete fluency, but at the very least, the ability to hold a conversation. Depending on your sector, the threshold for Italian proficiency may not even be as high as you think. While Italian is clearly necessary, no one has ever required a CELI or CILS certificate from me (whereas in Japan, in my experience, companies often ask for JLPT scores).

Learning Italian opened doors to job markets that weren’t immediately visible, which leads to my next point.

Jobs in the Middle of Nowhere

Sometimes jobs aren’t in major cities, but rather in provincial areas. Even well-known companies can have headquarters in what feels like the middle of nowhere, even if they list “Milan,” “Bologna,” or “Modena” (when they really mean the province).

I often struck gold in places that were essentially off the map. I noticed a recurring pattern: immigrants often take on jobs that locals either don’t want or don’t want to relocate for. This usually refers to blue-collar work, but occasionally it applies to white-collar roles as well, at least in my experience.

In some regions, brain drain is very much in the red, even if certain companies act as though they’re doing young people a favor by offering them an interview. I’m specifically referring to parts of Northern—and even Central—Italy outside major cities. Unless you’re deeply tied to your hometown and work in a field where salaries remain high, a family-run SME may not be appealing to many young people.

With enough scrolling, you may also find that some of these places have regional initiatives aimed at reversing brain drain. Of course, this often comes with more bureaucracy, but in theory, the opportunity exists. Additionally, in more remote, brain-drain–affected areas, internships are often limited or short-term, with fixed-term contracts being more common—at least in my experience.

What I learned from job searching in Italy is that even when an opportunity presents itself, you inevitably question whether it’s worth it—not just financially, but also in terms of work culture and mentality.

I’m often asked why I, a native New Yorker, would want to live or work in these places. People already scratch their heads when they find out I live in Perugia. After living in semi-rural Japan and completing my bachelor’s degree in rural New York, these environments don’t intimidate me.

Being a big fish in a small pond has its advantages. I see opportunity not just in professional development, but in life. It pushes growth, grit, and cultural adaptability—not only linguistically, but practically as well. In some regions, this means learning how to drive or even picking up another language, particularly if you end up working in an autonomous region like Friuli-Venezia Giulia or Trentino-Alto Adige. When I visited my current company, I remember walking through a neighboring town not even hearing Italian, but Friulano. I was enticed to learn more. 

The ability to reinvent yourself abroad—and to do so quickly—feels far more compelling than dwelling on the negative. New environments often reveal capabilities you didn’t know you had. And on a very superficial level: air quality.

Considering lifestyle seriously put things into perspective for me. Not that I wasn’t open to Milan or Bologna—I already had a sense of the salary range I would likely fall into. The more relevant question became where I could live with dignity on that income. When I lived in Bologna, I saw how even simple pleasures like frequent aperitivo became harder to sustain due to skyrocketing rents. Somewhere along the way, I may have adopted a more European mentality of working to live, rather than living to work.

Getting Your Feet Wet: Being Involved in Student Associations

This one is tricky because student associations aren’t as prominent in Italian university culture as they are in the US. During my master’s program, I joined one of the few associations that operated in English, focused on fintech and management consulting. What was a humanities student doing there?

In the two organizations I joined, I won a competition, expanded my network, and learned marketing and communications skills that I later included on my CV and discussed in interviews. It was also a great way to network in a lower-pressure environment with like-minded peers.

This experience helped me pivot into tech by leveraging my intercultural communications background alongside consulting and marketing skills. I learned how to create decks, think strategically, and gain insight into what working with Italians can be like in professional settings.

Be Prepared to Be Hired

I don’t mean this in a manifesting or visualization sense. I mean literally having your documentation ready.

If you’re non-EU, it’s important to understand the correct channels and take full advantage of your local patronato or CGIL. Depending on the company, they may not be familiar with hiring non-EU workers. In my CVs, I clearly highlighted my right to work in Italy and my permesso status.

In many cases, patronati are free of charge, help you fill out the kit, log your information into Portale Immigrazione well before you go to Poste Italiane, and are familiar with local Questura procedures and regional quirks. For me, it was also helpful to learn about CCNL contract types. 

Beyond my permesso, one key factor that simplified many things was my carta d’identità elettronica (CIE). I don’t know why this isn’t emphasized more by international offices at Italian universities.

I can only speak for the lavoro dipendente route, but in my case, I was required to complete a workplace safety course before starting. Because I had already completed this during a prior tirocinio, I saved eight hours and was able to ease into my new role.