I moved from the US to Finland for grad school and stayed to work. The pay is lower, but the work-life balance is great.

• Jordan Blake Banks moved to Finland in 2019 to attend grad school and stayed to work.
• She said pay is lower in Finland, but it's offset by affordable education and healthcare.
• Banks said she's also been able to use being the "brave American" to her advantage.

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Jordan Blake Banks, an American and Finnish citizen who moved to Finland in 2019 for school and stayed to work. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I was born and raised in St. Louis, then moved to Urbana-Champaign to study my bachelor's in agricultural and biological engineering at the University of Illinois. I graduated in May 2019 and moved to Finland about a month and a half later.

I studied abroad in Spain, and really loved it there. It opened my world and gave me more perspective, so I knew I wanted to go abroad after I graduated. I was interested in bioenergy, and that industry isn't very developed in the US. After doing some research, I landed on Finland, which has a huge forestry and bioenergy industry. The Nordics, in general, also have a lot of English-language master's degree programs. Through a Fulbright scholarship, I moved to Finland to pursue my master's degree.

I basically moved from one university environment to another, so in that sense, it was pretty similar. During my second year, I completed a research traineeship while I worked in a lab and wrote my thesis. After school, I eventually got a job in sustainability consulting at Deloitte, one of the Big Four consulting firms.

Working in Finland vs the US

In Finland, you will most likely get a much lower salary than what you would make in the United States, but at least in my experience, it has balanced out. A lot of the things that are more expensive in the United States, like health insurance, education, and childcare, cost way less in Finland.

Finland has a really good work-life balance in general. There isn't a huge culture of grinding, staying up late, and working long hours to get ahead in your career. The general idea is that the company and your colleagues respect you as a person and your personal time.

It's very common for people to set clear boundaries around work. A parent might leave in the middle of the day to take care of their child or have strict start and stop times because of family responsibilities. I really don't think that's seen as anything bad in Finland. Most people also take a month of holiday in the summer and time off in the winter. Even in consulting, the expectation to constantly work overtime just isn't the norm.

Learning the language isn't necessary, but it helps

Finnish is a very different language and probably the biggest challenge. Even though many international companies operate in English, in consulting, some projects are done in Finnish, and colleagues who speak the language are more likely to get those assignments.

I eventually participated in an integration program where I spent months learning Finnish full-time. That experience really accelerated my language learning. Learning the language helped me feel more integrated in everyday life. I also don't think I would have passed the national Finnish language exam without it, which I took to become a citizen after meeting and marrying my wife here.

I feel very safe in Finland, but people are more reserved

One of the biggest pluses is that I feel very safe here as a woman. Walking alone at night is something I would probably be very anxious about in many places in the United States, but in Finland, I feel pretty comfortable.

As a Black American living in a small Finnish town, that can be a shock if you're not used to it. In the smaller university town where I started, I did feel maybe a little bit more othered, but since moving to Helsinki, I noticed there was a lot more diversity.

There are also all of these different Facebook groups like "Americans in Finland" or "Americans in Helsinki." I think it's actually pretty easy to connect if you're looking for a specific cultural group.

People in Finland are not as open initially. In the US, it's very common to make eye contact, smile, or say hi to people you pass on the street. In Finland, it can feel like people are actively avoiding contact. I've heard many stories of people about to leave their apartment who hear their neighbor open their door to also leave, so they rush back inside so they don't have to make contact with anyone.

That can be a shock at first. At the same time, once you do get to know people, you can make good connections and real friendships. You just have to be willing to put yourself out there and be the brave American who asks for what you want.

You can also use it to your advantage, and I think it helped me land my first paid research job at the university. I was willing to make contact and be the "brave American" who asks for things.

Do you have a story to share about moving abroad? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com.