Skaffa ett jobb

Unless you've reached the pinacle of life that I strive to one day reach, and are a kept man, you're going to need to find a job in Sweden. This obstacle is typically the one that stops a lot of ex-pats in their tracks. It's a major hurdle, and it's importance cannot be overstated. So many, myself include, expect to waltz into Sweden and immediately secure the same level of employment that we left behind. Forget that. It's time to rewrite your employment life. The big part about securing employment is forward planning. This might mean delaying your relocation plans for a while. Get your qualifications in order. If you don't have any qualifications, get some. Don't rely on your employment history to make up for a lack of formal training. Unless you've got Swedish experience, your work history is second rate. Choose your qualifications wisely. Don't waste your time studying for an MBA from the University of South Eastern Tennessee. Choose something that will carry some weight outside of your homeland. Which involves some research first. Writing your CV can be a bit tricky. Lots of opinions around about whether you should write in English ( if that's your first language) or in Swedish. The English argument is that writing in Swedish is implying that you've got good Swedish skills, and you'll get found out when you front up for an interview. Fair enough. The Swedish argument is that no one is going to read an English CV and, if they do, they'll think that you know no Swedish. Which may not be true. Again, fair comments. Me, I went for somewhere in between. A fence sitter, am I. I wrote my CVs in Swedish. To show that I was making an effort to integrate. Now, admitidly, my Swedish CV was pretty good. Language wise. Due to my Swedish wife writing 90% of it. So a bit of a fib there. BUT, I made sure to write in my covering letter that, while I was writing in Swedish, I was still struggling with Swedish as a spoken language. So when I finally did make it to an interview, there were no surprises for anyone. I believe that CVs should be tailored to match the specific position. Highlighting what is relevant to that job application. That's what I think. Some will say that a CV is a CV is a CV. You can choose. One thing I have noticed about Swedish CVs is that they list EVERY single qualification they have, and EVERY item of work they have ever worked on. If they have a 50m backstroke certificate from primary school, in it goes. If they worked on a project that took a day and a half and cost 250kr - in it goes. The end result is a 10 page CV that contains 9 pages of "everything I have ever worked on in my entire life". In cronological order. Personally I think that's a crap approach. No one reads everything, at least I don't. So maybe some of the really important stuff gets missed. Me, I went for an English type CV, written in Swedish. Just the major stuff, and a bit less padding. You can choose what suits best. If you are going to write about specific jobs your have previously done, remember that the Swedish employer probably doesn't have a clue about place names, people, or customer names. So you have to make it mean something to everyone. Give the task some scale, like 1,000 square metres, 500 people, or 100,000 Swedish kronor. Remember, they don't know what you know. A "new Woolworths in Timaru" gains a bit more credibility when it becomes a "new 5,000 square metre supermarket in a city of 40,000 people". Think about your audience when writing. And don't forget to say what you personally did on that project. Obviously you didn't build the whole supermarket yourself. I always write a cover letter. A lot of people say it's bad form, I say it's not. My letter is important to me. It's where I present myself as a person, not just as a work history list. I say why I'm coming to Sweden, so they get to understand me a little. I summarise my employment and qualifications. Not too much, sort of a "fools guide to". The stuff you can't really include on a CV list. The letter is also a chance to address the questions that you know they will have about you. Language, future ambitions, level of risk. A chance to shut those questions down before they arise. Be up front and say if your Swedish is crap, but you wanted to try and write in Swedish. It shows honesty, but it also show a commitment. Finally, the tone of your application. Here's the conflict. Swedes in generally are not very good and presenting themselves in a strong or assertive manner. Which is why they often struggle to survive outside of Sweden. A typical English CV which proclaims your strengths and virtues, might be viewed as being somewhat arrogant by a Swedish employer. So you might want to tone your application down a little. Not too much though, you do still want to get the job. It's a bit of a tricky balancing act, that one. So there's the formalities. No guarantee it'll work. But I've never been shut down because of my formal application. That comes later.