So… I am in talks with a couple of companies about opportunities in Sweden, both seem very eager to chat and have so far been very pleasant to talk to – I am even noticing that the recruitment process is slightly more laid back, this is not what preconceptions have led me to believe about Sweden; a pleasant surprise.
Unlike back at the UK, I am not being sharked by ruthless agencies treating me like a skill set and I genuinely feel like these people want to know me as much as they want to know what I do. As to not jeopardise my position I won’t use any names but will explain my experience with the 2.
Company 1:
Now these guys are cool! After doing my research they have this real friendly “Google-esque” vibe going on, they have a belief that if you focus on employee happiness the results look after themselves – an entertaining video of the generic IT nerd (AKA: Myself) being turned into a suit by a company and consequently hating his job felt almost as if it was written exactly for me! I almost thought the video was an autobiography.
I am not one to believe generic hype in any form, but they either spent millions on fantastic actors or the employees they placed in these videos really are having a great time and are loving what they do.
So what about the person I am talking to in HR? After a short browse of their LinkedIn I can tell you I am feeling a little intimidated (http://howiebm.com/2013/04/16/work-in-sweden-top-5-observations/ – see points 1,2 and 3) – not to say she hasn’t made me feel comfortable, just tweaked my insecurities a little – but nothing I don’t think anyone goes through in the job hunting stage!
I am quite excited about this one and dates are being planned for a meeting! I can only hope I manage to impress…
Company 2:
Now these guys are familiar and safe! After doing my research I can confidently predict this company will be instantly familiar to me as something I have done before, this is neither a good or a bad thing and I think it has it’s advantages – I certainly feel less intimidated by this posting. I have a real passion for information management and client systems, WCF services and developing a piece of software that goes above and beyond the expectations of a customer and I can see clearly that is what these guys do; they do it cleanly; they do it quickly and there is something to be admired about that.
As such there is no hype, no immediately visible personable qualities – it’s cold hard business and there is definitely a place for that in the world. Especially in the sector these guys operate in.
So the person I ended up speaking to was the MD directly, quite a funny guy and again spoke to me on a personal level – contradictory to what the website would have me believe about the company, based on that alone I am starting to think that maybe this company isn’t the cold hard shell their online presence shows them to be and they just have a bad/business centric webmaster. Hire me… I’ll sort it out 
.
So why the dread? I have suddenly realised that I know very little about the Swedish recruitment process, I can tell it’s different already… I am prepared to answer questions employers in the UK would ask, about UK businesses and UK affairs; Sweden operates bigger than that and I know it! I am going to have to expand culturally and fast I feel, so immediately I find myself subscribed to World News – perhaps at least now I might be able to avoid the 1 million articles a minute about Maggie Thatcher and read something that will tell me there is a world across the pond…
Love, Peace and all things Awesome!
Howard
// Howie BM // 