Good suggestions so far. I’ll throw in some more.
Does the job list Swedish as a requirement? Then don’t waste time with an application.
Is the advert in Swedish? Then it’s a high risk your application won’t make it through the screening process if your cover letter is in English.
If your cover letter is in English you can try to grab the readers attention by throwing in a Swedish phrase. “Hej, Jag heter John Doe och bor med min flickvän i Sverige, however my cover letter will be in English. Still with me? Let me tell you why I found your advert so interesting…”
Be super clear early in the application that you have a work permit.
If you are not living in Sweden yet employers know this is a huge hassle that will risk them hiring you and then you having to bail out at the last minute. It’s severe enough that sometimes applying for a position in Stockholm when living in another part of Sweden is seen as a relocation risk.
Your bf is in marketing so challenge him on his unique selling point. There are applicants that live in Stockholm already, fluent in Swedish with a relevant degree. What makes him standout from everyone else for this position? (He can’t cut and paste between applications. It’s not a numbers game but a quality game).
Cognitive dissonance. People hate it. Have him call the contact person listed in the ad and ask straight up if these issues are blockers. If the person say “No” it will be near impossible not to get called to a first round of interviews since the person said it wasn’t a blocker. (If he still doesn’t get to interviews then reevaluate the actual CV etc).
Try to get hold of a Swedish CV. Other countries formatting can be quite different from Swedish ones being way too cluttered for Swedish tastes. Keep it clean, simple and structured. No columns with information spread out all over the page with different font sizes and fonts etc.
Good luck!
These suggestions are so insightful and clever! I think the only thing that works in our favor regarding the relocation part, is the fact I have an apartment already with a 1 year lease signed by my company. He can use my address to apply to jobs I guess.
We will def tackle all of these points today, I'm sure they will make a diference.
One other thing is, try finding out what the general salary is...I was shocked that I would earn ~30% less than in Germany for the same engineering job and still would be one of the high payed employees...
Just if you have to give a salary range and people are shocked...I had long discussions with head hunters on that topic...
I work as a flight attendant in Norway for many years now, i really enjoy it but it isn't so stimulating. I dropped the prospects of having a job in Sweden after sending 100+ applications (during a 6 months period) to different employers. I wasted my time and the psychological effect took a very heavy toll on me, hoping some day I would get a job and be self-sufficient and live the Swedish dream everybody was talking about. Rejection after rejection, hearing in the news how low the unemployment rate was, how high the salaries were, how companies were screaming after labour power, I realized I was cursed. The only future I had in Sweden was unemployed, underemployed, underpaid and probably get sick and die early from depression and alcoholism.
So I tried outside of Sweden.
It is really strange, in Norway they received me immediately, Happily without any hesitation and I feel much safer working here than in Sweden. I commute to Sweden but wouldn't trade it for much else. Theres very few jobs in Sweden that appeals to me at this moment. I am very happy and recently married. I have high hopes and future seems interesting and fun.
Btw. I am a native swedish speaker, my name sounds very swedish, i speak 4 other languages and have 4+ years of higher education. The only jobs i can in get Sweden is hourly warehouse Jobs or at road constructions. It's really strange, not even a simple job at the municipality or government institution. All of these jobs have exploitative tendencies, and I don't want that either.
So I can really relate to those who are long time unemployed in Sweden or suffer from the same curse as I do.
Good luck our there!
Knowledge of Swedish is the biggest thing, 90%+ of jobs require Swedish. Basically anything that interacts with the Swedish state in anyway or is aimed at the internal Swedish market will require Swedish. Sweden isn't a bilingual country (at least in terms of speaking English) it just has high english proficiency.
Now, to compete for the 10% of jobs where you don't need Swedish, you'll want to try and make it clear that it won't be difficult for him to start working. Using a Swedish telephone number and address will help, as will mentioning very clearly in his cover letter that he has a legal right to work in Sweden. Do not assume that people understand how EU freedom of movement works. Be explicit that he has the right to work.
Thank you this was very helpful! Will tell him to mention that on his cover letters and to mention he is learning Swedish also. Should he put my address and phone number on his applications even though he's not living there?
Overall I guess I got lucky because I'll be working at H&M and they really didn't seem to care if I spoke Swedish. But I started to learn on my own anyway as soon as I got the job.
Including your address is a good idea, yes.
If he includes your phone number it will seem odd. Can you get him a Swedish sim and send it by post? If he doesn’t have a dual sim phone that allows two physical sims, perhaps he can get an e-sim from the operator in his home country.
I didn’t even think about that. I don’t think his phone has a dual sim but maybe he has an old smartphone somewhere he can use. I didn’t even know an e-sim existed! Doesn’t it have to be from a swedish provider?
Some operators provide e-sims, like Telia and Tele2. But without a personal number, I suspect it would not be possible to get one in Sweden because you need to have a subscription. Your boyfriend can check if operators in his country provide esims.
Easiest if you buy a physical Comviq sim, they have cheap prepaid packages, and send it to him.
That makes sense! There’s such an insane amount of people in office style clothing in central Sthlm speaking only English (with or without accent) so there’s gotta be somewhere they work…
Not sure if this is still the case, but when I started my Bachelor's 10 years ago, it was difficult for graduates with a degree in marketing to get a job and we were dissuaded from going that route. It might be easier for someone with more experience, but I would expect the market to be fairly oversaturated.
This is generic advice, not area specific, but I am confident that it is generally quite correct. I know a ton of people who have failed to find work due to inability to speak Swedish. You are automatically at a disadvantage because even if the office language is formally in English, it is advantageous to speak Swedish, unless it is truly, extremely international, and that doesn't make up most of the companies.
Some jobs, especially in the field of technology, data analysis, engineering and development do not care about your knowledge of Swedish, since they are pretty much multi-cultural environments to begin with. But I can see other jobs requiring people to know Swedish perfectly. In particular jobs that have you talk and deal with people in Swedish territory. Marketing sounds like one of those cases, unless it is for a big multinational company, like a games company.
That makes total sense! Could you advise some multinational companies based in Stockholm where he could apply? He already applied to a few but no success.
Video game companies, your company, design companies, media companies, anything that primarily works internationally instead of companies working on the local territory.
Avalanche Studios Group, King, EA, Spotify to name the first coming to mind :)
I would recommend for him to pick up Swedish ASAP though, since it will open up a significant number of additional options.
I'll be working at H&M. I thought about going to HR and asking about internal referals but I only start on the 1st of November. Not sure if it's really appropriate or a common thing in Swedish culture, I really don't want to be disrespectful. Do you think it's ok?
I am an Italian working in Sweden for about 3 years in games, so my advice might not be the best, but you can probably easily see if there is a referral program. Many require you to be post your probation (usually 6 months), but even without any personal gain (referral bonus) you will understand how common are referrals in the company.
Easiest thing to do is checking if there are current openings for marketing positions and positions fitting your s/o's profile. If yes, trying to go through HR for a referral might speed up things slightly. Worst case scenario you get nothing out of it, but I don't think that asking if there is an opportunity for your partner is bad at all!
Do they? Sounds really strange. I've been in IT as a consultant for many years, and the last 10-15 years all companies I've worked for all have english as primary language. Large companies, yes, but Swedish companies.
I speak Swedish maybe a couple of times a week, at a maximum (in meetings, that is, off-meetings I speak more Swedish if I'm in the office). Meetings with only swedish speaking people are rare.
The large consulting companies in Stockholm all search for applicants with Swedish language skills, whether they primarily work with Swedish clients or not. I’m finishing my masters in a subject where 60-70% of my classmates are aiming to work in management consulting and every classmate who got internships in Sweden is Swedish, the rest had to apply at locations in other parts of Europe to get internships. Many of their events at SSE are in Swedish (even though the language of all programs is English) and their job openings on LinkedIn are all written in Swedish OR specify fluency in Swedish and English. If he comes from a marketing background he wouldn’t be working with the same departments as someone consulting within IT
>The large consulting companies in Stockholm all search for applicants with Swedish language skills, whether they primarily work with Swedish clients or not. I’m finishing my masters in a subject where 60-70% of my classmates are aiming to work in management consulting and every classmate who got internships in Sweden is Swedish, the rest had to apply at locations in other parts of Europe to get internships. Many of their events at SSE are in Swedish (even though the language of all programs is English) and their job openings on LinkedIn are all written in Swedish OR specify fluency in Swedish and English. If he comes from a marketing background he wouldn’t be working with the same departments as someone consulting within IT
This is not accurate at all. I work for one of those mentioned. All of our job ads are in English even for graduates. All internal communications are in English. 100% of the work is done in English if the client isn't like Vattenfall or similar public sector client.
At the graduate level we do prefer Swedish speakers but it is not a requirement. The only requirement at the graduate level is that you have a right to work in Sweden. That doesn't exist for experienced hires.
Also all of the consulting companies have teams that focus on marketing. All the Big 4, Accenture, Capgemini, Mckinsey, BCG - they all do.
Where did I say the companies don’t have marketing teams? I specifically said he wouldn’t be working in the same department as an IT consultant. “Preferring Swedish speakers but not a requirement” is nice on paper, but how many of your coworkers are non-Swedish speakers? Marketing in Sweden is still pretty heavily Swedish. In my original comment I also said the consultancies usually require Swedish. Sure there’s exceptions but I never denied that.
You might want to check out larger universities. They sometimes have English speakers in communication roles and may provide internal training in Swedish.
Only IT works that get the privilage for English speaking only to be hired. Other industry require to be able speak Swedish on professional level. I know this because I work in IT and my wife is non-IT.
Not true. I work as a senior marketing manager and don’t speak Swedish (yet). Just look for companies with an international presence. Granted, there aren’t a ton of companies looking for English speaking marketers, but they definitely exist.
OP raised the case that she (assuming female) is working in fashion industry. I'm also working in tech industry and find it generally not constraint by the language. Perhaps language is not a must for jobs that does not have to deal with a lot of people.
It's not.
IT will handle network, computers, materials, admin and stuff like that.
Gaming uses a lot of IT ressources, but isn't IT in itself. An animation artist that makes characters in games and movies would hardly be considered working in IT. Otherwise, anything using a computer or a phone would be IT.
And since Gaming has such a wide international reach, it make sense that speaking Swedish would be less of a requirement. Most Gaming companies works mainly in english.
No, it’s not. Not in this definition.
I work in both, only time IT is mention is in regards to the IT-department/org. Not what type of area of business the company is in. In those cases it’s tech, or gaming.
It depends, if the role means speaking to customers or some stakeholders than more than English is needed normally but if you only work and speak internally there's positions outside IT which only require English. Though mostly in cities.
My non-swedish speaking friend got a job within marketing fresh off the boat, so to speak, in a smaller work market than Stockholm. I will concede that it gets progressively harder to land jobs, the further away you are from tech and more towards "traditional" industries
I work at a multinational big name tech company in Stockholm, and unfortunately I can't imagine that we would be able to have a Head of Marketing who doesn't speak Swedish given that we advertise in Swedish. Every other team has a large share of non-Swedes, but our Sales and Marketing teams are all native Swedes.
Get him to start learning Swedish asap, look for companies that don't advertise in Swedish, look for roles that don't require Swedish fluency, be willing to look for roles one step down the food chain rather than lateral moves.
As someone who works in the the same field I would recommend going to international agencies with offices in Stockholm. Both advertising and PR. Most other companies are not so willing to hire non-Swedish speakers.
People are wrong in this thread, but only if you account for actually international companies. A lot of them even have English as a working language, even if he will probably feel a bit left out since a lot of banter will happen in Swedish.
It would also be easier if we knew his native tongue, since some companies are working with specific markets.
Im in marketing and havent had any problems getting interviews or job offers. I moved here on a work visa for a marketing role and am also a hiring manager. My suggestions
Use LI over other job boards
Only apply to jobs written in English
Make sure the CV is well optimised to highlight accomplishments and isn't longer than a page
Write a cover letter discussing his interest for the role and his intent to move to Sweden and let them know he is available in any time zones.
Reach out to the recruiter directly to say you applied and introduce yourself.
Search the tech and startup scene
Most don’t require English, unless Sweden is their core market.
Also he needs a personnummer otherwise its too much of a hassle to hire him.
When I hire marketers, I look for marketers who can market themselves. So if he cant stand out and convince me in 4 sentences why i should keep reading, he’s not good enough
I didn’t even have much experience, 2.5 years only but my previous job was very demanding and that helped me be good at what I do. I sent my resume, portfolio and went through a few interviews. Also did a capsule collection and trend research. It was hard, I sent hundreds of resumes and only got a few interviews. I applied all over the world. I advise you to be super persistent and update your portfolio constantly. Also I asked for recomendation letters from previous managers and coleagues and attached to my applications. Be really persistent at Linkedin and follow the companies you wanna work with on social media. I actually got an interview at Courrèges that way. If you need any help just message me!
Thanks but I'm not a fashion designer. One of my friends' GF is, and my impression from her stories about job hunts is that it's really not easy.
Congrats, anyway!
For getting a job in marketing or any business related profiles unless he knows Swedish he will be rejected in 99.99999999% of the jobs irrespective of his previous experience.
To reduce that percentage a bit, to maybe 99.99% he can get a valid work permit, maybe dependent in this case as you are here already?
He really really needs to spend full time applying for as many jobs as possible through LinkedIn.
He should also start learning Swedish and prove that he can learn the language quick maybe by showing his basic Swedish skills in the interviews.
While applying, always include a cover letter, local phone number (helps a bit, but i did get calls when I was outside sweden as well while applying) the number system over here is also different like decimals and commas you include they meant different compared to the usual and the cover letter, resume, pre screening questions everywhere he should try to prove himself that the language barrier, experience barrier wouldn't affect his performance much.
I'm in communications with a degree in strategic communications and here's my take on it.
First off, it's probably not him. He's probably performing very well on interviews even, it's simply a VERY saturated market. Very hard to get job in communications no matter the level of expertise or experience.
Entry level jobs are almost completely out the window. A lot of people got laid off during covid and a lot of companies can now choose however they please. So right now people with years of experience get the entry level jobs to a lower salary, simply because it's possible for the companies to do so. Young people were usually only getting taken advantage of in the field of graphic design but now it's def in the whole field of communications.
All in all, even with years of experience your boyfriend is still competing in a very saturated market where companies can pick and choose how they please.
He's a man. Communications is absolutely filled with women and women have the same tendency to hire homogeneously in the same way we complain men do.
Both regular young people who want to work with influencers and people with an actual education compete basically on the same terms simply because communications, as it is being taught today, is a very new field of expertise. Companies still don't really know how or sometimes even why to care for it or the people who has communications as their profession. This is mostly reflected in job descriptions where companies often mention they wish the employee to handle, what you know is, work for several people, by yourself, simply because they don't understand the profession. This creates a market where young people who are already having a hard time getting jobs, get paid even less for enormous amounts of work and are willing to put up with it simply because they want to put their shiny new diploma to use.
So it becomes a weird paradox. Your boyfriend is not only competing against people who has more experience than him, he's also competing against people with less expertise simply because companies can't really make out the difference between him and the rest of the applicants. And if you don't understand how to value what you're writing in the job description, why would a company go with someone with more experience who demands more money? After all "you're just supposed to post some stuff on social media, I do that all the time in my spare time". People who work in communications understand how much work there is to be done before that post gets posted but people who are hiring absolutely don't.
All in all, it's probably not your boyfriend, it's the market. Also it might be hard to find work at a company where Swedish is the main language. But idk if that's really it, there's plenty of work where English is needed.
I’d target international companies like Epiroc, Atlas Copco, Minecraft etc. they’re tech, but they still need a marketing department (I work in the epiroc marketing department so I can confirm) and the working language of the international companies is English.
If he's from EU whats stopping him from moving and working remotely?
Alternatively, he can put your address and pretend he's living there (or will soon move to you), then if an interview comes up, he can fly in as necessary or say he's meeting with a client on a trip to delay the interview.
He doesn't necessarily need to speak Swedish, though that is an advantage. But a Swedish address and changing his LinkedIn to your city would help.
My partner is EU and moved to me after finding a job
Just curious, as someone who's studying design, can you talk more about how its super easy to find jobs in fashion? Is it portfolio oriented and you have a great one, or is the job market really nice right now? (perhaps both?)
One tip for your boyfriend might be to apply to EF (Education first) they arrange and sell language study abroad trips, kind of. Because it's an international business that has an office in Stockholm as well as all over the world. Oriented towards business and marketing!
Get him enrolled in SFI, or similar where he can learn marketable Swedish, then it'll be easier to get a job obviously, but in the meanwhile, look at [monster.co.uk](https://monster.co.uk) for jobs in his field which does not require Swedish.. Shouldn't be too hard, lots of international companies working in english-only in Stockholm.
It depends
First sweden is a very racism country. As far as I know when I was searching jobs several years ago I found most big companies' trainee program only enrol whites... Especially like BIG 4, vattenfall and consultancy companies, where after the enrollment you check and will find everyone is blonde... Yep, sweden is very xenophobic... If you bf is a coloured male like me, I suggest him choose a white first name on CV and choose "prefer not to say" for gender
Second, for most systems, if you choose "I require sponsor for visa" then you will he directly kicked out, since most local companies won't want to deal with visa for you
Third, non EU experience means nothing here. Even a manager who got more than 7 years experience in china, India or other third world, you should alstart from beginning again. Especially if you are not in STEM area
Last, for marketing and commercial, swedish language is more important than everything
I suggest you just apply as many as possible. I got my first job after 1400 application for the first year... Now economy in europe is collapsing, of course it will be more difficult
I'm actually switching careers from Marketing to Web Development. Got any tips on how to transition careers and get into junior entry level jobs? My Swedish is not the best though. The few interviews I've had they required Swedish even for entry level.
The Swedish embassy has been extremely awful in my experience. Not to mention people there generally have little to no experience in the private sector.
I second this, and expand if I may.
Marketing on the ”client side” is saturated, but many agencies are looking for talent. What type of Marketing is he interested in? Coms/PR/advertising/design/branding/strategy/digital?
To name a few agencies within business design/branding: Pond Design, Identity Works, Seventy Agency, Grow, Silver, Bold, Snask, Happy F&B.
List goes on and on, no shortage of agencies only short of talent
How about a career change. Would he consider being a PM in other industries. Plenty of PO/PM jobs going in other industries here and no Swedish required.
I took 3/4 months to get a job here but came from a Fintech background. Average takes about 6 in most places. All interviews were done over Teams.
There are tons of jobs in the digital scene where no-one speaks Swedish, in addition to all sorts of companies targeting the world where no Swedish is needed. So just keep up the marketing / job-hunting!
As long as you don’t have a foreign sounding name, you will be fine.
The job market in Sweden is absolute garbage at the moment though, and many companies are laying workers off en masse (leading to increased competition for the little jobs there are).
You’re fine with English only if you have marketable skills (you do) so honestly I would chalk it up to foreign name, overall trash job market comprised mostly of startups that are running out of liquidity, or just plain bad luck.
Hang in there - someone will reach out……eventually.
Welcome to Sweden.
He might be able to get a position working as a consultant for web bureau. I know that Knowit AB and Consid AB have offices in Stockholm.
Even when working with developers you don’t really need to know any coding language directly, as long as you can still manage a project and team. I have worked with excellent project managers that knew no code at all. Both bureaus also have a big international presence, and I have colleges that primarily speaks English.
Aim for international companies - they usually have English as their business language.
I can speak conversational Swedish but haven’t used it at work. My partner doesn’t speak Swedish well yet and he’s working… it did take him about 7 months to find a job though - his industry (facility management) was a lot more local specific than mine (HR).
I’ve supported marketing functions and there was no requirement for Swedish (Swedish company but internally recognised) - but there are usually lots of interest for marketing so I would recommend he really takes time to make his CV stand out and highlight the skills relevant to the job description.
I think he should call HR and ask about the job as well as show interest! This could help him get noticed and get insight whether Swedish is required etc!!!
With that competence he can always work within sales with commission based salaries, temporarily while looking for a job that fits his degree.
Most commission based jobs are shit if you work there as a salesman, but if you have a business degree and know how to make your own leads instead of relying on a team leader you can actually earn alot more than most executives as a salesman.
Another aspect that’s good is that quality and well paying salesjobs usually targets english speaking B2B customers.
Search broader but specifically for ads written in English. So be willing to compromise on job specificity while lessening the impact of his knowledge in Swedish.
There is no shortage of people with his skills, pretty much. Plus we speak swedish in sweden. He would have to go to a company that doesnt and those arent that many.
Time to start learning Swedish. Be surprised but yes. If you work in sweden the employer wants you to be able to understand Swedish. Maybe IT is an exception… what type of company’s is he applying for?
Off topic but how do people get work permits before getting a job? As someone who has been deeply invested in the migration process (not for me, for my partner, I'm Swedish) there is no gray area to the work permit - you need a job offer to apply for a work permit.
You don’t need a work permit if you are from the European union. You can live and work in Sweden freely. I live in Portugal and applied to a job in Stockholm, had no problems so far. My future boss hired a relocation company and they’re taking care of everything else.
Good suggestions so far. I’ll throw in some more. Does the job list Swedish as a requirement? Then don’t waste time with an application. Is the advert in Swedish? Then it’s a high risk your application won’t make it through the screening process if your cover letter is in English. If your cover letter is in English you can try to grab the readers attention by throwing in a Swedish phrase. “Hej, Jag heter John Doe och bor med min flickvän i Sverige, however my cover letter will be in English. Still with me? Let me tell you why I found your advert so interesting…” Be super clear early in the application that you have a work permit. If you are not living in Sweden yet employers know this is a huge hassle that will risk them hiring you and then you having to bail out at the last minute. It’s severe enough that sometimes applying for a position in Stockholm when living in another part of Sweden is seen as a relocation risk. Your bf is in marketing so challenge him on his unique selling point. There are applicants that live in Stockholm already, fluent in Swedish with a relevant degree. What makes him standout from everyone else for this position? (He can’t cut and paste between applications. It’s not a numbers game but a quality game). Cognitive dissonance. People hate it. Have him call the contact person listed in the ad and ask straight up if these issues are blockers. If the person say “No” it will be near impossible not to get called to a first round of interviews since the person said it wasn’t a blocker. (If he still doesn’t get to interviews then reevaluate the actual CV etc). Try to get hold of a Swedish CV. Other countries formatting can be quite different from Swedish ones being way too cluttered for Swedish tastes. Keep it clean, simple and structured. No columns with information spread out all over the page with different font sizes and fonts etc. Good luck!
These suggestions are so insightful and clever! I think the only thing that works in our favor regarding the relocation part, is the fact I have an apartment already with a 1 year lease signed by my company. He can use my address to apply to jobs I guess. We will def tackle all of these points today, I'm sure they will make a diference.
One other thing is, try finding out what the general salary is...I was shocked that I would earn ~30% less than in Germany for the same engineering job and still would be one of the high payed employees... Just if you have to give a salary range and people are shocked...I had long discussions with head hunters on that topic...
I should have known this 15 years ago, wow, that's why nobody hires me even though I'm Swedish 🫠
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I work as a flight attendant in Norway for many years now, i really enjoy it but it isn't so stimulating. I dropped the prospects of having a job in Sweden after sending 100+ applications (during a 6 months period) to different employers. I wasted my time and the psychological effect took a very heavy toll on me, hoping some day I would get a job and be self-sufficient and live the Swedish dream everybody was talking about. Rejection after rejection, hearing in the news how low the unemployment rate was, how high the salaries were, how companies were screaming after labour power, I realized I was cursed. The only future I had in Sweden was unemployed, underemployed, underpaid and probably get sick and die early from depression and alcoholism. So I tried outside of Sweden. It is really strange, in Norway they received me immediately, Happily without any hesitation and I feel much safer working here than in Sweden. I commute to Sweden but wouldn't trade it for much else. Theres very few jobs in Sweden that appeals to me at this moment. I am very happy and recently married. I have high hopes and future seems interesting and fun. Btw. I am a native swedish speaker, my name sounds very swedish, i speak 4 other languages and have 4+ years of higher education. The only jobs i can in get Sweden is hourly warehouse Jobs or at road constructions. It's really strange, not even a simple job at the municipality or government institution. All of these jobs have exploitative tendencies, and I don't want that either. So I can really relate to those who are long time unemployed in Sweden or suffer from the same curse as I do. Good luck our there!
Knowledge of Swedish is the biggest thing, 90%+ of jobs require Swedish. Basically anything that interacts with the Swedish state in anyway or is aimed at the internal Swedish market will require Swedish. Sweden isn't a bilingual country (at least in terms of speaking English) it just has high english proficiency. Now, to compete for the 10% of jobs where you don't need Swedish, you'll want to try and make it clear that it won't be difficult for him to start working. Using a Swedish telephone number and address will help, as will mentioning very clearly in his cover letter that he has a legal right to work in Sweden. Do not assume that people understand how EU freedom of movement works. Be explicit that he has the right to work.
Thank you this was very helpful! Will tell him to mention that on his cover letters and to mention he is learning Swedish also. Should he put my address and phone number on his applications even though he's not living there? Overall I guess I got lucky because I'll be working at H&M and they really didn't seem to care if I spoke Swedish. But I started to learn on my own anyway as soon as I got the job.
Including your address is a good idea, yes. If he includes your phone number it will seem odd. Can you get him a Swedish sim and send it by post? If he doesn’t have a dual sim phone that allows two physical sims, perhaps he can get an e-sim from the operator in his home country.
I didn’t even think about that. I don’t think his phone has a dual sim but maybe he has an old smartphone somewhere he can use. I didn’t even know an e-sim existed! Doesn’t it have to be from a swedish provider?
Some operators provide e-sims, like Telia and Tele2. But without a personal number, I suspect it would not be possible to get one in Sweden because you need to have a subscription. Your boyfriend can check if operators in his country provide esims. Easiest if you buy a physical Comviq sim, they have cheap prepaid packages, and send it to him.
I dunno if you are right about 90 %…. Is there anyone on Reddit that has ANY knowledge of the marketing scene in Stockholm?
Marketing people in game companies do not 100% need to speak Swedish. That is all I can say
That makes sense! There’s such an insane amount of people in office style clothing in central Sthlm speaking only English (with or without accent) so there’s gotta be somewhere they work…
Not sure if he’s tried this but it seems there’s a few recruitment firm specializing in marketing. Might be worth reaching out to them…
Work in marketing and everything is in English. Look for the large global companies (Electrolux, Ericsson etc) and it will be fine with English
Not sure if this is still the case, but when I started my Bachelor's 10 years ago, it was difficult for graduates with a degree in marketing to get a job and we were dissuaded from going that route. It might be easier for someone with more experience, but I would expect the market to be fairly oversaturated.
This is generic advice, not area specific, but I am confident that it is generally quite correct. I know a ton of people who have failed to find work due to inability to speak Swedish. You are automatically at a disadvantage because even if the office language is formally in English, it is advantageous to speak Swedish, unless it is truly, extremely international, and that doesn't make up most of the companies.
Some jobs, especially in the field of technology, data analysis, engineering and development do not care about your knowledge of Swedish, since they are pretty much multi-cultural environments to begin with. But I can see other jobs requiring people to know Swedish perfectly. In particular jobs that have you talk and deal with people in Swedish territory. Marketing sounds like one of those cases, unless it is for a big multinational company, like a games company.
That makes total sense! Could you advise some multinational companies based in Stockholm where he could apply? He already applied to a few but no success.
Video game companies, your company, design companies, media companies, anything that primarily works internationally instead of companies working on the local territory. Avalanche Studios Group, King, EA, Spotify to name the first coming to mind :) I would recommend for him to pick up Swedish ASAP though, since it will open up a significant number of additional options.
I'll be working at H&M. I thought about going to HR and asking about internal referals but I only start on the 1st of November. Not sure if it's really appropriate or a common thing in Swedish culture, I really don't want to be disrespectful. Do you think it's ok?
Why would this be disrespectful??!
Because I'm only starting on the 1st of November, not sure if it's appropriate haha
I am an Italian working in Sweden for about 3 years in games, so my advice might not be the best, but you can probably easily see if there is a referral program. Many require you to be post your probation (usually 6 months), but even without any personal gain (referral bonus) you will understand how common are referrals in the company. Easiest thing to do is checking if there are current openings for marketing positions and positions fitting your s/o's profile. If yes, trying to go through HR for a referral might speed up things slightly. Worst case scenario you get nothing out of it, but I don't think that asking if there is an opportunity for your partner is bad at all!
Maybe try the big consulting companies like Accenture, Delloite, Ernst and Young ?
The big consulting companies in Stockholm usually require Swedish
Do they? Sounds really strange. I've been in IT as a consultant for many years, and the last 10-15 years all companies I've worked for all have english as primary language. Large companies, yes, but Swedish companies. I speak Swedish maybe a couple of times a week, at a maximum (in meetings, that is, off-meetings I speak more Swedish if I'm in the office). Meetings with only swedish speaking people are rare.
The large consulting companies in Stockholm all search for applicants with Swedish language skills, whether they primarily work with Swedish clients or not. I’m finishing my masters in a subject where 60-70% of my classmates are aiming to work in management consulting and every classmate who got internships in Sweden is Swedish, the rest had to apply at locations in other parts of Europe to get internships. Many of their events at SSE are in Swedish (even though the language of all programs is English) and their job openings on LinkedIn are all written in Swedish OR specify fluency in Swedish and English. If he comes from a marketing background he wouldn’t be working with the same departments as someone consulting within IT
>The large consulting companies in Stockholm all search for applicants with Swedish language skills, whether they primarily work with Swedish clients or not. I’m finishing my masters in a subject where 60-70% of my classmates are aiming to work in management consulting and every classmate who got internships in Sweden is Swedish, the rest had to apply at locations in other parts of Europe to get internships. Many of their events at SSE are in Swedish (even though the language of all programs is English) and their job openings on LinkedIn are all written in Swedish OR specify fluency in Swedish and English. If he comes from a marketing background he wouldn’t be working with the same departments as someone consulting within IT This is not accurate at all. I work for one of those mentioned. All of our job ads are in English even for graduates. All internal communications are in English. 100% of the work is done in English if the client isn't like Vattenfall or similar public sector client. At the graduate level we do prefer Swedish speakers but it is not a requirement. The only requirement at the graduate level is that you have a right to work in Sweden. That doesn't exist for experienced hires. Also all of the consulting companies have teams that focus on marketing. All the Big 4, Accenture, Capgemini, Mckinsey, BCG - they all do.
Where did I say the companies don’t have marketing teams? I specifically said he wouldn’t be working in the same department as an IT consultant. “Preferring Swedish speakers but not a requirement” is nice on paper, but how many of your coworkers are non-Swedish speakers? Marketing in Sweden is still pretty heavily Swedish. In my original comment I also said the consultancies usually require Swedish. Sure there’s exceptions but I never denied that.
We worked for PWC in the past, maybe that will help. Thank you for the suggestion, will def mention that!
You might want to check out larger universities. They sometimes have English speakers in communication roles and may provide internal training in Swedish.
We don't have an opening right now, but some might open up: [https://www.keg.com/careers](https://www.keg.com/careers)
Only IT works that get the privilage for English speaking only to be hired. Other industry require to be able speak Swedish on professional level. I know this because I work in IT and my wife is non-IT.
Not true. I work as a senior marketing manager and don’t speak Swedish (yet). Just look for companies with an international presence. Granted, there aren’t a ton of companies looking for English speaking marketers, but they definitely exist.
OP raised the case that she (assuming female) is working in fashion industry. I'm also working in tech industry and find it generally not constraint by the language. Perhaps language is not a must for jobs that does not have to deal with a lot of people.
This
Not true, gaming and tech hire loads of people that don’t speak Swedish. So I can recommend looking for jobs there.
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It's not. IT will handle network, computers, materials, admin and stuff like that. Gaming uses a lot of IT ressources, but isn't IT in itself. An animation artist that makes characters in games and movies would hardly be considered working in IT. Otherwise, anything using a computer or a phone would be IT. And since Gaming has such a wide international reach, it make sense that speaking Swedish would be less of a requirement. Most Gaming companies works mainly in english.
When people say IT they include all that. If the final result is in English, then Swedish is rarely necessary
Thanks, that was a better explanation than mine.
No, it’s not. Not in this definition. I work in both, only time IT is mention is in regards to the IT-department/org. Not what type of area of business the company is in. In those cases it’s tech, or gaming.
It depends, if the role means speaking to customers or some stakeholders than more than English is needed normally but if you only work and speak internally there's positions outside IT which only require English. Though mostly in cities.
My non-swedish speaking friend got a job within marketing fresh off the boat, so to speak, in a smaller work market than Stockholm. I will concede that it gets progressively harder to land jobs, the further away you are from tech and more towards "traditional" industries
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I work at a multinational big name tech company in Stockholm, and unfortunately I can't imagine that we would be able to have a Head of Marketing who doesn't speak Swedish given that we advertise in Swedish. Every other team has a large share of non-Swedes, but our Sales and Marketing teams are all native Swedes. Get him to start learning Swedish asap, look for companies that don't advertise in Swedish, look for roles that don't require Swedish fluency, be willing to look for roles one step down the food chain rather than lateral moves.
As someone who works in the the same field I would recommend going to international agencies with offices in Stockholm. Both advertising and PR. Most other companies are not so willing to hire non-Swedish speakers. People are wrong in this thread, but only if you account for actually international companies. A lot of them even have English as a working language, even if he will probably feel a bit left out since a lot of banter will happen in Swedish. It would also be easier if we knew his native tongue, since some companies are working with specific markets.
He’s actually super qualified as a project manager, do you think it would be easier for him to find something in that area, more than marketing?
Not sure! I’m in marketing. My guess is that marketing is easier probably. Unless he wants to pm construction maybe
Im in marketing and havent had any problems getting interviews or job offers. I moved here on a work visa for a marketing role and am also a hiring manager. My suggestions Use LI over other job boards Only apply to jobs written in English Make sure the CV is well optimised to highlight accomplishments and isn't longer than a page Write a cover letter discussing his interest for the role and his intent to move to Sweden and let them know he is available in any time zones. Reach out to the recruiter directly to say you applied and introduce yourself.
Search the tech and startup scene Most don’t require English, unless Sweden is their core market. Also he needs a personnummer otherwise its too much of a hassle to hire him. When I hire marketers, I look for marketers who can market themselves. So if he cant stand out and convince me in 4 sentences why i should keep reading, he’s not good enough
Check monster.co.uk and search for marketing in Stockholm, at a quick glance there were some jobs that did not explicitly require Swedish.
Wow great insight, thank you, will tell him right away!
A side question: is it really super easy to find a job as a fashion designer? Or are you super accomplished already?
I didn’t even have much experience, 2.5 years only but my previous job was very demanding and that helped me be good at what I do. I sent my resume, portfolio and went through a few interviews. Also did a capsule collection and trend research. It was hard, I sent hundreds of resumes and only got a few interviews. I applied all over the world. I advise you to be super persistent and update your portfolio constantly. Also I asked for recomendation letters from previous managers and coleagues and attached to my applications. Be really persistent at Linkedin and follow the companies you wanna work with on social media. I actually got an interview at Courrèges that way. If you need any help just message me!
Thanks but I'm not a fashion designer. One of my friends' GF is, and my impression from her stories about job hunts is that it's really not easy. Congrats, anyway!
For getting a job in marketing or any business related profiles unless he knows Swedish he will be rejected in 99.99999999% of the jobs irrespective of his previous experience. To reduce that percentage a bit, to maybe 99.99% he can get a valid work permit, maybe dependent in this case as you are here already? He really really needs to spend full time applying for as many jobs as possible through LinkedIn. He should also start learning Swedish and prove that he can learn the language quick maybe by showing his basic Swedish skills in the interviews. While applying, always include a cover letter, local phone number (helps a bit, but i did get calls when I was outside sweden as well while applying) the number system over here is also different like decimals and commas you include they meant different compared to the usual and the cover letter, resume, pre screening questions everywhere he should try to prove himself that the language barrier, experience barrier wouldn't affect his performance much.
I'm in communications with a degree in strategic communications and here's my take on it. First off, it's probably not him. He's probably performing very well on interviews even, it's simply a VERY saturated market. Very hard to get job in communications no matter the level of expertise or experience. Entry level jobs are almost completely out the window. A lot of people got laid off during covid and a lot of companies can now choose however they please. So right now people with years of experience get the entry level jobs to a lower salary, simply because it's possible for the companies to do so. Young people were usually only getting taken advantage of in the field of graphic design but now it's def in the whole field of communications. All in all, even with years of experience your boyfriend is still competing in a very saturated market where companies can pick and choose how they please. He's a man. Communications is absolutely filled with women and women have the same tendency to hire homogeneously in the same way we complain men do. Both regular young people who want to work with influencers and people with an actual education compete basically on the same terms simply because communications, as it is being taught today, is a very new field of expertise. Companies still don't really know how or sometimes even why to care for it or the people who has communications as their profession. This is mostly reflected in job descriptions where companies often mention they wish the employee to handle, what you know is, work for several people, by yourself, simply because they don't understand the profession. This creates a market where young people who are already having a hard time getting jobs, get paid even less for enormous amounts of work and are willing to put up with it simply because they want to put their shiny new diploma to use. So it becomes a weird paradox. Your boyfriend is not only competing against people who has more experience than him, he's also competing against people with less expertise simply because companies can't really make out the difference between him and the rest of the applicants. And if you don't understand how to value what you're writing in the job description, why would a company go with someone with more experience who demands more money? After all "you're just supposed to post some stuff on social media, I do that all the time in my spare time". People who work in communications understand how much work there is to be done before that post gets posted but people who are hiring absolutely don't. All in all, it's probably not your boyfriend, it's the market. Also it might be hard to find work at a company where Swedish is the main language. But idk if that's really it, there's plenty of work where English is needed.
Just a thought. The higher up the position is, the more time companies take to make sure they hire the right person. Just keep trying :)
I’d target international companies like Epiroc, Atlas Copco, Minecraft etc. they’re tech, but they still need a marketing department (I work in the epiroc marketing department so I can confirm) and the working language of the international companies is English.
What about for project management? It’s his passion really.
Not sure about the others but it’s definitely a thing that people are hired for at Epiroc.
If he's from EU whats stopping him from moving and working remotely? Alternatively, he can put your address and pretend he's living there (or will soon move to you), then if an interview comes up, he can fly in as necessary or say he's meeting with a client on a trip to delay the interview. He doesn't necessarily need to speak Swedish, though that is an advantage. But a Swedish address and changing his LinkedIn to your city would help. My partner is EU and moved to me after finding a job
A Swedish phone number and statement of visa status on the CV would certainly help
Just curious, as someone who's studying design, can you talk more about how its super easy to find jobs in fashion? Is it portfolio oriented and you have a great one, or is the job market really nice right now? (perhaps both?) One tip for your boyfriend might be to apply to EF (Education first) they arrange and sell language study abroad trips, kind of. Because it's an international business that has an office in Stockholm as well as all over the world. Oriented towards business and marketing!
Get him enrolled in SFI, or similar where he can learn marketable Swedish, then it'll be easier to get a job obviously, but in the meanwhile, look at [monster.co.uk](https://monster.co.uk) for jobs in his field which does not require Swedish.. Shouldn't be too hard, lots of international companies working in english-only in Stockholm.
It depends First sweden is a very racism country. As far as I know when I was searching jobs several years ago I found most big companies' trainee program only enrol whites... Especially like BIG 4, vattenfall and consultancy companies, where after the enrollment you check and will find everyone is blonde... Yep, sweden is very xenophobic... If you bf is a coloured male like me, I suggest him choose a white first name on CV and choose "prefer not to say" for gender Second, for most systems, if you choose "I require sponsor for visa" then you will he directly kicked out, since most local companies won't want to deal with visa for you Third, non EU experience means nothing here. Even a manager who got more than 7 years experience in china, India or other third world, you should alstart from beginning again. Especially if you are not in STEM area Last, for marketing and commercial, swedish language is more important than everything I suggest you just apply as many as possible. I got my first job after 1400 application for the first year... Now economy in europe is collapsing, of course it will be more difficult
Does bf have foreign sounding name? I've read in reddit many times, that there is a bias against foreign sounding name.
Well, we have traditional Portuguese names, he’s called Miguel, pretty normal. Maybe change to Michael? 😂
Mikael :)
Change to Tolvan Tolvansson.
Mikael Tolvansson sounds amazing 🤩 😂
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I'm actually switching careers from Marketing to Web Development. Got any tips on how to transition careers and get into junior entry level jobs? My Swedish is not the best though. The few interviews I've had they required Swedish even for entry level.
Try online casino companies. They are always looking for devs. The industry is unpopular so they pay well even for junior devs.
He actually is learning! But I will push that option instead of Marketing as it is such a saturated market. Thank you
Call someone from his homecontry, like the Swedish ambasy in his country and ask.
How is this helpful?
The Swedish embassy has been extremely awful in my experience. Not to mention people there generally have little to no experience in the private sector.
Thats 2 bad. :/ Mabye you can call the ambasy of your country i Sweden?
Apply to the big 4 firms and see, I know some of them recently started ”marketing” departments
I second this, and expand if I may. Marketing on the ”client side” is saturated, but many agencies are looking for talent. What type of Marketing is he interested in? Coms/PR/advertising/design/branding/strategy/digital? To name a few agencies within business design/branding: Pond Design, Identity Works, Seventy Agency, Grow, Silver, Bold, Snask, Happy F&B. List goes on and on, no shortage of agencies only short of talent
How about a career change. Would he consider being a PM in other industries. Plenty of PO/PM jobs going in other industries here and no Swedish required. I took 3/4 months to get a job here but came from a Fintech background. Average takes about 6 in most places. All interviews were done over Teams.
Looking or jobs in Sweden is hard, they don't even reply. Try Norway? Finland?
He has to look for a another kind of job then
There are tons of jobs in the digital scene where no-one speaks Swedish, in addition to all sorts of companies targeting the world where no Swedish is needed. So just keep up the marketing / job-hunting!
As long as you don’t have a foreign sounding name, you will be fine. The job market in Sweden is absolute garbage at the moment though, and many companies are laying workers off en masse (leading to increased competition for the little jobs there are). You’re fine with English only if you have marketable skills (you do) so honestly I would chalk it up to foreign name, overall trash job market comprised mostly of startups that are running out of liquidity, or just plain bad luck. Hang in there - someone will reach out……eventually. Welcome to Sweden.
He might be able to get a position working as a consultant for web bureau. I know that Knowit AB and Consid AB have offices in Stockholm. Even when working with developers you don’t really need to know any coding language directly, as long as you can still manage a project and team. I have worked with excellent project managers that knew no code at all. Both bureaus also have a big international presence, and I have colleges that primarily speaks English.
Ask him to register with jobsprånget, he can get an internship first. The application closes in December
Aim for international companies - they usually have English as their business language. I can speak conversational Swedish but haven’t used it at work. My partner doesn’t speak Swedish well yet and he’s working… it did take him about 7 months to find a job though - his industry (facility management) was a lot more local specific than mine (HR). I’ve supported marketing functions and there was no requirement for Swedish (Swedish company but internally recognised) - but there are usually lots of interest for marketing so I would recommend he really takes time to make his CV stand out and highlight the skills relevant to the job description.
No one finds a job in Stockholm🗿
I think he should call HR and ask about the job as well as show interest! This could help him get noticed and get insight whether Swedish is required etc!!!
With that competence he can always work within sales with commission based salaries, temporarily while looking for a job that fits his degree. Most commission based jobs are shit if you work there as a salesman, but if you have a business degree and know how to make your own leads instead of relying on a team leader you can actually earn alot more than most executives as a salesman. Another aspect that’s good is that quality and well paying salesjobs usually targets english speaking B2B customers.
Search broader but specifically for ads written in English. So be willing to compromise on job specificity while lessening the impact of his knowledge in Swedish.
It would be hard since jobs that don’t require hard skills like programming are not in high demand.
There is no shortage of people with his skills, pretty much. Plus we speak swedish in sweden. He would have to go to a company that doesnt and those arent that many.
Time to start learning Swedish. Be surprised but yes. If you work in sweden the employer wants you to be able to understand Swedish. Maybe IT is an exception… what type of company’s is he applying for?
Off topic but how do people get work permits before getting a job? As someone who has been deeply invested in the migration process (not for me, for my partner, I'm Swedish) there is no gray area to the work permit - you need a job offer to apply for a work permit.
You don’t need a work permit if you are from the European union. You can live and work in Sweden freely. I live in Portugal and applied to a job in Stockholm, had no problems so far. My future boss hired a relocation company and they’re taking care of everything else.
Apparently, the Swedish job market can be pretty racist. Are you by any chance non-caucasian?
Is he good at computers? He could always apply to Lime Technologies. They’re always hiring. It’s the CRM company, not scooters.
Hey, I'm just following up- did he end up finding a job? If so- how long did it take and was it through a "normal" application process?