Im from EU and currently looking for a new job. I've reading good things about working in Sweden as Stockholm is rising as a tech hub.
I've lined up some interviews (software engineering) and I'd like to know how is like to work and live there.
Anything from salary, quality of life, job market or things I should be aware before jumping.
Anyone working in Sweden?
Outdoors, yes, and especially the closeness to the sea and ocean. If you like boating or kayaking this is a huge plus, and you can also rent boats if you don't want to own one.
Housing market is crazy, you definitely have to buy an apartment and be willing to make a big investment in this, renting is basically not an option. The city also gets suburban and quiet very quickly as you move away from the inner parts, so if you want to live in a lively neighbourhood it's going to cost a lot.
Lifestyle is quite wholesome, punctuated and routine, and suits sporty people very well. On the social side swedes are reserved and private and the financial and social pressure to start a family is quite high.
Nightlife is a bit on the snobby and expensive side, with fancy restaurants and champagne.
The winter is dreadfully long and dark, and the summer is gorgeous. Many people go to Thailand in the winter and enjoy the beautiful archipelago outside Stockholm in the summer.
If you are a sporty person who enjoys boating, and/or wants to start a family, go for it. If you are looking for a fun place to stay for a shorter time and want to have a spontaneous social life, I wouldn't recommend it.
Our housing market itself isn't crazy, but the rental market is so tight that you're better off buying. Vacancy rates are so low that finding a decent rental is hard, and it's not inexpensive.
Care to elaborate?
I moved here four years ago from Australia. The worst part about relocating here is finding housing. We ended up just buying our own apartment and that ended up being much cheaper and less stressful than continuing to rent. Other than that for me personally there hasn't been much to complain about. People tend to regard Stockholm as an expensive city. Coming from Western Australia I didn't feel that much of a difference. My salary isn't huge, but make enough after the hefty taxes to have spending money left over. Public infrastructure seems great, it is safe, bike paths everywhere. People _are_ reserved yes, but there are many Meetup groups where you can socialize. The nature is beautiful, and how close it is to more urban areas is a big plus. Very pet-friendly - pets are allowed on subways, in many stores, etc (although the level of veterinary care and approach here varies, but I could write an entire separate novel on that).
I would ask your potential employer if they can help line up housing for you for some time after you move - larger companies often help with that and have their own contacts.
Also the games industry is booming here. I don't know what it's like compared to your current EU country, maybe quite similar. But after having lived in Ukraine, the U.S., and Australia Sweden is definitely my favorite.
You won't make any friends among the natives. We'll have a beer with you after work but don't expect anything serious. None of my friends have foreign friends. Can't really say why this happens though. We are pretty reserved.
Nightlife is not snobbish as somebody else said. There is the whole range from dive bars to upscale to any kind of nightclub you can think of. It's similar to most bigger western cities. Also, I've noticed the variety and quality of restaurants are outstanding in Stockholm when comparing to most places I've been.
I think I want to chime in here that this makes it sound like some form of xenophobia. I suppose this -is- prelevant in Sweden (especially for the last few years with the rise of Sverigedemokraterna), but I would also assume that in this scenario, it has more to do with the fact that working people are in their mid 20s and up and their social circles are quite knit together already. Combining this with the reserved nature of Swedes (as you say) is not the best combination for getting "new friends" more than (as you say, again) beers after work.
For some perspective though, I am Swedish but I work abroad. Even when there have been other Swedes working here, the same would apply to them. I'll have a beer with them, but other than that, unless something clicks, it is merely a colleague.
Now, I'm married to a Swede, and we moved with the express intent of learning the language to speak it to our children. It is a commitment, but as languages go it is close to English.
Its not impossible tho and the racism here is more similar to the one in japan, its not visible on the surface but you will never be a part of the community. But! there is good people everywhere you go, you just need to look for them.
Stockholm is quite dynamic in terms of its start up culture. There are a number of ways to network within the industry, most prevalent way to do so is Sthlm Tech Meetup.
Salaries are relatively low for engineering jobs (compared to ex Germany), but should be ok in the software space. Ok in this case would be ~4000-4500k€/month for a relatively experienced software engineer. Do note that tax levels are rather high once you reach higher levels of income (50%-55% marginal tax rate). The tax is a pain until you have kids and you pay almost nothing for daycare and schools.
The main thing to be aware of is that the housing market in Stockholm is completely crazy. It is very difficult to find somewhere to live. If you manage to get relocation support this should not become an issue for a while. Be ready to pay ridiculous money for second hand rentals (compared to salary)
As for discourse, there is none. Absolutely nothing.
There is a predicted shortage of up to 1,000,000 residences In a market of 4,500,000 or so, and a population of 10 million, recent refugees not included (yet).
The last 'fix' to the problem in 1960-1970 was building brutalist suburbs that turned into high-crime areas, and eventually into 'no-go' zones, fuelled by the virtually unlimited immigration. This is now not limited to the (three) larger cities as there are about 150 areas around the country where gang (mostly immigrant or descendant) criminality is a significant problem.
In some areas, like Södertälje and Alby- clan structures are starting to corrupt parts of the local government, giving political power to family heads while welfare systems are abused with the help of relatives working in the social services.
Grenades are thrown into apartments in gang wars, recently killing an 8 year old boy visiting from UK, and just yesterday one grenade exploded on someone's balcony just because he happened to live next to a gang member.
Meanwhile, nicer neighbourhoods have some of the highest prices in the world, except Monaco and other outliers. 1000000 USD is not much for a house in my area which is close to Stockholm but not special in any way and is within shooting range from one of those no-go zones.
This is fuelled by unlimited length mortgages with the extreme rate of around 1-2%.
The previously strong industrial economy is crumbling slowly.The largest companies listed at the Stockholm stock exchange are banks, not industrial export as for 15 years ago.
High tech jobs, like software development, are moved to neighbour countries like Estonua or Lithuania were the salary is 50%. Lower skilled jobs like call centres and backoffice jobs are going there too at a higher rate.
Is the government concerned? There are plans for an extra employment tax on banks, which will only make offshoring more attractive.
The unemployment rate is going down right now, but because there are 100,000 less young adults entering the job market than 5 years ago, unfortunately not because there are more jobs.
Meanwhile, the majority of the 1,000,000 immigrants (from the last few years) that could fill the vacancies will never find a job when they eventually enter the job market as many have almost no education, and are not skilled nearly enough for one of the most demanding job market in the world.
There are no plans whatsoever to address any of these problems as far as i can tell, except the emergency stop in the refugee policy, much too late.
Even discussing a few of them is considered racist, and instead both the government and media is doing a fair deal of spinning, like highlighting the 100 or so doctors and dentists from Syria that might get a certification within 10 years, which is as close to irrelevant to the problems as anything can be.
The central bank is balancing and trying to help the exports and the slow industry without blowing up the house market even more. The head of the central bank, Ingves, looks more and more like an angry gnome trying to highligh the risks, but no one listens.
So the downvoter is either a Swedish hipster in denial, or a troll.
Some news: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37161752
http://www.thelocal.se/20160404/teen-stabbed-in-street-flown...
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&art...
https://www.nrk.no/kultur/nrk-team-truet-og-kastet-stein-ett... (Norwegian - a Norweigan tv-crew is attaced in a suburb.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-go_area#Sweden (Claims 55 areas, the referenced source lists around 100 additional areas that are on the police's "watch list" whatever that means.)
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B6dert%C3%A4ljen%C3%A4tve... (swedish - Assyrian mafia in Södertälje)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/magnus-norell/the-muslim-broth... (Not really related to the crime, but also problematic due to the segregation that follows a muslim society within the society.)
The $100k USD figure is low, it's more like 10x that for a family sized house or apartment in or close to the city. People don't really buy apartments so much as rent them from the bank.
Look at the statistics from BRÅ (The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention) - the actual research and statistics, and the trends are clear.
I am not sure were you are going with the "extrapolate" bit, but are you perhaps living in Södermalm, central Stockholm and extrapolate yourself? I've got a nice job (in consulting actually) and a reasonably small loan for my overvaluated house, so I am far from bitter, but it does not change the macro trends.
I'm especially concerned about the inflated house prices, and the long term economical trends in the industral sectors, and the lack of any politicial will to even touch the problems.
You are right about the $100K It was a typo, I corrected it.
I found one reference to a attack in 2003 in London after a bit of searching. In Sweden, there has at least been 10 or so the last year, with one causalty - the 8 year old that was killed in his bed.
The rest have been explosions outsite apartments - I suppose it's a bit hard to throw a grenade through a window a few stories up. There was also an attack against some policemen in their car - I think they escaped by pure luck.
Go to visit the place...and it seems perfect. In a block of houses facing a nice yard and playground as opposed to the road, large space with a porch and balcony, plenty of room for our cats, etc. But I was suspicious. This place was meant to be so bad!
After getting some more opinions we went for it and can honestly say I have no idea what people were so afraid of. The neighborhood seems very safe - children play outside alone, it's quiet, each little house block area takes care of their yard, etc. It is a more multicultural area than say Södermalm, but that is a positive. The most "unsafe" thing I've seen here is groups of teens on walks or having a smoke in the evenings (I was wary of them at first, but have since learned they're harmless) or local toddlers leaving their toy cars underfoot in the shared yard.
I think I've might have seen some druggies in the area a few times more than I would expect but that was 15 year ago... But maybe those things stick.
It's definitely not one of those no-go zones.
When people think of Sweden as a "practical and policy driven place" it's a legacy of a couple of decades ago when the social democrats, for better or worse, were dominant in Swedish politics. Not necessarily because everything they did was good, but because they could trade reforms tit for tat with other parties so things got done. Today we have a situation more like in the US where there's two coalitions. With this political situation there isn't much that can be done without risking losing votes and giving the other coalition free reign to do whatever they want. So nothing gets done.
Of course like in other cities everyone has their pet theory of what to do, but I have yet to see one that is currently practical and politically viable.
There is one slight upside though. Stockholm isn't necessarily that different from an international perspective. You can still get short term contracts at international rates or better, especially with a commute of 15-30 minutes. It's mostly a relative issue based on culture, size and how things used to be.
75% of it for living < 5 mins away
50% of it for living < 10 mins away
30% of it for living < 15 mins away
25% of it for living < 30 mins away
20% of it for living < 60 mins away
15% for > 60 mins away
Also note that this is a potentially good time of year for someone to start working in Sweden. Since the tax rate is progressive and calculated on a yearly basis if you start working mid year you will this year pay the same rate as someone earning half your salary. At least in theory.
Wow that's insane. Experienced, talented Americans are making 4x or more than experienced Swedish SEs. I wouldn't be surprised if the Bay Area, NY, or LA was a bit more expensive but none the less that salary difference!
I found it difficult to rent a flat, and I got the impression that this was fairly common. Be prepared to hunt through adverts, and respond as soon as you can after its published. If you leave it much more than a day, you'll probably get ignored. My Swedish colleagues told me that even if there's a phone number on the advert, don't ring it, email instead. And reply in Swedish - have someone translate your reply for you. But be prepared for lots of frustration when house-hunting.
In general, language wasn't an issue - although I knew no Swedish, everyone spoke excellent English. Not just work colleagues, but coffee-shop waiters, supermarket clerks, bar staff, pretty much everyone I met.
Financially, there were few surprises. Housing was expensive, just like any other major city. Alcohol's a little pricier (taxes), and you can only buy it in a chain of government-run shops, which have limited opening hours…you can't just pop to the supermarket for a bottle of wine. As for the rest: coffee, eating out, groceries, were all on a par with western Europe prices.
Speaking of coffee, the culture of Fika is a great Swedish institution, and should be spread worldwide :-)
I love extremes of weather, so a very snowy winter and a gloriously hot summer were great for me, YMMV.
I ended up coming back to the UK, but some of my contracting colleagues from other parts of Europe decided to stay. They've since settled down in Stockholm, and easily found another project at the end of the contract.
Ericsson's taken a fairly hefty hit this year, and are planning another round of significant layoffs, which may have a short-term impact on the tech market around Stockholm.
Anyone here knows if it should or not in a situation like this?
If you enjoy the outdoors Stockholm has a lot of accessible nature just around the corner with large parks in central city as well as accessible and clean water ways as large parts of the city is located on islands. Within weekend trip range you have alpine skiing and wilderness in the northern parts of the country.
When it comes to job hunting there are a number of larger incumbents such as Ericsson that currently is struggling a bit. But there is also a number of larger "start-ups" such as Spotify, Klarna, King, iZettle, etc. These companies are very used to relocate new employees and have a structured process for everything from housing, to tax admin, even initial social activities.
Pretty much gives you roughly the things you asked above.
You can also post a question on their "Ask A Local" board, if you are up for more specifics... https://teleport.org/community/c/ask-a-local/stockholm/
- most of your friends will be other expats. Swedes, at least in Stockholm, do not seem very keen to open their social circle to you. Language is certainly a part of it, but there is a darker cultural side to it that neither myself or others have been able to crack.
- As others have said housing is a shit-show. Fortunately public transit is quick and makes long commutes tolerable.
- If you have a foreign-sounding name, then you will want to change it. Swedes love to play the multicultural card all over the place and virtue signal at every level, but facts are facts. Your CV/resume is passed over by recruiters and HR people if it not Swedish enough. Indian, Muslim, and African names go to the bottom of the pile or are never called. Seriously, take a Swedish name when you get here.
- Working in the tech sector, there is little incentive to learn Swedish. The amount of time it takes you to become proficient is not worth it. Worse, if you are dark-skinned and speak broken Swedish it only hurts you more socially and professionally. Best to keep it in English. Save Swedish for social things.
- Quality of life by many measures is high, but there is a depressive darkness here. Strangers don't chit-chat. I've never seen a subway car so full of people be so quiet. Everyone is silent, and that makes it incredibly lonely.
- Customer service sucks. I mean it is pitifully bad in Sweden. From restaurants to banks it seems that there is no training or appreciation for customers. This is where Americans really kick ass, and I wish Swedes could take a couple of notes here.
- There is no 24-hour culture. Strange that a place claims to be the capital of Scandinavia, but literally everything shuts down before midnight save a a couple of bars.
- Gypsies everywhere panhandling, but you are from EU -- so nothing new there.
- Drinking culture here is strange. People are absolutely hammered by 10pm
- The tech scene here is nascent and lacks the pay-it-forward attitude that you might find in the US, Berlin, or London. There is an American guy here named Tyler (@steepdecline) who has worked his ass off for 3+ years to make something happen. However, I fear that if/when he leaves, this scene will die. He might be a good resource to ping.
All in all, quality of life in Sweden is high (clean, healthcare, etc). However, there is a cultural darkness/sadness/loneliness that touches everything -- and I think Swedes would agree with me here.
If you are white sweden will be great, but if you are anything other than white you will be in a quite cold hell where people do not like you.