Before we move into March (finally!)\u00a0and add a new month to the blog roll, let’s tie up some loose ends. The last post\u00a0on how to find an English speaking job in Sweden has\u00a0triggered some questions. First of all, is it even possible to get an English speaking job in Sweden without speaking or understanding Swedish completely? One reader saw the following typical patterns in Sweden:<\/p>\n
a) If you speak English (but no Swedish), it does not help you to get a job – any job! – \u00a0because every Swede speak English. And a native Swedish, too, so you are considered as handicapped, not desired.<\/em><\/p>\n b) Seeing the English language job ads in the newspapers\/on the websites you have the illusion that for these jobs you only need English. The truth is that for the 99% of the jobs native or very good Swedish is required. Why is it not mentioned and why is the ad in English? Well, they just take it for granted and don\u2019t even think that anybody else would apply. However they won\u2019t mention this little fact: you just get a very polite letter\/mail saying that \u201csomebody else was chosen, because he\/she had related experience, blablabla\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n c) Even if there is a job, where only English is needed (however this is a really rare case!!), you get a a lot of competitors: all the foreign job seekers who don\u2019t talk Swedish. You all are fight to get this one job\u2026plus there are some Swedes, too. So it doesn\u2019t help you either and most probably a Swede will get the job\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n d) Let\u2019s imagine, that you get the job, any job\u2026even if you have basic Swedish skills, you will use the English, as you are not able to speak at this level, at least not fluently (and it takes ages to say the easiest sentence, I know – been there, done that). So basically you don\u2019t learn anything during the job PLUS you will cause extra problem as you miss a lot of Swedish info and need extra translations PLUS you will feel very frustrated because you don\u2019t have any progress in the Swedish language as you only use English.<\/em><\/p>\n Another reader\u00a0was more positive\u00a0and gave some more advice to job seekers:<\/p>\n –\u00a0Jobsinstockholm<\/a><\/em>\u00a0is a website dedicated to English speaking professionals who are looking for jobs in other countries. The best feature about this website is that you can sign up for email updates when new jobs matching your criteria come in.<\/em><\/p>\n