Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
MY SWEDISH CAREER

JOBS

‘Moving to Sweden was my quarter-life crisis’

He hates the cold and loves making money. So what exactly is 28-year-old American Greg Clayman doing in freezing, high-tax Stockholm? The Local's Maddy Savage finds out for this week's My Swedish Career profile.

Published: 21 December 2015 06:42 CET
'Moving to Sweden was my quarter-life crisis'
Greg on a trip to Gothenburg in west Sweden. Photo: Private
 
Clean-shaven and wearing a crisp dark red shirt along with a wide, white smile, Clayman is about as far away from the stereotype of a heavy metal fan as you can get. Yet it was his taste in what he describes as “really shitty music” that first brought him to Scandinavia in 2014.
 
While on vacation from a communications startup in California, he dragged his then girlfriend along to the Rockstad festival in Falun in central Sweden as part of a whirlwind of Nordic tourist hotspots. He fell in love with the country's green, clean capital along the way.
 
“I just really liked it out here, and being in my late twenties and having kinda that 'quarter-life crisis', I was like 'this is the chance that I have to move',” he explains.
 

Greg enjoys Sweden's outdoor lifestyle. Photo: Private
 
Eight months later, the US graduate had landed a job as a recruiter for online payment firm Klarna, one of Sweden's leading tech companies. 
 
“I was at a startup before this and there were 10 people when I started and 20 people when I left, and I wanted to be in a place growing a lot faster than that,” says Clayman, who previously worked in San Fransisco and Los Angeles.
 
His dreams came true after he sent a speculative email to a recruitment manager at Klarna, who got back in touch when a vacancy came up shortly afterwards. Clayman is among 540 people hired by the Swedish firm in 2015, which currently has 1,300 people on its books, after launching a decade ago. 
 
Now, he's helping to recruit the next generation of top talent for the Nordic business, and says he's loving almost every minute of it.
 
“It's a payments company. So it's not sexy like Spotify for example. But the thing is, what we are doing here is really, really unique and revolutionary for the payments industry. It really is disrupting online payments,” Clayman argues.
 
 
Klarna's technology is designed to help people to buy products quickly but pay up later, without the hassle of having to fill in rows of personal data or registering the card they plan to use. The company can approve customers based on a tiny amount of information, such as an email and delivery address, which is then used to trace their credit history. Only once the products bought online have been shipped and received, does the buyer have to pay an invoice.
 
“It's quick and clever and secure,” argues Clayman, clearly used to promoting the company's message.
 
But he is refreshingly open when discussing his own payment by Klarna, admitting that he took a “massive, massive pay cut” when he joined the firm in April and sometimes still longs for the Silicon Valley bubble he was initially so desperate to break out of.
 
“The biggest physical possession I miss is my car. I had an awesome car in the bay area, that was like the coolest thing I will ever own,” he says, lamenting the loss of his Mercedes SLK 350.
 
“Now I walk to work in the freezing cold,” he jokes.
 

Greg's old car, a Mercedes SLK 350. Photo: Private
 
However the former communications student, 28, says he is thriving in Klarna's working environment, which provides regular opportunities to meet and socialize with staff members hailing from more than 40 different countries.
 
“What's great about Klarna is that the average age is 31. Everyone I work with is awesome. And that's what they told me when I interviewed: 'we don't have any douchebags on the team', and so I was like 'cool, I get to be that guy now' Ha!”.
Clayman's goal for the New Year is to grow his network, candidly admitting that he currently has “no life outside of work”. The recruiter suggests that this is mostly due to putting in “very long hours” in order to prove himself in his new role. However, he is also incredibly vocal about his struggle to get along with Swedes.
 
“In the US if I go to a bar and watch an Amercican football game – which I would do by myself if my friends weren't available – I could meet people there and talk to them about things,” he explains.
 
“People just aren't super friendly here. You can tell the Swedes that I don't think they are friendly,” he laughs.
 
In the meantime, the former university track and field coach says he is filling his rare spare time with running, cycling, ice skating and dating and remains “super happy” he took the gamble to live and work in Stockholm.
 
However, Clayman admits that his opinion could easily change once he's seen out his first winter. He hates the cold so much that as a student he transferred from US Ivy league college Brown to Pepperdine University in Malibu after just one year, all because he couldn't cope with the freezing temperatures.
 
“I think yesterday was about the coldest weather I have ever been in,” he says, slightly nervously.
 
“It's getting cold and I don't know if I am mentally or physically prepared for it right now!”
For members

READER INSIGHTS

How to find a job in Sweden: Five tips from those who’ve been there, done that

The Swedish job market poses unique challenges for newcomers. The Local's readers share their best tips for cracking the career code.

Published: 10 April 2024 11:32 CEST
Updated: 13 April 2024 15:50 CEST
How to find a job in Sweden: Five tips from those who've been there, done that

Network, network, network!

A statistic that often gets tossed around is that seven out of ten jobs in Sweden are obtained through personal connections, and there’s no doubt that a good network is crucial to your job hunt, making the labour market extra challenging for newcomers to the country.

In fact, networking was the main tip mentioned by The Local’s readers.

“The job market is quite hot in Sweden, and talent is in short supply. People hiring do not have a lot of time to find the right talent, and tips from friends, colleagues and former colleagues are the way to first, find out organisations are hiring, and secondly, get your CV on the short list,” said Kyle, a Canadian reader who works in innovation management in Gothenburg.

“If you are going for a major employer like Volvo, network gets you in the door, as HR does not have much to do with hiring… the hiring managers do all of it and have no time, due to the insane number of consensus meetings. If you are looking for smaller organisations, they have even less time to find people, and networking is their primary way to find talent,” he added.

NETWORKING IN SWEDEN:

Some of the networking tips readers mentioned were going to job fairs, getting an internship to help you establish connections in your preferred field, joining clubs (this could be anything from your local gardening association to meetups for coders, but focus on clubs that may be popular among people working in your chosen field), and drawing on your organic network of friends, neighbours and others.

Don’t neglect the groundwork

The saying “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” is getting worn out (and people may look at you funny if you turn up to interviews in a Batman suit), but there’s truth to the notion of making sure you know what you want – and preparing for it.

In other words, don’t wait for a job ad to appear before you start to customise your CV and figure out what skill set you need. Create your CV now so that you’re ready to tweak it to your dream job – you could even have a general look at job ads in your field to see what requirements are needed. And don’t forget to spruce up your LinkedIn profile so that it fits with your career goals.

“I believe that several factors contribute to successfully landing a desirable job in Sweden. It’s essential to prepare to meet the requirements beyond just having a university degree. Many individuals realise these requirements only after completing their studies when they start searching for a job, which can be too late,” said Adnan Aslam from Pakistan, who works as a food inspector.

“I recommend identifying the job advertisements for positions you aspire to hold in the future and then preparing for those requirements during your studies. For me, acquiring a basic level of proficiency in the Swedish language and obtaining a Swedish driving licence were crucial. I pursued these goals during my studies and was able to secure a desirable job before graduating,” he added.

READ ALSO:

Felipe Cabral even has a GPT assistant trained on his own CVs and old cover letters, and said the set-up only takes ten minutes if you already have your documents. “With that in place, you can give instructions like: Read this job description and create a tailored version of my CV and letter for it. (…) Remember to always review and ask it not to create data aside from your documents.”

Be flexible and ready to adapt

Moving to a new place inevitably means having to learn not just the practicalities such as how to write a CV or which websites to use to look for job openings, but also learning how to navigate a new culture with all its unspoken expectations.

Swedish workplaces are generally less hierarchical than many other countries, but that doesn’t mean you can say whatever you want whenever you want without anyone raising an eyebrow. Swedes are usually direct, but be careful of being too abrasive or boastful: raising your voice, even during a spirited argument, or banging your own drum to show off your skills may not go down well.

“Talk, deliberate, complain like a Swede and you’ll come across like you know what the job entails, so your trustworthiness increases,” said an Indian data analyst who preferred to remain anonymous.

“Office politics are just as strong in Sweden as anywhere else. The flat hierarchy is deceiving as social hierarchy is enforced quite a bit in that lack of formal hierarchy. Take your time in learning these dynamics wherever you work before revealing your talent and capabilities. Expect those internal politics to happen, and they won’t hurt so much when they do,” said Kyle, the Canadian reader in Gothenburg.

This article about Swedish office politics may be useful.

Stay true to yourself

Adapting to your surroundings is one thing. Completely changing who you are is another.

For one thing, your happiness is as important as your career progression, and for another, your foreignness need not be an impediment: it’s also a skill that sets you apart from the rest. It means you have unique experience, and also, in the right setting, provides an opportunity to sometimes violate those social rules we mentioned above, because people assume you will, anyway.

“Trust is key. Build trust in your network, work with integrity. It’s OK to violate jantelagen if you are maintaining integrity. Sometimes your outsider and more honest/open opinion will burn bridges, especially those that may feel threatened by talent. But it will build trust with other colleagues who see it as brave and more trustworthy to work with,” said Kyle from Canada.

Hunker down for the long haul

We don’t want to scare you, because there are plenty of examples of people who quickly find their dream job in Sweden and settle into their new workplace, enjoying perks such as long summer holidays, generous parental leave and the famous work-life balance.

But if you do find it tougher than you expected: know that you’re not alone.

Several readers who responded to the survey said they were still trying to find a job in Sweden.

“I found jobs all over Europe but not here. They say they have a lack of experienced senior engineers but the don’t seem to be doing much to solve this,” said a Brazilian in Gothenburg.

A reader from Bangladesh said she was “at a loss” as to how to make a career change from her current AI role in Stockholm, despite many years of experience as an IT project manager.

“Over the past 18 months, I’ve submitted over 600 applications to various organisations. Unfortunately, despite being overqualified for some positions, I’ve faced rejections at every turn, from both large and small companies. The job market here, especially for foreign-born women, feels overwhelmingly challenging,” she said, adding that the struggle had impacted her mental health.

The Local has on several occasions reported on foreign residents’ struggle to get a foot on the Swedish job ladder, with many facing hurdles such as employers’ unfamiliarity with international degrees, discrimination, or a lack of network that can provide paths into a company.

So during the job hunt, don’t forget to care for yourself. Share your concerns with fellow job-seekers, ask for help and join networking groups – this is good not just for creating new contacts, but also in terms of your social well-being and meeting people who are in a similar situation.

And finally, as one British reader in Stockholm advised, keep looking: “Be open-minded with the opportunities that present themselves. It isn’t an easy market to enter and doesn’t feel inclusive.” But he added, “don’t give up”.

SHOW COMMENTS