Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

JOBS

‘As a writer, getting inside the system is really tough’: My Swedish Career

Why travel to the other side of the world to meet like-minded writers when you could do it in Sweden? That's the logic behind Stockholm Writers' Festival, a new event held April 13th-15th. Its founder Catherine Pettersson talks to the Local about her writing and her hopes for the festival's first year.

Published: 22 January 2018 06:59 CET
'As a writer, getting inside the system is really tough': My Swedish Career
Catherine Pettersson. Photo: Tymon Hadrian Pigon Kunce/whiteboxstudios.se

Pettersson realized that there aren't many opportunities for English-language writers, editors, and agents to meet up in Sweden, where she moved to from Chicago twenty years ago, so she decided to create her own. She launched the Stockholm Writers' Festival, a three-day conference to help emerging authors on their way to publication, including through a literary prize for unpublished writers.

She gets her inspiration from similar events she has attended. “I am someone who understands that as a writer getting inside the system is really tough, and festivals and workshops and events really help a lot,” she explains. “They give you contacts, they give you the craft, they put you in touch with your people, so to speak. I feel like I've grown so much over the years just by attending festivals.”

But she always had to travel to attend these events: “The idea for me was: 'why do I have to keep travelling?' I was going to the US, attended a wonderful Midwest Writers' Workshop, which we modelled a lot of this event on, and I'll continue to travel to it, but I thought there should be something in this market, of all the markets, given how bilingual Sweden is.”

To organize the event, Pettersson is making use of her extensive network. It started with getting a venue: she used to teach marketing at the Berghs School of Communication and, thanks to her contacts, is able to hold the festival there.

Finding speakers is a similar story, she tells The Local: “We have people like Derek Miller, who's an amazing writer who lives in Oslo. Two of my writer friends were just big fans of his and had been writing to him and that's how we got the entrée there. Lola Åkerström, who wrote a book called Lagom, which has been a huge sort of zeitgeist nonfiction, one of our faculty members knew her. So, it's this really rich network.”

Catherine Pettersson at the Berghs School of Communication.
Catherine Pettersson at the Berghs School of Communication. Photo: Private

She sometimes took a more direct approach. “Katarina Bivald, who is a Swedish writer who has had a NYT bestseller in English, she's gonna be with us and I just contacted her on Facebook. And some of the agents… Brooks Sherman, I just walked up to him at Midwest Writer's Workshop and asked him if he would be interested in his client coming and he said 'yeah, and I'd be interested too'.”

That, to her, has been the easy part. The hard part? “Getting money!” she answers immediately.

“In some ways I understand why people who give culture grants don't want to fund a one-year startup, because they don't know if you can do it. So, our intent is to be successful the first year, and I think it will be very successful, and to scale up and build that confidence in the market so that the different grants that are available locally will come our way. That's the hope right now and I think that we need to have year one behind us.”

As a marketing professional, she has been a writer her whole career, but she has also written five novels since taking up creative writing 16 years ago. Though unpublished, her fiction has helped her find a community of writers.

“I started writing the typical first novel, which is kind of semi-autobiographical, and luckily found this amazing writers' group, which has been in Stockholm for more than 20 years, the Stockholm Writers' Group”, she explains. “I found the group through the American Women's Club. When it started, it was actually originated from the American Women's Club. It's not really about just women any more, it has since evolved, but that was the heart, or the origin story, of Stockholm Writers' Group.”

Established in 1994, the Stockholm Writers' Group meets every other week to critique each other's work. The number of core members is limited to 12, all English speakers. “Like the Apostles,” Pettersson jokes. The group has been not only a useful way to get feedback on her writing but also an invaluable source of support to her. 

When she joined the group in 2001, Pettersson had already been living in Stockholm for a few years. But her own Swedish adventure started on a flight between Chicago and Boston. On the plane, she started talking to the man sitting next to her.

“He asked 'can you guess where I'm from?' and I said Sweden, because I was on a media tour for a Swedish company, so I knew the accent”, she recalls. “He was really impressed, and we talked the whole time, and three days later we were on the same flight coming back. And that was my husband!”

They got married, but he had a daughter in Sweden and always intended his stay in America to be temporary, so they moved to Stockholm two years later. “My mother thought he was dating me to get a green card, so I guess I showed her!” Pettersson, who is now a Swedish citizen, says, laughing. “It's definitely my home. I love it here.”

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