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‘Swedes have a different kind of creativity’

A space where global meets local, where people come together to make both the world and their own neighbourhood a better place – such was the dream of two international students living in Sweden two years ago. Here, they tell The Local how they are on their way to making it happen.

Published: 1 March 2015 21:08 CET
'Swedes have a different kind of creativity'
Joshua Ng and Julieta Talavera in Malmö. Photo: Private

Joshua Ng, 22, and Julieta Talavera, 26, have lived in places as diverse as Malaysia, Bahrain, Buenos Aires, England and New York. But for these two cosmopolitans, Malmö in southern Sweden ticks all the boxes.

“It's one of the most exciting places I've ever lived,” says Julieta.

The two international relations students got the idea of creating a pop-up space for social entrepreneurs and grassroot movements when they met in class at Malmö University and discovered they had both faced similar problems when they first moved to Sweden to study in 2012.

“My first impression was that Malmö seemed like a cool city, but it was a bit difficult to connect with what was going on. The university was very much a closed bubble and it felt like we weren't connected to the city. So we decided to start up a meeting place for people like us,” said Joshua.

Together they created 'Connectors Malmö'. They registered as a study circle with Folksuniversitetet (a Swedish organization for adult education) where they would meet to talk about personal projects, share ideas, give feedback and organize inspirational talks. But through word of mouth, it grew.

“There was clearly a need for this in Malmö. We were soon joined by students from Lund, Malmö and Copenhagen in that little Folkuniversitetet room,” says Joshua.

“It developed into a networking event. People came and they all got to know each other. During this time we were able to build a network of people,” says Julieta.

But there were obstacles along the way, including overcoming language and cultural barriers to get Swedes involved.

“Eventually we discovered that if we gave the event a structure we attracted more people, instead of just inviting them to walk in and do whatever they wanted. Swedes like to know what’s going on, that ‘okay, in 20 minutes there’s going to be a break for fika’,” says Julieta.

“Swedes have a different kind of creativity, a calm creativity,” says Joshua and laughs.


The Pop Up Space in Malmö's Persborg area. Photo: Joanna Zhang

Now, the pair behind Connectors Malmö has created the world's first crowd sourced living room. The idea is called The Pop Up Space, developed with the aid of the city of Malmö, housing association MKB and local neighbourhood Persborg, to find solutions to integration challenges and promote urban projects.

“We're trying to see if we can include the neighbourhood into the process of changing that neighbourhood. We act like a bridge between the neighbourhood and the creative and international community,” says Julieta.

“It is a very bottom-up approach, part of a bigger project which is designing a system for grassroot movements, entrepreneurs, artists and industries to work together to solve problems,” adds Joshua.

In practical terms, their aim is to create a place where social entrepreneurs and local residents can come together and work to improve the neighbourhood, and ambitiously, the world. But it is completely participant-driven – every week users can vote on how they want to use the space.

Essentially, it is a place for sharing ideas to help local residents have a direct impact on their neighbourhood, and the two students cannot imagine a better place for making this venture happen than Malmö, Sweden.

“The whole start-up community is incredibly unique to Malmö. It’s all about sharing and a lot is offered for free. When I came to Sweden I had no money at all; if it hadn’t been for all free events being offered by the city I would never have reached the place where I am now and none of this would have been possible,” says Julieta.

“I can’t think of a city anywhere in the world that provides so many opportunities to different actors,” Joshua agrees.

The Pop Up Space pilot project is set to run until April. But Joshua and Julieta hope to be able to extend the concept after the summer, and neither has any plans to leave any time soon.

“I could do with a few more years in Sweden,” says Joshua and is immediately backed up by Julieta.

“I don’t want to leave now, this is home for me.”

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WORKING IN SWEDEN

‘Reassess your cultural background’: Key tips for foreign job hunters in Sweden

Many foreigners living in Sweden want to stay in the country but struggle to find a job, despite having relevant qualifications. The Local spoke to three experts for their advice.

Published: 7 May 2024 09:00 CEST
'Reassess your cultural background': Key tips for foreign job hunters in Sweden

One international worker who found it hard to land her first job in Sweden is Amanda Herzog, who eventually founded Intertalents in Sweden with the aim of helping other immigrants find work in the country.

Herzog originally came to Sweden to study at Jönköping University and decided to stay after graduating.

“I thought it would take three months, maybe six months to find a job, I was prepared for that,” she told The Local during a live recording of our Sweden in Focus podcast held as part of Talent Talks, an afternoon of discussions at the Stockholm Business Region offices on how to attract and retain foreign workers in Sweden.

“What happened was it took over 13 months and 800 applications to actually get a job in my industry, within marketing.”

During this time, Herzog was getting multiple interviews a month, but was not getting any further in the process, despite showing her CV to Swedish recruiters for feedback.

“They were baffled as well,” she said. “By the time I landed my dream job, I had to go outside of the typical advice and experiment, and figure out how I actually can get hired. By the time I got hired, I realised what actually works isn’t really being taught.”

‘Reassess your cultural background’

Often, those who come to Herzog for help have sent out hundreds of CVs and are unsure what their next steps should be.

“My first piece of advice is to stop for a second,” she said. “Reassess your cultural background and how it fits into Sweden.”

Herzog, for example, discovered she was interviewing in “the American way”.

In the US, when asked to tell an interviewer about yourself, you’d be expected to discuss your career history – how many people have you managed? Did sales improve while you were working there? – while Swedes are more likely to want to know about you as a person and why you want to work in a specific role for their company in particular.

“A lot of people don’t know this, so imagine all of the other cultural things that they’re doing differently that they learned in their country is normal,” Herzog adds.

“Just start with learning, because it could be that you don’t need to change very much, you are qualified, you just need to connect with the Swedish way of doing things.”

 
 
 
 
 
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Networking is important

“Don’t hesitate to reach out for help and guidance,” said Laureline Vallée, an environmental engineer from France who recently found a job in Sweden after moving here nine months ago with her partner, who got a job as a postdoc at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

“You tend to insulate yourself and consider yourself not capable, but you’re not less capable than you were in your home country, you just need to explain it to the employers.”

Another tip is to network as much as you can, Vallée said.

“Networking is really important here in Sweden, so just go for it, connect with people in the same field.”

This could be through networks like Stockholm Akademiska Forum’s Dual Career Network, which helps the accompanying partners or spouses of foreign workers find a job in Sweden, or through other connections, like neighbours, friends, or people you meet through hobbies, for example.

Make a clear profile for yourself

Another common issue is that applicants are not presenting themselves clearly to recruiters, Stockholm Akademiska Forum’s CEO, Maria Fogelström Kylberg, told The Local.

“If you’re sending 600 applications without an answer, something is wrong. We have seen many people looking for jobs working in a supermarket, and the next application is a managing director post,” she said. “You have to decide ‘who am I? What do I want to do?’, you have to profile yourself in a clear way.”

This could be editing down your CV so you’re not rejected for being overqualified, or just thinking more closely about how you present yourself to a prospective employer.

“Which of my skills are transferable? How can I be of use to this company? Not what they can do for me, but what problem can I solve with my competence?”

Job hunters should also not be afraid of applying for a job which lists Swedish as a requirement in the job description, Fogelström Kylberg said.

“Sometimes if I see an ad for a job and I have a perfect candidate in front of me, I call the company and say ‘I have a perfect candidate, but you need them to speak Swedish’, they then say ‘no, that’s not so important’. This is not so unusual at all so don’t be afraid of calling them to say ‘do I really need perfect Swedish?’”

Listen to the full interview with Maria Fogelström Kylberg, Amanda Herzog and Laureline Vallée in The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

Interview by Paul O’Mahony, article by Becky Waterton

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