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‘If you have an idea, go for it and just do it’

Pramodini Makehelwala Senevirathne from Sri Lanka is the founder and co-owner of Bloqmode, a company renting out the latest fashion pieces at affordable prices.

Published: 25 January 2016 07:05 CET
'If you have an idea, go for it and just do it'
Pramodini Makehelwala Senevirathne owns the company Bloqmode. Photo: Caroline Holt Photography

Pramodini Makehelwala Senevirathne, 33, moved from Sri Lanka to Sweden in 2011. Since then she has finished her master's degree in computer science at Stockholm University and started her own company, Bloqmode.

Like for so many others before her, it was love that first brought her to Sweden, when she married her partner who already worked in the country.

“He is also from Sri Lanka but he is working here, so after I got married I had to move here,” she laughs.

Bloqmode was born in one of her university classes, after the students were asked to work on a project and present it in front of the class. Seneviathne and her group of four suggested the idea of making quality dresses available to people on a budget, a business concept she had thought of for a long time.

“I’ve had this idea all the time in my mind,” Seneviathne tells The Local.

“After we presented this as our project idea everybody said 'wow this is really great, you should do this'.”

Once Senevirathne graduated in 2015, she and a friend thought about bringing the idea to life and formally launched Bloqmode. The concept is easy, customers either visit Bloqmode’s website or their premises in Kista, Stockholm, and rent a dress for three days or seven days. 

After the launch, Senevirathne's business partner and friend left Sweden. Instead she teamed up with her husband to keep the fashion start-up going.

“My friend, she went back to her country. Now me and my husband own the company,” she explains.

So far Bloqmode only delivers dresses within Stockholm, but Senevirathne reveals she has plans in the making to grow the company even further.

“I want to expand this through the whole of Sweden,” she says.

Senevirathne's role at the company is not only to handle the paperwork, but also to deal with practical things like orders and deliveries. She argues it is important to go for what you believe in and not let insecurities or the hurdles of fate stop you. 

“If you have a specific idea or whatever it is that you want to do, just go for it and just do it,” she says.

“I never thought I would be doing something like this. I mean I did my studies in IT and now I am doing my business,” she says.


“I've had this idea all the time in my mind” Seneviathne says about her business idea. Photo: Caroline Holt Photography 

Senevirathne enjoys living in Sweden and says the Swedish people she has met have been really nice and helpful. When it comes to the Swedish language, she says time rather than the language itself is the main obstacle.

“It’s not hard to learn actually. But the problem for me is that I don’t spend that much time learning it,” she laughs and explains that most Swedes know English well enough for her not to hurry her Swedish skills.

“Especially in Stockholm, people speak English really well.”

However, she has experienced one downside of the country, the job market. 

“It is really hard to find a job. Even though I have a master's degree here.”

Even though Senevirathne thinks the job market is tough in Sweden, she still believes it is a great place for people with passions they want to develop.

Innovation is booming in Sweden, she argues and many institutions are available to help you with your business and offer financial advice.

“It is a really good place to start you business.” 

Article by Emma Lidman

For members

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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