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ERICSSON CUTS

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‘It’s tough. Ericsson has been like a second home’

One in five Ericsson workers in Sweden will have to leave their jobs as a result of cuts announced by the telecoms giant on Tuesday.

Published: 4 October 2016 17:34 CEST
'It's tough. Ericsson has been like a second home'
Andraus Abdulahad has worked for Ericsson for 17 years. Photo: Björn Larsson Rosvall/TT

“It feels really tough. This has been like a second home,” Andraus Abdulahad told Swedish news agency TT.

He has worked at Ericsson's factory in Borås for 17 years.

“The information has been a bit vague. It doesn't feel like we've become much wiser about what's going to happen. But I had not expected it would be this hard,” he added.

The company, which currently employs more than 15,000 workers in Sweden, confirmed months of speculation in a press release on Tuesday morning, saying it would cut 3000 jobs at its hubs in Borås, Kumla, Gothenburg, Karlskrona, Linköping and Stockholm, as well as 900 consultants.

Borås and Kumla are expected to suffer the worst hits.

“We have alternatives to these destructive proposals. As we see it, the company risks losing its competitiveness if it gets rid of skilled employees,” said Andreas Brissman, the chairman of trade union IF Metall's local branch in south-western Swedish town Borås.

Ericsson's president and CEO Jan Frykhammar said earlier on Tuesday that the company was going through a “large transformation” from hardware to software. It has previously announced plans to be at the forefront of 5G wireless technology in Sweden's tech race.

He called it “a cure to secure Ericsson's endurance and in the long term secure the company's competitiveness.”


Ericsson CEO Jan Frykhammar. Photo: Maja Suslin/TT

Enterprise and Innovation Minister Mikael Damberg said it was a “difficult moment for employees and communities affected”, but welcomed that the company had vowed to continue to focus on its developments of software and future tech in Sweden.

“Ericsson could have chosen to put their 5G operations anywhere else on this planet, but chose to do it in Sweden. A different decision would have been very ominous for Swedish industry,” he said at a press conference, ahead of visiting Kumla on Wednesday to speak to affected workers.

The government on Tuesday appointed dedicated Ericsson coordinators to liaise with the company and the towns affected by the imminent layoffs, and said it would work to help those losing their jobs and attempt to bolster IT and telecommunications hubs across Sweden.

“Those who need it will get education and help to move on to other jobs,” said Damberg.


Enterprise and Innovation Minister Mikael Damberg. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

Ericsson also said on Tuesday that it would employ around 1000 engineers over the next three years.

But the company has gone through a turbulent period recently. At the start of the summer its shares dropped significantly after reports in a Swedish newspaper claimed revenue figures had been exaggerated.

Operating profits for the second quarter of 2016 were also well below expectations, leading to long-standing CEO Hans Vestberg being fired in late July.

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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