Language school is worth the cost! [Swedish progress update]

Learning Swedish was right up there among "Find a job" and "Rent an apartment" on my priority list since the day we got the news. A language school seemed like a good idea so I did some investigating and found a few that offered an introductory Swedish course right here in Ljubljana! One even replied to my inquiry so I've enrolled. The only problem: Classes started in a month's time...

When your world is about to change you don't sit around and wait! And I didn't: I started learning Swedish on my own. I tried mimicking youtube videos and using a Learn yourself Swedish product and it looked like I was making progress! While I wasn't going to be fluent any time soon, I was feeling quite good.

It all changed on Thursday, 25th of April. Not only did I have a job interview with Nokia on that day (more on that later), but my Swedish course started as well! Our very first lesson was scheduled for 18:30 and going there I was feeling quite smug. I thought it was going to be a short introductory lesson where the teacher will introduce herself, we will learn a few sentences I'd have already known and we will be on our way. Boy was I wrong!

Notes and study materials from the first ŠOLT lesson.

The first lesson was intense! It took the whole scheduled 3 hours within which we went from "Hej! Jag heter..." to pronouncing words like "Sjuksköterska" and finally to forming our own descriptions of a fictional character. We even got homework!

My take-home assignment included inventing a fictional character and describing him with as many adjectives I can think of. It should include most of what our lesson covered, namely where he is from, his marital status, what languages he speaks and what his job is. This is what I came up with:

Möta Oscar Svensson. Han är från Linköping. Han är förlovad och har inte barn. Oscar arbetar som busschaufför. Han talar svenska, engelska och lite danska. Han och hans sambo gillar att gå till teater men de aldrig tar bussen.

Long story short: I've learned a lot. I have a very competent teacher and I'm learning together with 5 peers including a reader of this blog (Zdravo Aleš!) who appears to be another Slovenian interested in Sweden. Now I am completely sold on language schools: if you're trying to learn a foreign language be sure to enrol in one!

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Making baby steps towards a finished thesis

Gotta love The PHD Comics, right?

I haven't yet finished my formal education: While I have been working at INDA for nearly 5 years I have also been studying Computer Science at University of Ljubljana. Officially I'm still a student!

With the project Sweden going on the question I hear a lot is: What about your degree? My intention was always to finish my studies and get a degree, but with the rigid bureaucracy of University of Ljubljana I can't graduate before the end of September, in spite my good intentions and time crunch. And that in combination with the fact that the lack of a degree isn't really hurting the job search process, means I'm in danger of dropping out!

Well I have decided not to let that happen! I here and now publicly announce my goal to graduate before 1st of October, 2013. With so few obligations left it shouldn't be that much of a challenge. If I make baby steps and do something about my thesis every week I should be there in no time!

I have two classes left, both of them due for completion at the end of this semester, but more importantly I still have to write the text part of my thesis. I have given my thesis some though and I have decided I'd love to do more research in one of my favourite fields of computer science: Soft Computing.

Warning: The next few paragraphs are more about computer science than they are about moving to Sweden. If that's not your cup of tea there is no shame in skipping them!

I have been fascinated by Genetics Algorithms since quite early in my academic career. Even though I didn't take a class on it since last academic year, my first attempts at solving problems with genetic algorithms date all the way back to my high school years.

I have to thank my friend and school mate Smily (who is doing some mighty impressive stuff of his own) for talking me into my very first introduction project, finding a linear equation for X using GA, that turned out to be heaps of fun. After that I used genetic algorithms for tackling the travelling salesman problem, and after that the project I'm submitting as my thesis.

A screenshot from my thesis project
NeuralCars

NeuralCars simulates a playground where agents (controlled by a artificial neural network) learn how to drive around a race track without human intervention. The process starts with a completely random weights in the feedforward neural network (10-8-8-2) but sure enough, given enough time selective breeding will create agents with impressive driving skills!

I've opensourced the project a while back, so you can check it out on Google Code. Compiled binaries are avaliable for download in case you'd like to compete against Skynet's getaway driver :)

So with the software part of the thesis nearly completed (my mentor did request a few changes) I just have to take the dive and start writing the text! Hopefully the pressure of public failure will keep my eye on the prize!

In other news I am being interviewed by Radio Sweden today! Thank you for creating enough buzz for the mainstream media to pick up on!

Can one get good at phone interviews?

On Thursday I had two job interviews and even though I think they both went reasonably well, I have a much better feeling about one. And the main difference? One was in person, the other was a phone interview over Skype (no video).

Not only did I have a phone interview, I had my first phone interview. That may strike you as odd, but according to my experiences phone interviews aren't really popular in Slovenia and I haven't worked for a company abroad before. All that is of course changing now when I'm looking for a job in Sweden.

I don't think that the interview went badly, but I couldn't get in the zone, I wasn't properly focused and I even caught myself making long sentences that must have confused my interlocutor. If I summarise: I just couldn't be myself.

I'm usually quite good at interviews, there is just something about talking about myself for an hour that I enjoy... And I often feel like I made a connection during the interview, not unlike the feeling you get when you've made a new friend.

Nothing pleasant like that happened this time though. And even though I know it is possible that it just didn't go as well as I've expected it too, I can't help but suspect the phone is to blame here. I felt annoyed during the pauses my interviewee made to write things down, and I couldn't shake the impression he was just following a script. It didn't feel like a real conversation.

Even though I never appreciated the idea of a video call, I'm quite sure it would make a world of difference this time.

Am I'm over-thinking this and is this just what the phone interviews are like? Are phone interviews just worse different than in-person ones? Do you feel you are a good phone interviewee? Any tips? Please respond in the comments!

Swedish is starting to sound familiar [Swedish progress update]

Whiteboards are essential! And mine is not just for
programming puzzles any more!

Ever since we've got the news my plan was to learn to speak and write Swedish. Because I'm swamped by my job seeking efforts (excuses excuses) I must admit that I haven't made much progress since my first try. But I have made some progress!

Since the last language related post I have enrolled in a local language school which runs a 30-hour beginner Swedish course. We haven't started with classes yet, we're hitting the books next Thursday, 25th of April.

Meanwhile I have received a copy of Complete Swedish package as a gift and it promises to get me from beginner level to "CEFR Level B2" as I master all of the eighteen lessons.

A gift I hope to put to good use!

I figure that with both of this tools at my disposal I'm all set for learning Swedish.

I must let you in on a secret: I have never actually learned a foreign language before. Even if English isn't technically my mothers language (my British Citizenship was granted due to my mother but we are both Slovenian born) I spoke it with members of my family as I child so I have no idea how the actual learning happened.

I didn't need to learn a third language in school, which means that I am now, for the very first time, learning a spoken language from scratch. But I'm not going to let a little thing like that stop me!

I'm happy to report that I have worked through Lesson 1 of the Complete Swedish package and I even solved all of the exercises, or Övningar as I like to call them, twice! The goal of the first lesson was to learn how to introduce yourself by forming simple sentences and start a conversation by asking basic questions.

With that in mind it is time for me to try and form a few of sentences on my own:

Hej! Jag heter David och min fru är heter Rebeka. Vi kommer från Ljubljana, Slovenia, men vi flyttar till Lund, Sverige. Vad heter du och var kommer du ifrån?

Unlike my previous go where I just read sentences aloud, this time I formed them completely on my own. Hopefully that made any sense!

I would love to practice my basic sentences so it would mean the world to me if you would answer in the comments! I plan on replying to all of your comments, in Swedish! Tack.

As a side note, you may have noticed that I am no longer a 23-year-old programmer. On Monday I turned 24 and it only took me a day to change the blog description :)

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The job hunt's pace is picking up! (Job progress update #2)

It has been a busy week, but thankfully it looks like my struggles are not in vain! My job search is picking up the pace and it's filling me with optimism for the project! I have now heard back from one company and got contacted by a few more thanks to this blog, so it is getting very exciting!

The week started early on Monday morning when I found the time to solve a programming test sent to me from MovieStarPlanet. They are a company based in Copenhagen and I've applied for a position there in the first few days of the operation GetAJob.

They've assigned me a programming test on Codility and I was fascinated by the tool. When you connect via a personalized address you are presented with one programming problem and you have 30 minutes to solve it using a programming language of your choice (C# for me, but plenty of others were supported, even some of the more exotic ones). I was very happy with it, it provided a test case and it allowed me to verify my code and even specify my own test data. In summary I loved the tool and I will gladly recommend it to any company that is hiring. If I have one complaint it is that the problem assigned to me was very basic, but I expect the customer sets the difficulty of the assignments.

Long story short, I heard back from MovieStarPlanet later in the week and they have offered me an interview. I'm expecting that to take place sometime in the middle of this week, so fingers crossed! The job description didn't include a lot of details and I would prefer to work in Lund, but even though I would like to be choosy of my future employer I am not turning down any opportunities just yet!

In other news I was contacted by a very kind producer/project manager from SimBin studios. She told me she stumbled upon my blog and luckily enough her company has a vacancy that seems tailored to my CV. She has forwarded it to her colleague and within a few minutes I received an email from him describing the company and the position.

SimBin is a game studio focused on race-simulator games and they have even invited me to try their free-to-play game RaceRoom Racing Experience on steam. I gave it a try and it is heaps of fun! It sure looks like a great project to work on!

The position at SimBin does look perfect for me and I have high hopes for that one. The only problem is that they are based in Lidköping, which is a long way away from Lund. I'm told they do allow telecommuting and while I am not a big fan, the opportunity looks too good to pass up! I'm expecting a programming test some time next week.

This blog is credited for another email I've received from an representative of Together Gaming, a game consulting company. She too was very friendly, but I can't say much about the conversation. I have a hunch my reply has told her I'm not the developer she is looking for.

The most surprising was a call I received from CosyLab, a Slovenian company that is working within several countries including Sweden and they happen to have a project going in Lund. It is a company working on the big physics projects across Europe and I'm sure you will agree: that sounds impressive! As good as it sounds, the recruiter I spoke to did tell me that they normally wouldn't send a freshly hired programmer abroad and I'm not to expect too much. I'm waiting to hear from him in the next week after he presents my special case on their staff meeting.

As you can see I have had a lot of encouraging conversations in the previous week. Of course a lot of work is yet to be done and our project is still set up on shaky foundations until I get a job offer. But the situation does look brighter and brighter! Getting a job is of course just the first hurdle, but I feel accomplishing that will give us the energy to overcome every other.

Are you looking for a back-end C# programmer? I would love to hear from you! Send me an email!

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Slovenians know Sweden?

The flag of Sweden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have a confession to make: until my wife-to-be voiced her fascination with Sweden I wasn't really aware of it. Sure I could find it on a map, but other than that and Ikea I really didn't know much about it.

That is why it struck me as odd that now when Sweden is on my mind all the time I'm finding that my peers know stuff about Sweden. Slovenians have been to Sweden! My friends have been to Sweden! While I'm sure there is some selection bias at work here, the number is still higher than what I would have ever expected.

It turns out one of my friends (and a colleague from the Amsterdam project I worked on in 2011 and 2012) has taken part in a student exchange program and has lived in... Malmö! And another one was in Gothenburg. Both had the time of their lives and are eager to share what they have learned about the local culture.

Even last night, when I was enjoying a well earned pint after a very successful Ingress run, I've bumped into a friend and he introduced me to another adventure seeking student who has spent a couple of months in Sweden, he too as a student exchange participant.

An epic adventure awaits!
(Photo credit: Expedition Sverige)

The list goes on and on: A fellow Slovenian twitter user @vanja who was kind enough to retweet my link is living in Stockholm. And yesterday I was delighted with a call from a Slovenian company Cosylab saying they have seen my blog and happen to have a job opportunities in Lund!

It excites me that I'm finding other people who have experiences with Sweden and are willing to share their experiences. With each success story I hear and with each fond memory of Sweden that is shared with me I feel more confident that we're going to make it and have a blast while doing it!

As I've said many times I'm looking to absorb all the knowledge so I'll have a fighting chance in Sweden. So please tell me: have you been to Sweden? Share your story! Please get in touch via Comments/Email/Google+.

Learning about the Swedes

Saturday is usually a reading day in the Božjak household and I thought this would be a great opportunity to learn about the Swedes. I had an idea to ask Reddit for a book that describes the Swedes in a humorous, Bill-Bryson-style, manner.

Reddit's /r/sweden came up with The Xenophobe's Guide to the Swedes and boy oh boy does it deserve every up-vote it got! It was such a great read I read it cover to cover in just two immensely entertaining chunks!

Now, before you start investing your time on a perfect argument let me just say: I KNOW! The book is full of stereotypes, over-generalizations and anecdotes that while funny don't mean anything in real life. But that's exactly what I wanted, not because I would want material to make fun of the nation I'm trying so hard to join, but because it's stories like this that make the nation seem real to me. No nation is perfect and the ability that one of your own countrymen can compose such a funny and insightful book makes me like you that much more!

In the book I have learned many great things about Sweden that are just brilliant  Who could have thought of founding a religion that worships information and thus its focus is to distribute it far and wide, no matter what copyright labels are attached to it. Apparently the Swedes did and now if a member of the Copymism Church were to be prosecuted for copyright infringement she could allege religious persecution. While I'm not sure that would work, I love the ingenuity!

There is one anecdote from the guide that stuck with me the most and I simply must share it with you. But for it to make any sense you have to know that while here in Slovenia where the hostess of a dinner party will insist every last bite of the food must be eaten, it is quite different in Sweden. Apparently when hosting a dinner the host is expected to prepare a bit more food than the guests are likely to eat. If all of the main course gets eaten, it is a sign that the host didn't prepare enough of it.

So on a typical dinner party the hostess prepared amazing Swedish meatballs and one was left on the serving plate. Even though all the guests were craving for it no one would take the last one out of respect to the host. But then while preparing the pudding a short-circuit occurred and the lights went out and a few seconds later a terrible scream echoed across the room. A torch was quickly found and it's light revealed one adventurous guest with a meatball on his fork and 5 forks stabbed in his forearm!

I have had a great time learning about the Swedes and am now even more excited about the move. Hopefully I will get a reason to visit your country soon (a job interview would be nice) and experience all this first hand!

Do you have any good anecdotes to share? Or another great book to recommend? Please get in touch via Comments / Email / Google+ !

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Job progress update #1

It has been quite an eventful day and luckily I have something to report!

Since my last post I have applied to several more job openings and this morning I have received a very first reply! Unfortunately fluent Swedish was a mandatory requirement for that job, so I have had to apologize to the recruiter for wasting his time and move on.

But even that first rejection has lifted my spirits a bit. At least I had proof someone out there was reading my applications and it wasn't all in vain. I was really pleasantly surprised by my interlocutor's friendliness. He even invited me to try again after I improve my Swedish. Thank you softhouse.se!

Later I have received an reply almost immediately after I've submitted my application. I must have received the response inside an hour - I was quite impressed! This one looked more promising, they have even asked me if I would be interested in solving an assignment to prove my skills (I always am!) and I was getting excited! Sadly it wasn't meant to be, it turns out that the job was in Stockholm and not in Malmö as I had thought. Even so it was nice to see that there are companies in Sweden that are willing to hire a developer who doesn't speak Swedish. Now I know GPSGate is out there, and hopefully there are others as well!

And when I had thought the business day was over I have received a call (yes, on the phone!) from a French recruiter. Sadly I have had to turn him down because I am only looking for a job in Sweden and not anywhere in Europe, but even that call came with an interesting opportunity. It turns out that the gentleman was from ALTEN and that they have offices in Lund as well! I have my fingers crossed for any vacancies there.

Overall I think it was a very successful day. I haven't expected many developments so early on and even though I haven't had an actual success yet, I feel optimistic!

As always I would appreciate any insight or advice you might have to offer. Please, get in touch!

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The job hunt begins!

If I am any judge this blog has had a very successful launch: blogger tells me that it has been viewed over 4000 times in less than a week (and only about half of those were my mother). All the commenters, and generally everyone I spoke to, has been very supportive and have put my mind at ease. Many barriers have since turned into challenges just waiting to be conquered. But the big one, the ever present boogie man is still always there, growing somewhere in a dark corner of my subconsciousness...

How do I get a job in Sweden? Surely it is impossible?!

This has always been a worry, ever since my fiancé and I have decided we are going to give Sweden a chance to give us a chance. It was one of the reasons I've started this blog in the first place: to meet so many of you, breathtaking internet people, that just because of the law of large numbers someone was going to offer me a job. I still think that is a good plan, but in the mean time I can't stay idle!

That's why I've visited my favourite computer science professor the other day. He has been my mentor several times in the last couple of years and he had been kind enough to write me a recommendation letter before. So I paid him a visit and told him about my plans and that it all boils down to one key piece of the puzzle. The job. Luckily Andrej Brodnik, PhD has a very optimistic character and he made it sound so easy. I was to send him my CV and all will be well.

So last night I sat down and, for the first time in nearly five years, worked on my resume. After hours of tweaking, fact checking, certificate-finding blaze I was done - you can see the result in the right-hand sidebar. When I was finally satisfied I sent it off to my professor. And then I decided to search LinkedIn for a job on my own. And with that one action, the optimism I've caught off my professor has fled and the boogie man had something to fed on once again.

I've submitted my application to a few places, but I was a bit underwhelmed with the amount of jobs out there. I had such high hopes for Careers 2.0, but apparently Swedes aren't big on it. Only a few companies were using it to look for help and those are all the way in Stockholm. Several other vacancies looked promising, but flawless Swedish was required. Now I know this will be a long, uphill battle.

From right now that's what all my efforts are focused on. I simply must find a job before 1st of July. Of course I will continue with my Swedish lessons, but I now know what my bull's eye is!

Do you have any advice? Do you know about a job forwarding service that is popular in the south of Sweden? An email address of a recruiter that could help me out? Do you work in a .NET shop or perhaps you know someone who is hiring?

Most importantly of all, do you think there is something essential I could do to increase my odds in Sweden?

I would love to hear from you! Comment this post, write me an email and I will gladly soak up all the knowledge you have to offer!

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Quitting my job... was tough!

On Friday I bit the big one and met with my current boss. The agenda for the meeting: Project Sweden.

It was a hard step, but it had to be done!

This was the hardest thing I have had to do for the project so far. I have been working for INDA for 4.5 years now and I like it here. I like the company, I like their vision and what they are achieving. I love the fact that we are company small enough that everything and anything can be personal. I like that they treat their employees well and that there is definitely a friendship component in all our relationships.

So I've met with my boss and told him the story I've told you. My fiancée's life wish was to move to Sweden and all the hard work has paid off - she was accepted to Lund University and we will be leaving the country in a few months. I've finished with a firm conclusion: I will have to stop working here and find a new job.

I'm leaving because of a fundamental
life choice.

I knew this would be problematic. Loyalty to my employer was the one reason I've hesitated when my significant other suggested moving abroad. I have taken over a significant chunk of our projects in nearly half a decade I was working there and I feared I simply couldn't leave our small company without inflicting damage.

In our workspace everyone is "in charge" of his own turf. In hindsight it's not the wisest of arrangements, however it did make us employees feel special. At least for me it is a great feeling to wake up and go to work every morning when you know you are the master of your own domain. I know it worked on me, I was way happier and I'm sure it made me better at my job. It made me proud! Unfortunately this management style only works until someone has to go... But I digress.

In the end I had a great talk with my boss. He understood I wasn't leaving because I wasn't happy with my position or compensation, I was leaving because of a fundamental life choice. The friendship component in our relationship really helped. Even though things are going to be tougher for the company he assured me there were no bad feelings and he even promised me he will talk to some of his Swedish contacts about me and my situation. In return I promised to stay in touch after the move and lend a helping hand if the need arises - something I've had in mind all along.

The meeting was tough, but I dare call it a success. If I learned anything is that a great relationship pays off. I think the ability to make friends easily is one of my better qualities and I hope I will find use of it in Sweden.

How do you think I did? Do you think I could have done better, or do you have a relevant story to share? Please respond in the comments!

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