Wednesday, April 3, 2013

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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2 comments:

  1. http://knowledge-thirstyprogrammer.blogspot.com/ from your CV is 404...just a heads up.

    also: Good Luck

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for letting me know! Decided to remove that link, wasn't active on that blog in ages anyway.

    ReplyDelete