Husband offered a job in Stockholm - will I be able to find something?!
Jul 7th 2013, 2:08 pm
#1
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Husband offered a job in Stockholm - will I be able to find something?!
Firstly, hello! I have been reading this forum for a couple of weeks trying to get some good 'insider knowledge' on Stockholm!
My husband's job is moving to Stockholm, and we are seriously considering the move as it is a country that we have always been interested in.
I wondered if anyone had moved out with a partner with them having work and the other not?
I am concerned that I will find it impossible to find a job.
To be able to make the move, I will need to find a job before we decide on the move to ensure financial stability. How realistic is this? I have started applying for jobs today but we have a house to sell so we would not be in Sweden until mid October early November time. Am I searching / applying too early?
any help / hints / advice would be massively appreciated!
Thanks so much
My husband's job is moving to Stockholm, and we are seriously considering the move as it is a country that we have always been interested in.
I wondered if anyone had moved out with a partner with them having work and the other not?
I am concerned that I will find it impossible to find a job.
To be able to make the move, I will need to find a job before we decide on the move to ensure financial stability. How realistic is this? I have started applying for jobs today but we have a house to sell so we would not be in Sweden until mid October early November time. Am I searching / applying too early?
any help / hints / advice would be massively appreciated!
Thanks so much
Jul 8th 2013, 2:33 am
#2
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Location: Stockholm
Posts: 3
Re: Husband offered a job in Stockholm - will I be able to find something?!
Depends on what you do really. You can forget any "unqualified" jobs, as most of these have over 50 applicants per position and all of them speak Swedish.
What kind of jobs are you looking for?
What kind of jobs are you looking for?
Jul 9th 2013, 8:10 am
#3
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Re: Husband offered a job in Stockholm - will I be able to find something?!
I think it'll be tough to get work before you move here. I moved to Stockholm a month ago after a year of planning. Applied for many jobs from the UK without hearing anything back.
Since I have been here I have started to hear back from employers (still no job...YET!)
Its all about positivity. Its going to be tough in the short term but I'm confident I can get work, which will lead to a better future for me and my fiancée (and future family),
Its a risk, but why not? How many times will you be on earth? Why not experience it?
Since I have been here I have started to hear back from employers (still no job...YET!)
Its all about positivity. Its going to be tough in the short term but I'm confident I can get work, which will lead to a better future for me and my fiancée (and future family),
Its a risk, but why not? How many times will you be on earth? Why not experience it?
Jul 9th 2013, 8:32 am
#4
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Re: Husband offered a job in Stockholm - will I be able to find something?!
By the way, the forum on thelocal.se is a lot busier than this one for Swedish tips....but people are negative as hell so be careful!
Jul 9th 2013, 5:02 pm
#5
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Re: Husband offered a job in Stockholm - will I be able to find something?!
My son and his girlfriend are moving to Stockholm in August for ten months (from Norway) while she does some course or other, and he tells me they're having trouble finding a place to live - never mind a job for him. Any suggestions for accommodation?
Jul 9th 2013, 9:42 pm
#6
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Re: Husband offered a job in Stockholm - will I be able to find something?!
I waited in the line for 6 years to get a 29 sqm studio apartment in a suburb 20 mins from the city centre, and everybody told me how lucky I was.
My parents have been in the line for about 15-20 years and still can't get anything in the centre, at all.
Private landlords basically don't exist. The only option is sublets (can be found at blocket.se) and they are limited to 12 months. A typical sublet ad found on internet would have about 50 applications. Expect to show some kind of proof of income as well.
Whenever people moving here are told the rental market is hard, they'll reply saying something like "Yeah, but it's hard in London / New York / Any other big city as well". No, it's not. Not compared to Stockholm. People don't realise how bad it is until they actually get here.
In other major cities the price is the problem. Here you should consider yourself lucky should you even get the possibility to get something to pay for.
Found this post in another forum, explains it all pretty well:
You really don't have any clue what the rental market is like in Sweden. When we were looking for a place, my friends in the US had trouble understanding my problem. It's not like we couldn't find a decent apartment, we couldn't find ANY apartment here in Malmö, even a sublet (2:a hand). I talked to a lot Americans who were like: well it's hard to get an apartment in NYC too... If you have this opinion (like I probably did), you do NOT know what it's like here.
Last I read, the line in Stockholm is like 40 years or something like that. Otherwise it's almost impossible to get an apartment if you don't have connections and impossible if you don't have a job contract (regardless of how much money you bring with you). It's also more difficult than you expect to rent apartments from private owners.
A Danish friend of ours was looking to invest in property and offered to buy an apartment and rent it too us. After we started looking we found at that almost no (if not absolutely no) apartment building (co-op) associations allowed this and we couldn't do it. This type of set up is only possible if the investor is willing to buy an entire apartment building or a house.
For the companies that report it, in Malmö, each apartment that is advertised as for rent gets between 150-700 applicants. If they do contact you (don't expect to hear back for rejections), they've narrowed it down to about a dozen or more people that you have to compete with (think blond couples with steady jobs). We applied for one apartment that was available because it was terribly planned and they could charge extra for a bunch of unusable square meters: a two room for about 8.500:-. I asked if we would need anyone to sign a guaranty (borgen) and they assured me a deposit would be adequate. A few days later we got a request for a signature of a guarantor, which would typically be one's Swedish parents. We of course had no one to ask.
Be aware that I'm not talking about the heart of Malmö or the old city or any posh part of the city. I was basically looking for anywhere that wouldn't require an extra two hours a day of commuting through farmland. We looked everywhere from ghettos (they DO exist in Sweden) to very exclusive areas. You might have more luck in Stockholm because there is aparently a fairly large black market there if you're willing (able) to pay black, it's rather small in Malmö.
We (stupidly) assumed it would be like in Copenhagen where we moved from. There there are practically endless waits for rental apartments BUT private apartment owners can rent out and they often do at a close to market (sortof gray) rent. They can also rent for as long as they want, sublets in Sweden are usually limited to one year. It took us about 15 months to find a "1:a hand" contract. The last 5 months, I spent between 4-8 hours a day searching on the internet, calling and visiting companies looking for available apartments.
I wish I had known about this before moving.
Also be aware: people can and do take serious advantage of people desperately looking for a place to live, as were we.
Last I read, the line in Stockholm is like 40 years or something like that. Otherwise it's almost impossible to get an apartment if you don't have connections and impossible if you don't have a job contract (regardless of how much money you bring with you). It's also more difficult than you expect to rent apartments from private owners.
A Danish friend of ours was looking to invest in property and offered to buy an apartment and rent it too us. After we started looking we found at that almost no (if not absolutely no) apartment building (co-op) associations allowed this and we couldn't do it. This type of set up is only possible if the investor is willing to buy an entire apartment building or a house.
For the companies that report it, in Malmö, each apartment that is advertised as for rent gets between 150-700 applicants. If they do contact you (don't expect to hear back for rejections), they've narrowed it down to about a dozen or more people that you have to compete with (think blond couples with steady jobs). We applied for one apartment that was available because it was terribly planned and they could charge extra for a bunch of unusable square meters: a two room for about 8.500:-. I asked if we would need anyone to sign a guaranty (borgen) and they assured me a deposit would be adequate. A few days later we got a request for a signature of a guarantor, which would typically be one's Swedish parents. We of course had no one to ask.
Be aware that I'm not talking about the heart of Malmö or the old city or any posh part of the city. I was basically looking for anywhere that wouldn't require an extra two hours a day of commuting through farmland. We looked everywhere from ghettos (they DO exist in Sweden) to very exclusive areas. You might have more luck in Stockholm because there is aparently a fairly large black market there if you're willing (able) to pay black, it's rather small in Malmö.
We (stupidly) assumed it would be like in Copenhagen where we moved from. There there are practically endless waits for rental apartments BUT private apartment owners can rent out and they often do at a close to market (sortof gray) rent. They can also rent for as long as they want, sublets in Sweden are usually limited to one year. It took us about 15 months to find a "1:a hand" contract. The last 5 months, I spent between 4-8 hours a day searching on the internet, calling and visiting companies looking for available apartments.
I wish I had known about this before moving.
Also be aware: people can and do take serious advantage of people desperately looking for a place to live, as were we.
Jul 10th 2013, 12:06 pm
#7
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Re: Husband offered a job in Stockholm - will I be able to find something?!
So why the hell would anybody want to go there?
Jul 10th 2013, 3:25 pm
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Re: Husband offered a job in Stockholm - will I be able to find something?!
Anybody with money enough to buy either an apartment or a house will be fine and most probably live a decent life. Buying is the only way to avoid the insane rental market.
If you can't, well then I surely don't recommend it.
If you can't, well then I surely don't recommend it.
Jul 17th 2013, 2:34 pm
#9
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Re: Husband offered a job in Stockholm - will I be able to find something?!
Its a funny old place for sure. they have some spatial awareness issues i think. Its the 3rd largest country in Europe with one of the smallest populations. I dont understand this housing crisis, its just a tendency to create rules that never get changed. Even if they are not good ones. Sweden is ok if you don't plan too many changes in your life. There is something to be said for not even considering that the grass might be greener. I think that the majority of Swedes have a track in life and rarely deviate from it. So for those people there is no problem in the Swedish system. To come here to live is exasperating for that very reason. I often think that Sweden is like a large room with a lot of chairs and a sumptious buffet but all the chairs except for a couple have 'permanently reserved written' on them and if you have forgotten to bring your own cutlery you are not going to eat. You can look though. I live in the north of Sweden. The population density must be amongst the lowest in Europe but the neuroticism about parking is insane. If you put up a small parking lot in the absolute middle of nowhere and people were aware of it and it was full, I am sure they would go home rather than take the 'anarchist' approach of parking somewhere that didn't explicitly tell you that you could park there. Never has the phrase, 'There is a policeman inside us all' been so applicable. More like 'there is a petty and overly enthusiastic special constable inside us all'.
Jul 23rd 2013, 1:04 pm
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Re: Husband offered a job in Stockholm - will I be able to find something?!
I was previously looking at moving to Gothenburg or Stockholm, but because of company we will now be moving to Gothenburg.
I had a couple of colleauges who had family out in Sweden. One in Stockholm and one in Gothenburg. Remarkably both said the same information, which was also good as what each was saying was supported by the other.
I was offered a role, but my partner needed to look for work. She worked in the charity sector here and did no speak any Swedish. Long story short, both said it would be impossible for my partner to get a job without speaking Swedish, contact with Manpower via the company reinforced this. This has become less of an issue for us now, as the company has offered her a role too.
We now need to figure out the other big issue mentioned here, accomodation!!
Advise we recieved from those over there was to get the company to secure some sort of lease or sub contract, which is what we are trying to discuss at the moment.
Sorry if not useful, as its probably more useful from people who have actually taken the leap and can update from the otherside. But the feedback we had from those there was without speaking Swedish it would be very difficult, and would need to think about volunteering! All very good, but that wouldnt make living there realistic!
Will update on our progress!
I had a couple of colleauges who had family out in Sweden. One in Stockholm and one in Gothenburg. Remarkably both said the same information, which was also good as what each was saying was supported by the other.
I was offered a role, but my partner needed to look for work. She worked in the charity sector here and did no speak any Swedish. Long story short, both said it would be impossible for my partner to get a job without speaking Swedish, contact with Manpower via the company reinforced this. This has become less of an issue for us now, as the company has offered her a role too.
We now need to figure out the other big issue mentioned here, accomodation!!
Advise we recieved from those over there was to get the company to secure some sort of lease or sub contract, which is what we are trying to discuss at the moment.
Sorry if not useful, as its probably more useful from people who have actually taken the leap and can update from the otherside. But the feedback we had from those there was without speaking Swedish it would be very difficult, and would need to think about volunteering! All very good, but that wouldnt make living there realistic!
Will update on our progress!
