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Tag archives for resume

12 Tips for Your Swedish Cover Letter

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stacks of papers

Most resumes are not sent on paper anymore but regardless of the format, send your resume and cover letter to everyone you can think of! Photo by: FeatherTar (CC BY 2.0)

 

In my last post I wrote about writing a CV or resume in a Swedish-friendly way. This time, I will offer some tips on writing a cover letter to go with your CV.

1. I haven’t sent a resume on paper in many years but I still see lots of advice that seems to think people are sending resumes on paper. The rules are a little different on paper so when you see suggestions to write, for example, the employer’s address in the upper right corner, ignore that if you are sending it electronically. Ditto for putting the date on your letter since that information comes attached to the email anyway and looks odd in an email.

2. If you are sending your CV in English, I would write the letter in English so they match.

3. Keep your sentences short and to the point. At best, your reader is probably going to skim your letter. They are definitely not hanging on every word.

4. The heading “To whom it may concern” isn´t used in Sweden and sounds strange to most Swedes. As you would in any country, try to find out the name of the person you are writing the letter to. If you can’t find a name, address the letter to the position of the person you are writing to, such as “Human Resources.” If you have a connection to the person, you can use their first name. My experience is that this is a little more common in Sweden than the US. If you’re not sure, then go ahead and use their last name, “Dear Ms. Lund.”

5. The first line should right away say what the purpose of your letter is. “I read on Monster.com that you are looking for a writer. Please find my CV attached.”

6. Why do you want this job? Perhaps tell them something about the work you are doing right now and why they should hire you. “I am a technical writer for company X in Stockholm and I also write a blog for the Swedish Institute. I am looking for work in Uppsala.”

7. If you’re not already in Sweden, that will be a barrier to hiring you. You’ll have to mention what your plan is and how you’re getting to Sweden in your cover letter. Keep it short and positive. They don’t want to hear about any problems. They have problems of their own.

8. Make sure to leave space between paragraphs and use short sentences. Maybe they’ll print it out and maybe they won’t so you must capture their interest right away.

9. Don’t use abbreviations. It’s not a good idea even in an English-speaking country and in Sweden, you risk them not understanding what you mean. It’s a little too informal for a cover letter.

10. Don’t use fancy fonts or weird size fonts. This just ends up irritating your reader. I always use Times New Roman, 12 point font—it’s boring but familiar and easy on the eye.

11. I recently sent out a cover letter and didn’t know how to close it. The letter was in English but the Swedish friend who was helping me said that ”yours truly” sounded really strange in a cover letter. With hindsight, I think it would have been nice to close the letter in Swedish to acknowledge that I am learning Swedish, etc. You can write, “Med vänliga hälsningar” which means “With kind regards.”

12. Some people put in an image of their signature to make the electronic cover letter look like it has been signed but I think this is more work than it’s worth and possibly their email program might not even render it correctly. Simply type your name, address, phone number and e-mail address at the bottom of the letter.

The Swedish edition of Monster.com offers lots of tips. Here’s a cover letter (alas, in Swedish but you can use Google Translator to translate it.)

A website called Iagora has a sample of a Swedish cover letter here.

Best of luck! Never, ever give up your dream of living and working in Sweden! I didn’t and look, Mom, I made it!

Kristin Lund

March 29, 2012

10 Tips for Creating a Swedish CV

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I promised awhile back to discuss how to write your curriculum vitae (“resume” or “CV”) and cover letter in Sweden. I have really dragged my feet about doing it because most of the tips I have picked up are universal and are not specific to Sweden. In any country, for example, you want to make your resume easy to read and not more than two pages. The other challenge is that it’s very hard to get a consensus in any country, what the one, perfect way to do your resume is. I think that’s because there never is any one way. There are many ways. So take what I say with a grain of salt and use your good judgment. The key is to get your foot in the door so you can dazzle them in the interview.

My next post will discuss writing your Swedish cover letter.

1. The first thing I learned when converting my CV into Swedish-friendly form was that it doesn’t have to be in Swedish. Whahoo! If it’s not in Swedish, however, then it should be in English. Hopefully your dazzling skills in English are attractive to them anyway, so it’s good to show them that you understand the language.

2. Don’t tout your horn too loudly. Swedes value blending in and working as a group so you don’t want to use language such as “I was the best in our company at taking notes during meetings.”

3. Every CV I’ve seen in Sweden has contained a picture of the subject. It’s not a requirement but it seems to be in fashion right now.

research scientists

Perhaps your well-written CV will get you a job in Research & Design. Sweden is one of the most R&D-intensive countries in the world. It allocates almost 4% of its GDP to research and development, which has led to Sweden taking a leading position in, among other things, environmental technology, particularly the treatment of emissions and toxic substances in production and manufacturing processes. Sweden also has a high level of expertise in nanotechnology research. Photo and info by: Ulf Lundin/imagebank.sweden.se.

 

4. People put their full address on the CV. They also frequently reveal their—gasp!—date of birth. I couldn’t bring myself to do that so I skipped that part.

5. Most Swedish resumes I have seen also contain a section about themselves in which they mention whether they are married, have kids, and what they like to do in their free time. This gives you and your interviewer something to talk about/connect over if the need arises.

6. Just like in any country, an employer will only spend 20 seconds or so looking at your CV so yours has to make an excellent first impression. Don’t make the recruiter have to work to find something. Organize it clearly and simply into sections such as “Experience” and “Education.”

7. Don’t get fancy with the fonts. Standing out too much or getting too fancy won’t get their attention in the right way.

8. Your resume should not be longer than two pages. The recruiter simply won’t read more than that. If you’re like me and you have lots of eclectic jobs, it can be hard fitting them all in. Don’t try to. Perhaps it’s better to group some together and say something such as “Freelance writer, wrote magazine articles for Star Wars Kids magazine and the SAS in-flight magazine, Scanorama.

9. If there are gaps in your resume, don’t try to hide them. Explain what you did. I used to leave off the years I did dog training because it really has nothing to do with my writing (other than that’s how I supported myself before I could make a living as a writer). But I found that both in Sweden and in the US, interviewers wanted to know more about that and it made for a good selling point (I had a spiel ready about how I learned to teach people how to speak “dog”, etc.)

10. Lastly, edit your CV to fit every job you apply for. Make sure it’s immediately obvious why your experience and skills match what they are looking for. If you’re not already in Sweden, that will be a barrier to hiring you. You’ll have to mention what your plan is and how you’re getting to Sweden in your cover letter. Of course, you will also help them by pointing out why this is the job for you in your cover letter but I’ll talk more about that in my next post.

Here’s an example of a Swedish CV.

The Swedish edition of Monster.com also has lots of tips. They are in Swedish but you can use Google Translator.

Kristin Lund

March 26, 2012

Contract Work in Sweden

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Stockholm crowds

Maybe coming to Sweden for contract work is very rare... Photo by: Ola Ericson/imagebank.sweden.se

 

I have gained an important, important piece of information. It very difficult to get all the pieces of documentation you need to participate fully in Swedish society if you come to Sweden on a contract that is less than one year. My hard-learned advice to those of you trying to move to Sweden on a work permit is to make sure you get a contract that is over one year.

I had a very challenging day last week when I took the subway around Stockholm, going from one Tax Board office (Skatteverket) to another (they kept referring me to different offices), trying to get a Swedish ID card. The ID card is used as proof of age and proof of identity, for example when collecting prescription medication from pharmacies, paying by credit card in stores and in banking transactions.

Obtaining a Swedish ID card was to be my next step after getting assigned a Coordination Number (samordningsnummer). You will recall I wanted a Personal Number (personnummer) but instead I could only obtain a Coordination Number.

The Personal Number means a person is in the Swedish Register. In order for me to get a Personal Number, I must have permission from the Migration Board to stay (and work) in Sweden for at least one year. I came to Sweden on a six-month work permit because my job contract was for six months. So, since the work permit is six months, I do not qualify for a Personal Number. Instead I qualify for the Coordination Number.

After receiving the Coordination Number, I went to the Tax Board to get a Swedish ID. First I had to follow a complicated set of instructions which included getting a co-worker to pay 400 Swedish kronor in advance of my visit online (ironically the very thing I can’t do since my bank requires a Swedish ID card in order to have online banking services).

What I did not understand was that that I was not “registered.” I thought I was registered because I had been assigned a Coordination Number. But this does not count as registration. Here’s what the Tax Board says:

Swedish ID card and information

The Tax Board would not give me an ID card. To make matters worse, they informed me that I was not covered by the national health insurance (försäkringskassan). I argued with them that this did not make any sense since I am paying over 30% of my paycheck in taxes and, in addition to this, my employer pays another (roughly) 31% for health, disability, and other services for me.

I have since been assured by the insurance office that I am, in fact, covered. The next step is for me to send the insurance office my registration form along with various work documents and then I hope they will send me a piece of paper telling me I am covered. I have received so many different opinions that now I want some hard proof. I have not, since I came to Sweden, needed any health care but, should the need arise, I don’t want there to be confusion for obvious reasons.

Believe me, it was upsetting for the woman at the Tax Board to tell me that. There were tears involved. The problem is that I get a different answer depending on who I talk to and I don’t know which person to believe.

Up until very recently, I resisted the idea that this job process could be so challenging. I thought that there must be lots of people who go through this so there must be a logical process. But it has dawned on me that perhaps there aren’t many people going through this. Most people who come to Sweden to work probably come as employees and so they have no end-date on their application. Therefore they get the Personal Number, therefore they get the ID card, therefore the insurance, and it all falls into place. It would be the same thing for the “relationship visa” in which you come to Sweden to live with someone. The assumption in those cases is that you will be in Sweden forever.

Even though I have moved here permanently (assuming I find lasting work), my situation does not look that way on paper.

That is why I recommend you make sure your contract is more than one year if you plan to come to Sweden for contract work. The best thing would be to come as an employee but this is hard to arrange when you are in another country. Like me, you may have to come as a contractor and then try to parley that into longer-term work. (There is also the possibility that my current contract may be extended.)

To that end, I have recently re-done my CV in a more Swedish-friendly style (more on that in future posts) and you will soon learn about my adventures looking for work in Sweden.

Kristin Lund

January 31, 2012