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Tag archives for Technical Writer

Making Sure You’re Registered Correctly in Sweden

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The Government chancellary Rosenbad to the right and the Swedish Parliament to the left.

This must be where they come up with all the paperwork! The Government chancellary, Rosenbad, to the right and the Swedish Parliament to the left (in Stockholm). Photo by: Ola Ericson/imagebank.sweden.se

 

According to a recent, entertaining article in The Local,  an 87-year-old Swedish woman received a letter from the Swedish Tax Board (Skatteverket) informing her that she had died. “The letter was addressed to the “estate of the deceased” with the woman’s name on it. The letter asked for relatives to fill in the details concerning the woman’s address, to be returned to the Swedish Tax Agency.”

This, of course, resulted in her having to call the authorities and protest that she was still alive and kicking. My favorite part of the article is the woman’s description of her call to the Tax Board. “The person I spoke to said that I must be alive, as I was able to call. She promised to correct the details and write in that I was alive.”

I love this story because it perfectly sums up a portion of my challenges with dealing with various authorities. Sweden is struggling mightily to improve the whole immigrant process but it’s a work in progress.

Recently I had some new trials and tribulations, mostly with the Tax Board.

After receiving permission to continue working in Sweden for more than one year and receiving the ID card that said as much (read more here), I skipped off to the Tax Board office in Stockholm to apply for a Personal Number—the key to being recognized in all nearly all segments of Swedish Life. Sadly, I was turned away because although I had my passport and my newly won work and residence card, I did not have the letter from the Migration Board saying I could stay (strange, since that’s what the card says…) nor proof of my divorce.

Huh?

I had filled out forms that stated I was once married but now am divorced and they needed official documents saying I was divorced. You see the Tax Board administers the population registration in Sweden (Folkbokföring), the civil registration of vital events (e.g. births, deaths, and marriages) of the inhabitants of Sweden. The registry spans back several centuries that’s why it’s relatively easy to track one’s genealogy in Sweden.

The Tax Board is no doubt trying to control who you can claim is a part of your family, should you ever try to have them join you in Sweden. But it feels weird to provide all sorts of private information about a man that I am no longer married to and who is not moving to this country. Oddly, I never had to produce evidence that I was married but I did have to prove that I was divorced.

So I returned a few days later with the proper documents. I had been advised that coming right when the office opened at 10AM was the quickest. I stood should-to-shoulder with a crowd of about 50 of us—mostly immigrants—who all wanted to get their business done as quick as possible. But luckily the Tax Board sorted us out and gave us queue numbers pretty quickly.

Alas, when my number came up, I got a woman who looked very unenthusiastic about her job. She insisted that I my divorce papers were not originals. I explained that I had never owned originals but had gotten this certified copy directly from the California courts. The documents bore the certification seal and everything. I told her that they probably never gave out the “original” because, since there are two parties to a divorce, they probably can’t decide which party should get it. She stomped off to make copies of the documents. I had already made copies for them (as well as brought the originals) but she said they had to make their own copies. At least 4 other employees initiated conversations with her at the copy machine, in full view of gotta-get-back-to-work me. I thought maybe she was a supervisor or something and they were asking how to handle complicated cases but when I asked her for a printout of something I needed from the Tax Board, she was at a loss and had to ask the woman next to her.

Back to the story about the undead woman (hey, zombie stories are au courant!) The article told about how the elderly woman has had to straighten out the problem with other Swedish governmental agencies. (Because once it gets into the system incorrectly, it then affects how all the other agencies see you.)

“When the 87-year-old recently needed to get medicine from the chemist, for example, she was denied her prescription as the chemist’s records stated that she was a “non-existing person”. The woman said, “She saw that I was standing there and that I had my proof of identity with me, so after a while I was allowed to get my medicine anyway. But it dragged out a good while.”

I love the fact that even standing there in the flesh might not be proof that the report of one’s demise might be greatly exaggerated…

Kristin Lund

April 2, 2012

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

Lunchtime at Work

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open multi-purpose room

This is a picture of our unusual-looking multipurpose room at work. We use it for meetings and mealtimes but may someday have to use it for more desk space. You can read my earlier post about my office here.

 

I have no idea what business lunchtime etiquette is in the rest of Sweden but I can tell you what I’ve noticed at my job as a Technical Writer, now that I have been at it nearly four months. That’s approximately 80 lunches so I guess that makes me a lunch expert. Ha ha.

At my office, everyone seems to eat at the same time. Around twelve o’clock, the office empties out. We typically have around 60-70 people (give or take people on business trips, working from home, etc. ) so it’s pretty significant when everyone suddenly vanishes. When I worked for a law firm in the US, people took their lunchbreak at all different times so you didn’t have the sudden evacuation in the same way.

The Stockholm software company that I work for has a lovely large multipurpose room with super high ceilings and skylights. Some co-workers bring their lunch and eat there. Others go out and fetch their lunch but bring it back to eat there. I’ve noticed that people rarely eat out of plastic containers from home or the takeout containers. They transfer the food to plates from the kitchen and use metal cutlery. It’s all rather civilized.

I noticed that it is polite to join a group of diners if they are sitting there when you arrive with your food. At first I sat by myself because I thought it might be rude to just bust in on a group. But then I saw that everyone did that and it was actually stranger to go and sit by yourself.

Despite the fact the median age of my co-workers must be about 30, I’ve noticed very few drink soda at lunch. I see plenty of people drinking soda on the street, on the train, etc. Anyway, I am glad for this because it ensures that I won’t do that either. Thank goodness for bubbly water so I can get some carbonation.

Eating at your desk is just not done where I work. You can have some coffee or tea and maybe some hard bread with cheese, but no one eats in front of their computer. This is another habit to avoid so I am glad of their good example. At my previous job I often did private work on the computer during lunch and so I sat at my desk, multitasking.

Ninety percent of my co-workers are men. This makes me a little shy to suggest lunch together though I do it sometimes. They don’t usually ask me so maybe this is just not done? But I’ve also noticed that you can just tag along with a group of 3 or 4 people that abruptly meets in the lobby without much planning. That’s cool.

The language spoken at my office is Swedish but since I am fairly new and don’t want to misunderstand things, I usually ask for and speak English in meetings. I try to speak Swedish as much as possible and I try to send email in Swedish. But going to lunch with a bunch of co-workers guarantees that there will be lots of Swedish spoken. This is great because I get to practice but not so great because I usually only understand 50% of what’s happening. I’ve noticed that when there is ambient noise (like you find in a restaurant at lunchtime), I find it much harder to understand what people are saying. I think that must be a reflection of the fact that much of human language is tone, timing, and things other than just the words. You don’t notice it so much until it’s missing…

Kristin Lund

March 13, 2012

My Big Fat Portable Office

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I have never worked in an office that was so, well, portable.

The software company  where I work as a Technical Writer  has 70+ employees. We are currently over-crowded and have been waiting for the other half of the floor we rent to be made into usable office space. (The company started out renting half the floor with the option to later expand into the other half. It exercised that option a few months ago but it has taken awhile to get the unimproved space ready.)

People at work

Yes, everyone does look this young at my office... Photo by Ulf Lundin/imagebank.sweden.se

 

In the meantime, we have a constant desk sharing, leapfrog sort of system in which people share desks. It somehow works out. It’s a little “first come, first served.” If you get to work and someone is sitting at “your” desk, you can look around and see if someone is working from home that day or on paternity leave or in permanent meetings or something like that.

The reason it works is that nearly everyone has a laptop computer. Most desks have a monitor and you can plug your laptop into the monitor if you want a larger screen. There are no land line phones. Everyone has a work cell phone.

So, you see how mobile everyone is.

There is no such thing as having your own pens and sticky pads and notebooks, etc. If you have to staple something, you look around and see whose desk you can nick one from. Remember the movie “Office Space” in which one character was very protective of his red stapler? That would never work here.

The one thing that I still haven’t figured out is where people keep files and things like that. Other than the CFO, who has file cabinets for all her financial documents, I can’t see that anyone is storing many paper documents. Most of my work is in electronic form but there are certain kinds of editing, etc. that require me to print out in order to do the job well. So far, I stick them in these plastic folders and sometimes in a binder but I don’t think this system will work for a long time.

Because we work in large rooms and the desks are very near each other, phone conversations take place elsewhere. If someone’s phone rings, they carry the phone with them to an empty conference room. If they can find any empty one, that is.

There are lots of very small conference rooms—some would be crowded with more than three people. Some are currently being used informally as people’s offices only because there is a table there they can use. With the completion of the new space, I think there will be enough conference rooms so that finding an empty one “on the fly” won’t be the challenge it sometimes is.

I think it’s quite a good system. It reminds me of an article I once wrote for a magazine about something called “cohousing.” Cohousing embodies the idea of a community of private homes that share amenities and common space, such as a central kitchen, work, and entertainment spaces, etc. Cohousing communities are committed to the idea of community and also the idea that you can share space instead of everyone having their own private version. It’s like taking the condo idea, where you might share a laundry room and a pool, and going a few steps further.

Cohousing is, not surprisingly, a concept originating in Denmark.

I’ve worked in offices where I felt I really needed my own workspace and I cherished having a cubicle (the more private the better) that I could call my own.

But lately, with the addition of earphones and Spotify (when things get too distracting), I don’t mind at all being right out in the middle of things, sharing a desk, and taking my phone calls wherever I can find a quiet corner.

Kristin Lund

February 15, 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