(edit title) Job discrimination based on heritage? Hard time getting callbacks Options

[newkidontheblock]

Hello,

I am relatively new to Sweden. Moved to Stockholm about half a year ago. I live with my Swedish sambo and so far have been working in a high position within marketing, primarily tackling Nordic territories. I used to work abroad for a Swedish company and most of my colleagues were Swedes. I am still working for the same company but on remote, and continue with my duties.

That said, I don't speak Swedish (but actively learning).

Now, it came time for me to look for a new job, to settle more into my new surroundings - to adapt to my new city fully. I am noticing that I am not getting ANY interview callbacks, and people aren't even trying to search me up on Linkedin (link included in CV). Recruiters barely respond - those who met me do, those who haven't no. I network extensively and have many recommendations, mostly from Swedes. Here I am talking primarily about direct applications to job postings for which I don't have a connection or side entry.

I have checked contents of my resume with many local people, I have vast experience and appropriate education, and nobody can really pinpoint what is the issue of complete disinterest. Most of these positions are also posted in english and require english as a main language (resumes are also in english), even though some do note knowledge of Swedish as well (so I understand some rejections).

The roles I am going for are higher or on my current level, but I have good experience and am mostly aiming at the jobs that I am currently doing.

With constant improvement on my resume (I always try to adapt it and make it better), I am starting to wonder if I am being completely looked over based on my heritage.

I have a slavic background and a Slavic name (eastern european). Now I have started including my sambo's last name (swedish) to give it more familiarity, but at the end of the day I have a very typical eastern european name, and despite my knowledge of Swedish business landscape and experience, I am really starting to feel something might be affecting the callback or someone even giving my resume a look.

I have read several studies confirming this and also articles where people changed their names and ended up getting interviews then.


I just wanted to get feedback how do you guys feel when it comes to discrimination? I noticed Americans, Brits and Germans etc, get more recognition unlike us who come from Slavic/Balkan areas. I find it completely unfortunate and downright frustrating.

And to note, I have rights to work, PN, and all that jazz, as a EU citizen.

Just any thoughts about how to go about this?

[newkidontheblock]

And one thing to note:

I lived and worked in several first world countries and never had this much of an "issue". I know this is a quite tight and closed off society, where speaking Swedish is important (and not enough either), but I am really trying to get a sense if I am just overthinking this, or is it really something "in the name/heritage".

[Gjeebes]

Welcome to Sweden. Land of the feminist government and the humanitarian super-God, where gender-equality, safety, and the under-dog (in general) are all more important than common sense.

But seriously, you might just be on to something. We of course anticipate the predictable "no, no, never in Sweden, Sweden is golden" crowd to arrive at this thread and give all the (scripted) reasons why what you suspect just-can't-be-true...but I would guess you are not far off the mark.

Change your name on your application materials, and give it a go. I'd bet 2 cans of last year's rotten herring, you will be getting more action that way. If you are challenged due to lacking language skills, just indicate you had parents who saw so many great Swedish films, and listened to sooo much ABBA, that they just had to give you one of those exotic Swedish names. I could suggest Jerker, for a first name; they'll eat it up.

Sad, isn't it? All the BS talk of open this and equal that, yet this place is about as religionist, racist, sexist, xenophobic and nepotistic as it gets.

[Bsmith]

Would that be pronounced "Jerker" with a hard J or "Yerker"?

[Hisingen]

- - -All the BS talk of open this and equal that, yet this place is about as religionist, racist, sexist, xenophobic and nepotistic as it gets.

Well since you are still here it either cannot be that bad, or you are enjoying a spell of self-flagellation. Don't know which. Perhaps you will enlighten - - - .

[Gjeebes]

Would that be pronounced "Jerker" with a hard J or "Yerker"?

More like Yerker, but always fun to forget and proceed with a hard "J"...you know...those darned foreigners will never get it right!

[Hisingen]

Well, my choice was freely made. In contrast to some, who only feel they must constantly denigrate anythiing that is Swedish - in the cause of so-called journalism. Did you do an Assange and jump bail perchance??

[Gamla Hälsingebock]

Job discrimination based on heritage, exists...everywhere...

In reality who would hire a person that is not of his/her group, when their own people are needing jobs too...

[newkidontheblock]

@gamla

"Job discrimination based on heritage, exists...everywhere...

In reality who would hire a person that is not of his/her group, when their own people are needing jobs too..."

I would hire people as I have hired people from all cultures, heritage and backgrounds. Based on their capabilities and merits. At least I would talk to people and not bin their resumes based on name.

@wallace: As someone who lived also in US and UK, I definitely felt the difference than here, just based on response rate.

At the end of the day, maybe what confuses a lot of people is that Stockholm presents itself (and is considered) as a metropola, an urban diverse city. In reality is quite a tiny place (as Sweden as a whole), where pretty much everyone gets to know one another over time and it turns into a very exclusive club. My home town is of this size and I find a lot of similarities.

With persistence this can be broken down, as people get to know you (no other way), and by having locals vouch for you until you are part of the system.
I just wanted to get a sense more if I was reading this right. It seems to be the case. It is so so unfortunate, but indeed, it is like many societies in the world. I guess, given the perceived "progressivness" of this country one would really expect better.

[LLHope]

Now I have started including my sambo's last name (swedish) to give it more familiarity, but at the end of the day I have a very typical eastern european name, and despite ... (show full quote)

Now I have started including my sambo's last name (swedish) to give it more familiarity, but at the end of the day I have a very typical eastern european name, and despite my knowledge of Swedish business landscape and experience, I am really starting to feel something might be affecting the callback or someone even giving my resume a look. ... (hide full quote)

Big mistake. All of those people who claim that changing their last name makes a difference, rubbish. If they had any intelligence they would know that FIRST name is more telling than surname. A Swedish sounding first name implies at least 1 parent is Swedish, regardless of family name.

Swedish recruitment can be very specific. If you are trying to go via recruitment agencies then you need to understand that there is a lot of competition between agencies, once a process is agreed it can be expensive, and because of the combination of price charged and competition the agencies are very very afraid of passing to their clients selected candidates that do not exactly meet the requirements (which indeed means they are very specific about what is required and often miss the best candidates for the client) as the risk is losing future business.

They also often place ads for positions that are not available yet, to get in potential candidates to their database, which is then used as a sales tool ... look we have xxxxx number of such skilled/experienced candidates in this field.

Also, despite what you have heard about Swedish law protecting jobs so people stay in companies for decades, yes in many respects, but the reality is that within the EU, workers in Sweden are the most "mobile" (change jobs/companies often). A lot of competition, you need to make yourself more visible and stand-out through creative cover-letter, personality etc... the cv they wont even bother to read, sometimes not even before the interview you

In conclusion it discrimination may exist everywhere, but Sweden is pretty good at it!

That is not a conclusion that can be drawn from those figures. First, foreign-born is a very misleading term, in Sweden whenever the media an politicians want to try and put a positive spin on how wonderfully educated immigrants are that come to Sweden they use the term foreign-born. This eve includes Swedish citizens born outside of Sweden, and all the, indeed educated, immigrants from developed countries (e.g. USA, EU etc...), whilst trying to imply it is the asylum seekers from the less educated areas of the world. Secondly, you need to break the data down into levels of education and available jobs at those levels before you can even start to talk discrimination!

[newkidontheblock]

@llhope

The change name was meant for the whole name, not just last name BUT I don't feel like lying therefor I don't want to change my first name which is not my legal name. Adding a surname of my partner is the closes thing to a grey area I can do, without being completely dishonest as I don't want to fraud anyone, and since we are in sambo officially, it is one of those things that wouldn't cause too much of a frowned eye.

I have been around the block work wise, and have quite a lot of experience. I am particularly talking about roles that it is quite clear they are hiring. And it's not just through CV how someone connects, there is cover letters, LinkedIn and such - but the bottom line is, I am seeing a CLEAR lack of responsiveness overall, which is usually not the case. And not just from recruiters, even from companies when it comes to rejection letters and such.

And again, for me, I always have seen a different vibe when it comes to an American or a Brit (or anyone with anglo-saxon background) searching for a job, than when a Slav (and/or Balkan) is searching for one. It is almost as people from my area are perceived as less valuable or our work experience as well, even if it's from the same area and or level of work.

It is quite unfortunate.

[Genaro]

Definitely change your name/s to something Swedish. This alone should significantly increase your chances of an interview - which is a huge barrier in Sweden.

Swedes generally only hire Swedes as they are innately conservative and introverted in behaviour, so the more you can replicate a Swede (yikes) the better. Sweden is not multicultural like other nations such as the UK; Sweden has a societal segregation that keeps the local above foreigners (the latter group including Swedish citizens who for whatever reason do not confirm to the ethnic template of Swede).

Before the usual posters accuse me of moaning, these are simply statements based on my many year's of experience in Sweden.

[littleviking]

well its rather simple since you are not fluent in swedish this makes it hard to be hired.
If the client of the recruiting agency or just an internal hr department asks to find a marketing specialist, they will interview first the ones that speaks the required languages.
since this is sweden and the official language is swedish 90% of jobs will require some language proficiency. The more your work with people the more you need to know the language,

If i apply for a job in poland or bulgaria as a marketing specialist or a pr specialist without knowing the language properly i will not get the job unless its in a huge multinational and even then they would expect you to have some vague knowledge.

Marketing in Russian in the uk wouldn't work either since little people get it

If you have 5 specialist and out of those only 2 speaks swedish unless those 2 are really weak or make a bad impression they dont need to interview someone that cant communicate with the staff or the clients.

[Svedallas]

Definitely change your name/s to something Swedish. This alone should significantly increase your chances of an interview - which is a huge barrier in Sweden.Swedes generally ... (show full quote)

Definitely change your name/s to something Swedish. This alone should significantly increase your chances of an interview - which is a huge barrier in Sweden.

Swedes generally only hire Swedes as they are innately conservative and introverted in behaviour, so the more you can replicate a Swede (yikes) the better. Sweden is not multicultural like other nations such as the UK; Sweden has a societal segregation that keeps the local above foreigners (the latter group including Swedish citizens who for whatever reason do not confirm to the ethnic template of Swede).

Before the usual posters accuse me of moaning, these are simply statements based on my many year's of experience in Sweden. ... (hide full quote)

Discrimination is everywhere! I think it is all a matter of confidence.

Do not change your name. Why would you? No job is worthy of that.
Look at Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He defied all odds, that is why he is now the Unofficial King of Sweden

I have plenty of friends who do not have Swedish sounding names, some born here, some not.
The name is no longer a factor these days.10 - 15 years ago. Maybe. But not now!

[cherif]

Definitely change your name/s to something Swedish. This alone should significantly increase your chances of an interview - which is a huge barrier in Sweden.Swedes generally ... (show full quote)

Definitely change your name/s to something Swedish. This alone should significantly increase your chances of an interview - which is a huge barrier in Sweden.

Swedes generally only hire Swedes as they are innately conservative and introverted in behaviour, so the more you can replicate a Swede (yikes) the better. Sweden is not multicultural like other nations such as the UK; Sweden has a societal segregation that keeps the local above foreigners (the latter group including Swedish citizens who for whatever reason do not confirm to the ethnic template of Swede).

Before the usual posters accuse me of moaning, these are simply statements based on my many year's of experience in Sweden. ... (hide full quote)

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