Fabien Brossaud
"How was the job hunting? Well, I won’t lie, it has been blood, sweat and tears. So many times, I arrived to what I would call the Champions league final and did not get the job. During 8 months, I have applied to around 130 jobs ads. But, I never gave up. I am a fervent defender that a positive attitude powers your knowledge and experiences."
Long time ago in 2007, after my master degree in Project Management in Barcelona, I made the choice to stay there and not to come back to France. And here I am, in 2021, after 14 years in lovely Barcelona where I was fully settled, I decided to leave my comfort zone and make another move. I followed my girlfriend who has been living here in Malmö for 3 years. We made it work long distance relationship during this time but well, as you all know, a quite annoying virus paralyzed the world and make travelling almost impossible. So a decision had to be made and I chose to do it.
I won’t hide it, in southern European (and patriarchal) mentality, it was weird for a man to do leave everything for his girl. But get this, we are not in the 20th century anymore!
From Barcelona to Malmö
I arrived in Malmö in January 2021. Coming from a big and noisy city like Barcelona, I really appreciated at first the peace. Yeah, here you can forget having a beer on a terrace at a decent price but you can leave with that as there are many other things to do. At the beginning with sanitary restriction and winter, it was quite hard to meet people and build a network.
Kick-Start program
I had the chance to be eligible for the Kick-Start Program in Spring 2021. I can honestly say that I warmly recommend it for all new arrivals or partners of international working in Skane. What you’ll learn here will be of a huge help into your job hunting, from adapting your CV to the Swedish market up to dealing with Oresund Direkt if you work in Denmark and live in Sweden. Also, it really helped in building this network because yes, only 30% of the job market is published, the rest you got it by network. Oh, and thanks to the Kick Start Program, I learned how to and managed to get support for not one but 2 Swedish courses at Folkuniversitet, that’s almost 1000€ which came more than handy when you still don’t have a job.
Running kept my busy
How was the job hunting? Well, I won’t lie, it has been blood, sweat and tears. So many times, I arrived to what I would call the Champions league final and did not get the job. During 8 months, I have applied to around 130 jobs ads. But, I never gave up. I am a fervent defender that a positive attitude powers your knowledge and experiences. Thankfully, I am an active runner. This came very handy to keep my body and my mind busy. For me, there is nothing better than going for a speed workout on the track to evacuate another rejection. I also chose to stay busy and took this time of to improve in my field and get some professional certifications that the market needs. I also took some Swedish courses, to stay busy and to network even if it was all online.
The most important is the journey not the destination
But in the end, when the correct job arrives, you know it, give it your all, apply what you learnt and it will be ok. I am happy now to have entered the Swedish job market for a 1-year contract at IKEA. It has been a tough 8 months’ journey to get there but there is still work to be done, consolidate the position and get an unlimited contract.
Now is starting another frontline: get the Swedish personnummer, Bank Account, BankID, a mortgage etc etc….
Some might say, the most important is the journey not the destination.
/ Fabien Brossaud
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