What it takes to get a job in Sweden.

It is not easy to get real job anywhere in the world. People employ you because they can make money and create value from what you know. If you are in Sweden and you are looking for job ask your self What skill do i have and why will somebody pay for it? If the you have no specific skill then you end up in the path of I know everything but really good at nothing or I will take what ever comes. This can be good for a time doing something that anybody can do. I can just stand in Centrum(city center) or some part of the town and shout i need people to work in my warehouse and all you need to do is move and sort stuff. I will have a very big list but if  i  shout i need to build an mobile application and i need some programmers. You might get nothing or a couple of people. Why?

1.  The skill is specific. and the good thing is  it''s needed in the world and not only in Sweden. 
2.  It takes years and a good education to become productive.
3.  You can start creating value on the first day at your job 
4. You can prove  what you know practically

 If you decide that you love Sweden and you want to live here, then invest some time(days or years) in a specific education that the society will need or is in need of. Because of the need of your service many obstacles like your language, your name and where you come from does not count. It just your skill and the value you are going to create in the company that counts.

Finally just learn to speak Swedish.This should be just obvious. Ask yourself how will it feel to meet a Swedish speaking your local language in your country? Its just makes communication and flow easy and if there is a good flow and skill you can get that job.

How dare you stay indoors on a warm sunny summer day?

After living here for a couple of years you will understand why you should not miss the opportunity of enjoying a warm summer day by basking to the sun and getting some vitamen D. The Sweds do not take the Sun for granted and they make the best of it. After the long, cold and dark winters it is time for the blossomnes of nature to come out .The flowers starts blossom and the trees becaome green , people become more happy and happier as their smiles easily melts out. There is more life outside and every where. I have also learnt not miss this moment .I have to rush out with my kids and wife if i am home and be part of it else i might feel guilty of missing a very important momment and just letting it pass .What is funny is i always ran away from the sun and look for a shed like when I was in Cameroon.Any way there is a lot of sun in Africa and people get bored of it.Human like to place value for things they do not get easily. Here the sun is exotic and o wonderful moment not to miss. Any way if you are sensitive then get your sun protection on. So next time you see the sun and is a warm day it is time to rush out.In Sweden we do not take the sun for granted.

Tuition Fees for International Students in Sweden from 2010

Non EU/EES students will, from the 1st January 2010, pay to study in Sweden. This is the latest comment from the Swedish government, as part of the the Internationalisation of Higher Education bill which will come into effect in the Autumn of this year, as reported in SvD this morning.

Update, December 12th 2008: The 1st of January date may not be correct, it could be later in the year. There is no officially published date as yet.

This story is now also available in english at The Local.

The article is a little light on detail but the following main facts emerge:

- kick off will be the 1st January 2010 (see the above update)

- fees will be set by each university

- there will be some form of scholarship system

The previous government, according to SvD, suggested 80 000 SEK per year as a fee. That’s about 8 500 EURO (to put that into perspective, an international student studying in the UK pays around 12 500 EURO).

So, that’s about one and half years to decide on a marketing strategy, set up the infrastructure and recruit students. This is a huge change for Swedish education and the implications for our university are massive. The critical question is ‘if we had fees, would you have still have come to Lund?’.

There’s plenty of discussion about this at the SvD site - close on a 100 comments in the last few hours.

Updated 2 July 2008 – For some of the background to the Governments announcement take a look at the summary, in English, of their investigation into tuition fees. You need to take a look at pages 13 – 16 for the english summary.

Students who have already begun studying, or are applying in the application periods starting in 2008 or 2009, will not pay fees. The vote will be in Spring 2009. More information will be available then.

How to get a visa to enter Sweden

I am going to develop and write a long essay about this issue.It will be based on real life experiences from those who have succeeded in getting different types of visas to Sweden .Here are some questions i am going to answer:-
How they did it?
What steps did they take?
Why some people do not get it?
Certain things to avoid ?
How life in Sweden is sweet but also tough.
I hope this helps. For now just follow the information from Swedish immigration Just do as they say and follow the instructions they give you on the web site .Let your documents be right and let them be sent to the Swedish immigration authorities on time.

Learning the Swedish Language

Many immigrants I have come across say the Swedish language is difficult to learn. Is it really difficult? Personally I do not think so. I think everything can be learned if the time, patience and motivation is invested in the learning process.It also depends on how you want your life to be in Sweden.Language makes live easy for you and others to communicate together. Learning a new language is always a bonus credit in life. The more languages you know the more you have easy contact with people if you are the friendly type of course.

I now lots of people studying at various universities and studying complicated mathematics and software engineering everyday.They say the Swedish language is difficult to learn and also barrier to get a job here if you cannot speak it.Its true in Sweden and everywhere in the world. Getting a jobs in Sweden takes more than knowing the language.But know the language gives you an edge over others who do not know the language.So learning the language is one step forward in getting a job.These guys will say is difficult to learn the language.I always ask them this questions.If you can calculate complicated stochastic processes,probabilities and write complicated code whats difficult to learn a language that just needs verbs and grammar?

"I love you"="Jag älskar dig"
"Hej" = "Hello" or "Hi"
"Kom" = "Come"

or

an example of a stochastic process involving mean reversion.
dP = h P (M - P) dt + s P dz
Where M is the long-run equilibrium level (or the long-run mean price which the prices tend to revert); and h is the speed of reversion.

or

C Program recursive function
include

int factorial (int n)
{
if (n == 0)
return 1;
else
return (n * factorial (n-1));
}

Which of these is easier to grasp directly?
You can make your choice? Anyway personally i think the language is easy to learn and the C program beautiful to write to solve a problem and the stochastic process boring.
If you really want to live in Sweden i encourage you to learn the language.It not difficult and it not easy.You have to make an effort.The choice is yours.

Global Uppvärming

Jag har tänkt hur jag kan hjälpa för att reducera global uppvärming. Jag kommer på att jag älskar frukt från andra länder t.ex banan, avocado, cashewnötter och många andra. De där frukterna kan man inte plantera i Sverige. De måste importeras från andra länder och de också tjänar pengar för att deras växter säljes utomlands.
För att frukterna kan komma till Sverige ska man använder båtar, lastbilar, flygplaner etc. Alla de här metoderna att transportera varor höja växthus gas.
Ska jag sluta köpa tropisk frukter och börja äta bara äpple eller frukter och grönsaker man kan plantera i Sverige eller ska jag fortsätta leva mitt liv som ingenting kommer att hända?
Jag vet inte vad jag ska göra. Jag vill verkligen hjälpa med global uppvärming.

Do not follow the crowd. Go your own way

Everybody is an individual and has to choose their own route in live. I have noticed a very common pattern amongst immigrants that come to Sweden. They always want to stick together, speak their home languages, compare Sweden to their countries and complain about Sweden. It is good to speak your language and have a talk with someone from your country but I think it should not be the goal or something you take as a huge part of your life when you move into a new country. I know it can be tough to make Swedish friends here but everything takes time and you must have the will and motivation to have them , know them and want to understand them before you want to think about friendship.

The truth it takes time to build relationships here and people are so skeptical of just getting into friendship with someone new. You just have to take it slowly. I encourage immigrants who come to Sweden to get out of their holes and stop sticking with a crowd of individuals from the same country confront the society, try to understand it than give up. Stop looking for negative things to say about the people to make you feel better. Are you really better than them? If you are really better than them you should not even be here in the first place. The airport is not that far. Instead take steps to understand the society; they are different of course as you are also different. There is nothing to compare about two nations. I say Cameroon is just a wonderful nation with wonderful people just as Sweden is a wonderful nation with wonderful people. From this point you are relax you start looking for opportunities and challenges. You understand a culture and make the best of it.

Staying in your little groups just will make you a frustrated individual and the group will never help you get any better here. Live is tough everywhere in the world. You have to come out from the little group and say goddamit! I am now in Sweden. Let me make the best of it. You will see how your life will change for the better. You will be happier and more relax and as I always say to everyone I meet Learn the Language if you got the chance. If you live in your little groups and stuck too it you will not even be interested to learn it because you speak your home language everyday and get by just fine but are you really living in Sweden or staying in Sweden? But you are living and behaving just like you did back in your country of origin. How can you integrate yourself ?

So the question is what do I do?

•Go your own way, do not follow the crowd
•Seek help and advice from those who have live here for a long time. You will be surprised what kind of help you can get from them.
•Be humble and honest. You can get your way just fine by being honest and humble.
•Ask questions and get to free seminars or forums to meet other people.
•Have fun and go to parties.
•Date a girl
•Be yourself and have and set clear goals for yourself and everyday move towards them and you will get to enjoy this lovely country and its people. You will be relaxed
• Meet your folks at times and have a chat and some fun and talk about your home country.
I hope you enjoy your stay and go your own way in Sweden.

Fees for Swedish Universities

This is just a follow up of what i wrote before about fees in Swedish Universities. This time the commission required to study this issue came out with an estimate of 80.000sek and can probably be instituted from the 2008/2009 academic year. This is really much money but i hope this information can make you to start thinking if you want to come to Sweden or already a student in Sweden.I will write more on this when i get more details.