After receiving your Swedish national ID card and personal number (personnummer) the next step is to register yourself at Arbetsförmedlingen (employment agency). This registration is crucial to be eligible for internships, support activities, job matching, unemployment funds, and other services.
The timeline to receive support from Arbetsförmedlingen varies based on one’s Swedish residence permit/ visa type. This depends on your country of origin (EU or non-EU) and the reason you moved to Sweden (Asylum seeker/Swedish partner/spouse’s job/other reasons).
If you have a Swedish bank account with a Bank ID, you can register yourself via the link (below) using your electronic identification (mobile bank ID for example). After you have registered, you should make an appointment for a planning discussion with an employment officer.
It is important to note that in Sweden interns are compensated either with pay or as a part of academic training. They do not work for free. This is not the case in other countries. There should also always be a mentor who guides the intern as well as a plan or program that leads the learning and development. An intern does not replace a regular full-time, paid employee. The link below offers more information about the eligibility to do an internship.
‘Sveriges Arkitekter’ is a professional organization, a union for architects, interior architects, landscape architects and spatial planners. Here you’ll find information about the association and its activities.
You also find information about the Swedish architectural market for employees and how to become a member of Architects Sweden.
Copenhagen: Living in Skåne? Are you or your parents born outside of Sweden? Are you struggling to find a job? If working in Copenhagen sounds exciting check the links below for more information:
List of Architecture Firms in Copenhagen Link
Oresunddirekt is a Swedish/Danish information service that conveys public information from authorities to those who want to work, move or study or run companies in the Oresund region. Link
For those who are newly arrived in Sweden and have no professional contacts in this country it can be challenging to network, get contacts, and learn about the culture and labor market. While the journey might not be very smooth, there are a number of NGOs that help foreign-born academics with international merits to speed up the job-seeking process through mentoring programs.
A mentorship program aims to match a foreign-born academic (adept) with people who are established in the Swedish labor market (mentors). The matching is done after careful mapping of both mentors and adepts. Here is a list of organizations that offer mentorship programs.
* Please note that it is not uncommon to be matched with a mentor from a completely unrelated field to architecture and design. This can still be useful to gain a general understanding about the Swedish labor market as well as Swedish culture. Please see our "SWEDISH CULTURE & LIFESTYLE' section for additional information.
The Job and Development Guarantee programme is a programme for people who have been unemployed for a long time and need help to return to working life. We give you support to end your unemployment.
The Short Way is for those who are jobseekers and have an academic education. We help you improve your opportunities to use your education in the Swedish labour market. The programme is for those who are jobseekers and have studied at least two years at a university or college.
Examples of content in Korta vägen: Academic guidance. Vocational coaching including study and career guidance, Academic Swedish Internship in your professional field
This is financial support one can get when on an unpaid internship/praktik. Försäkringskassan also offers compensation for travel expenses that exceed 600kr per month.
Depending on one's residence permit, people who have been enrolled in Arbetsförmedlingen, etableringsprogrammet and have been unemployed for 12 of the last 15 months (if 25+yo) and who were granted it within the last 36 months are entitled to it. The employer that hires this newcomer gets compensation for 12 months to cover part of the employee’s salary.
The employer is the one who applies for it to Arbetsförmedlingen.
There are exceptions on how the unemployment time counts for certain grounds (refugee, person in need of protection or in some cases due to affiliation) or if the person has turned 20 and has not reached the age of 25.
The interview process and questions are quite different in Sweden compared to other countries. See link below for information on the interview process in Sweden and the most common questions.