Ask HN: Working in Sweden?

> Housing market is crazy, you definitely have to buy an apartment and be willing to make a big investment in this, renting is basically not an option.

Care to elaborate?

We ran into this issue when looking for a place to buy. Options were either super expensive tiny apartment in the center or something cheaper but bigger a 10-15 minute train ride away. We looked at a place in "Enskededalen". Googling revealed people talking about how horrible it was, the crime that goes on, how unsafe it is, how they would never move here, etc.

Go to visit the place...and it seems perfect. In a block of houses facing a nice yard and playground as opposed to the road, large space with a porch and balcony, plenty of room for our cats, etc. But I was suspicious. This place was meant to be so bad!

After getting some more opinions we went for it and can honestly say I have no idea what people were so afraid of. The neighborhood seems very safe - children play outside alone, it's quiet, each little house block area takes care of their yard, etc. It is a more multicultural area than say Södermalm, but that is a positive. The most "unsafe" thing I've seen here is groups of teens on walks or having a smoke in the evenings (I was wary of them at first, but have since learned they're harmless) or local toddlers leaving their toy cars underfoot in the shared yard.

As a foreigner in Sweden you will face the following problems:

- most of your friends will be other expats. Swedes, at least in Stockholm, do not seem very keen to open their social circle to you. Language is certainly a part of it, but there is a darker cultural side to it that neither myself or others have been able to crack.

- As others have said housing is a shit-show. Fortunately public transit is quick and makes long commutes tolerable.

- If you have a foreign-sounding name, then you will want to change it. Swedes love to play the multicultural card all over the place and virtue signal at every level, but facts are facts. Your CV/resume is passed over by recruiters and HR people if it not Swedish enough. Indian, Muslim, and African names go to the bottom of the pile or are never called. Seriously, take a Swedish name when you get here.

- Working in the tech sector, there is little incentive to learn Swedish. The amount of time it takes you to become proficient is not worth it. Worse, if you are dark-skinned and speak broken Swedish it only hurts you more socially and professionally. Best to keep it in English. Save Swedish for social things.

- Quality of life by many measures is high, but there is a depressive darkness here. Strangers don't chit-chat. I've never seen a subway car so full of people be so quiet. Everyone is silent, and that makes it incredibly lonely.

- Customer service sucks. I mean it is pitifully bad in Sweden. From restaurants to banks it seems that there is no training or appreciation for customers. This is where Americans really kick ass, and I wish Swedes could take a couple of notes here.

- There is no 24-hour culture. Strange that a place claims to be the capital of Scandinavia, but literally everything shuts down before midnight save a a couple of bars.

- Gypsies everywhere panhandling, but you are from EU -- so nothing new there.

- Drinking culture here is strange. People are absolutely hammered by 10pm

- The tech scene here is nascent and lacks the pay-it-forward attitude that you might find in the US, Berlin, or London. There is an American guy here named Tyler (@steepdecline) who has worked his ass off for 3+ years to make something happen. However, I fear that if/when he leaves, this scene will die. He might be a good resource to ping.

All in all, quality of life in Sweden is high (clean, healthcare, etc). However, there is a cultural darkness/sadness/loneliness that touches everything -- and I think Swedes would agree with me here.

Enskede (next to it) is one of the better areas in Stockholm so it's less expensive neighbour Enskededalen is perhaps bad only in comparison.

I think I've might have seen some druggies in the area a few times more than I would expect but that was 15 year ago... But maybe those things stick.

It's definitely not one of those no-go zones.

Don't forget to mention the racism that is getting bigger and bigger here in sweden. I am a native swede my self and i know how we talk and think. The swedish democrats are real proof of how the whole population is starting to show its true face.

If you are white sweden will be great, but if you are anything other than white you will be in a quite cold hell where people do not like you.