Abhay is a Mechanical engineer by profession. He is from Pune in the Western part of India. He studied at the Jawaharlal Nehru Engineering College and he has a Mechanical Engineering degree. Abhay was an active sportsman during his university days and he was also active in cultural activities — drama and theatre. In 1992 he started working in Mumbai and was there for 2 years. He then moved to Pune to work as a Mechanical Engineering designer. He joined Tooltech, his current employer, in 2000. In 2003 Abhay moved to Sweden and started up a branch of Tooltech in Örebro.The reason for moving to Sweden was part of Tooltech´s expansion strategy. The expansion was concentrated in Scandinavia . The Göteborg office controls operations in Denmark ,Norwayand Sweden. There are around 60 people working for the company in Scandinavia but there are also 100 working for this region in India. The company works with engineering services for the Automotive, Industrial Engineering, Marine and Oil and Gas Industries — it provides the resources, the competence, the knowledge and the expertise. The strategy is to focus on both India and Sweden. Tooltech has its head office in Pune ,India. Pune is a well-established centre for Swedish industry. Alfa Laval, SKF, Atlas Copco, Tetra Pak and Seco tools are all established there.
Before Abhay came to Sweden, he knew that Sweden was a highly industrialised country. He was also familiar with the famous tennis players, Björn Borg, Stefan Edberg and Mats Willander. He has a dream of one day meeting Björn Borg. He had also heard of the Nobel Prize and the famous Swedish film and theatre director, Ingemar Bergman.
Moving to Sweden was an exciting career step for Abhay. He felt Sweden was one of the more anonymous countries in Europe and he was curious to find out more about it. He feels that Switzerland and Sweden are very often confused with each other when people outside Europediscuss them. Abhay did not have any preparation for moving to Sweden before he came here but he did get some information once he had arrived. He found by working with Swedish people that he began to understand their culture and working methods. He has not found much literature about Sweden. It is certainly different to Central Europe . He finds that he learns from his mistakes most of the time.
In India there are a huge number of different cultures and languages and Indians are used to adapting to a variety of cultures. They are forced to do this. Of course Abhay was aware that the Swedish culture would be completely different to what he was used to. The hardest thing to adapt to has been the weather. He knew it was going to be cold but he did not realise it was going to be so cold for such a long period of time. He has coped with the cold weather but also found the darkness very difficult. Abhay said that the darkness actually affected his state of mind more than the cold, but that he is now used to both.
Abhay´s family, his wife and 2 children, stayed here for 2 years. His daughter is 11 and his son is 4. The children were very happy at the International school. His wife is doing her PhD and she needed to be in India for some time.
Abhay is a traveller. I was amazed when he told me that he could travel to India twice a week. He does not suffer from jet lag. He can leave Sweden on Monday morning and work in Indiaon Tuesday and then be back in Sweden in time for work on Wednesday. Abhay finds it a problem that Göteborg does not have good travel connections, not even to Norway.
I asked Abhay is he had suffered any culture shocks? He mentioned the consensus based decision-making process and how it tends to slow things down in Sweden. He realises that everyone has the right to have their say before an agreement is reached but this means that important decisions can take a long time. In business things should move fast. He does find that it is not easy to make Swedish friends as he does not speak Swedish and feels that this is essential to having an active social life in Sweden. In business he gets by with English. It is not as easy to make friends in Sweden as it is in India, for a number of reasons. It takes time to get around the cultural differences. He is very aware of the differences and accepts that it takes time to make friends. In his spare time Abhay watches movies, reads and he likes to go walking. He loves the summer in Sweden and the freedom to be able to go where he wants. He likes watching sports such as ice hockey, horse shows and soccer. One misunderstanding that Abhay has had was when filling in a form for Swedish customs. He got mixed up with the Swedish word “gift" which can mean both married and poison. I am sure he is not the only one to find this confusing!
I asked about the children. He said it was a change for them to have to put on so many clothes before they went outside to play, because of the cold. They have made a lot of friends and his daughter is quite fluent in Swedish.
The children both attend the International school. He was surprised as the increase of their fees from 5000kr to 25000kr. He thought this was a huge increase.
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I asked if there were any advantages of living in Sweden. Abhay liked becoming part of the system. He does not feel he is treated like a foreigner by the Swedish system. He is treated like any other Swede. He feels it has been quite simple to adapt to in Sweden. It is not as bureaucratic compared to India(I once read that the British introduced bureaucracy to India but the Indians themselves perfected it!) He finds it easy to understand the system even though he does not understand Swedish. He finds the government employees very helpful and keen to assist. He has a very positive feeling about Sweden in general. It is a great place to live and he feels that Swedes have a good attitude to work life balance. Abhay was surprised when he was told that he had to pay for a television licence. He was not informed about this and he ended up on a type of black list. He feels he could have been given more help when getting established in Sweden. He just asks and feels that people are very helpful when you ask them. The disadvantages of living in Sweden are the dark and the cold weather and also missing your family when they are not here. Sweden has a very small population and Abhay sometimes misses having people around.In Indiapeople help other people but in Sweden he feels it is the system that helps the people. People are dependent on the system.
One thing that Abhay misses is a local Swedish news session in English. There is a website but he often finds it difficult to get information about what is going on in English. (He should read my column or The Local). He wants to know when there are ice hockey matches on, for example.
He is happy to recommend Sweden to other expats but warns people that it is not easy to work and live in Sweden (unless you are an EU citizen). You can work here for up to 5 years. He feels that 2 years is probably long enough to live in Sweden. He would not like to settle here because of the social conditions, the weather and the high taxes.
Abhay leaves Sweden quite often. He always seems to be travelling. He does not mind this at all. He has both Swedish and expat friends. He has found that a good way to meet people is at the children´s school. He does not speak Swedish but he understands quite a bit.
His wife is learning Swedish and the children have Swedish lessons at school. I asked for some tips for expats settling into Sweden. Abhay said one should be prepared to entertain oneself. You need to keep yourself motivated and you need to look for new interests. No one else is going to look after you in this way. It is easy to be bored and depressed if you do not have a functioning social life. You find you have a lot of time to reflect on yourself and your situation. He feels it has been easier for his wife as she has had her studies and she has met people when taking the children to and from school. She has joined the Indian community in Göteborg. What Abhay likes best about Sweden is the respect for people and also the quality of life here. You can earn more money in other countries but how you spend your days is important as well. Abhay does not know how long he will be in Sweden. He does not feel the need to plan ahead. I asked Abhay if he thought there was such a thing as a stereotype Swede. He answered that he felt Swedes tend to be humble but that this differs in different parts of Sweden. He feels that people are more open in the north of Sweden. He feels that the people in Göteborg are more like Germans and central Europeans. It takes Swedes a while to open up. Once they drink alcohol they open up quickly. Abhay would like to know what they think about working with him but it is not easy to find this out. He finds the lack of hierarchy both good and bad. He feels that managers here are not experienced in making decisions. They are used to consulting others and the need for consensus. In the US it is a more vertical, hierarchical organisation where managers can make decisions themselves. He likes the informality in business relations in Sweden. One thing he does not like is that his children call their teachers but their first names. He feels this shows a lack of respect. Abhay accepted an award, in 2007, for the best Foreign Owned Company in the Göteborg region. The company´s success can be attributed, to a large extent, to Abhay´s hard work.
Generally, Abhay is happy about working and living in Sweden. He knows it is not a permanent situation and he tries to make the best of it. Of course he misses his friends and family in India but he feels he has made a good career move and that he is learning new things along the way.
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