E001- Post-Brexit move to Sweden with James Doran

James Doran (00:07.31)

to the expat part. My name is James your host and this is an unusual episode. It's the first one, hopefully of many. And I don't have a guest today. I am myself the guest because I thought it first for hopefully all the listeners or watchers we have on this podcast that you get to know who I am first as I will be asking my friends the questions and talking with them about certain situations they found themselves in and give you a context of my perspective.

So I am, yeah, as I said before, I'm James, a British person living in Sweden. And hopefully through this journey, you'll find advice, you'll find encouragement, you'll find at least just understanding of what it's like to live, work, study abroad through various conversations with friends of mine. And hopefully that will grow into a community of people who have then since gone to live abroad. And hopefully this will help.

least one person. That's all that matters really. And for me, it's kind of a log of my own life and how I've done it. So it has that bit of double, double reasonings for it, you know, from a personal side, but hopefully just so it will help other people because that's something I would have liked to have had when I first moved. But without further ado, we should get into section one all about getting there.

James Doran (01:35.182)

one of the podcasts all about getting there. So this is kind of a section where I'd asked my guests, you know, where they've lived and what they did there. So context, I'm living in Gothenburg in Sweden. It's on the west coast of Sweden. I am here for work. I worked for a company in the UK who are Swedish and they have a head office in Gothenburg. And when I was younger, I really, really wanted to live abroad, always have done and...

just before COVID, I joined this company and was hoping to move earlier. Sadly, COVID happened. We all got locked down and stuck in. But still I wanted to live abroad. So I kept asking my manager, hey, can we look at options for me to live abroad? And that plan to fruition really, and I've now been here since August, which has been really good. I've really enjoyed it. I've met some amazing people. I've enjoyed a lot of the culture and it's not been easy, but yeah, we'll get into that.

the next section. So I got here for work as I said. First thing was finding a role that I could do, looking at my role that I was doing. Made more sense in this country I guess because I do a lot of testing of vehicles in what's called a wind tunnel and there's a one in Sweden and also I work a lot with the departments which are based here. So for me to do my job I was coming over anyway quite often so it meant that I didn't have to...

keep flying back and forth. I just live here and do my job from this location, which is a benefit, I hope, not just for me, but for the company. So I kind of pitched that idea and lo and behold, I'm here. So it kind of worked. Sorry, I'm saying my God, I apologize. The kind of process following that was not easy. Brexit didn't really help. So it made it a lot.

very confusing and with obviously the pandemic and Brexit actually happening during the pandemic officially, it meant that when I first moved nowhere, I knew what was really happening or going on. I kept asking because the rules just kept changing and Sweden changed their rules on tax and everything else. So originally I was coming over for two 10 week periods in what's just basically extended business trips. But then I had to, you could only be here for 15 working days in a row.

James Doran (03:59.566)

before you pay Swedish tax if you're working. So then I thought, I'll do a six month placement rather than a year, because I have a girlfriend back home and I didn't want it to be waiting for too long. Also, I didn't know, yeah, just put unnecessary stress on the relationship if it was an option to do it shorter. Sadly, that changed again because you need to get what's called a personal number in Sweden in order to do a lot of things.

And for me to get a personal number, I had to have a visa for more than a year. So I had to be over a year, so at least a year and a day, to kind of get this personal number from what I was told from work. So I made my contract then 13 months, which meant that when I went to the scatters bucket or the tax agency, I was able to apply for a personal number because I'm going to be here for longer than a year. So that was going back and forth quite a lot.

and then I had to have a contract and I had to have everything signed before I applied for the visa, which I was very lucky that the company I worked for have a global mobility team, I guess you'd call it, or they call it, which helped me a lot with the visa application. I got a tax briefing, I got other briefings on pensions and things, which is really interesting how different it's going to be. Not all of it's covered, but it was the main things and it just helped me get to Sweden, which is really good.

They offered me accommodation before I moved. However, that was quite difficult as well because the ones they offered were very expensive. Usually people who move maybe through this good mobility are families. So it makes sense in that regard, but for me personally, it was a lot of money. They're offering these houses. I was paying for it all myself. So the...

accommodation was out of my budget, so to speak, because I also had to factor in, I would probably come home a few times a year and add that extra cost in. But I found a place because a colleague of mine, very nice colleague, Martin, sent me this address to what's called Waterfront Cabins in what's called Freehamnon, which is north of the river in Gothenburg on an island called Hittingen. And that is basically like a very long Airbnb.

James Doran (06:21.325)

It's all furnished, it was great, it was bringing me furniture with me. All the bills were included, I think all I had to do was pay once a month some rent and it's sorted, which is ideal for what I wanted when I first moved because I was moving for work, I was moving to try and do other things, I didn't want to have the stress and worry of paying rent on the side. Or not just paying rent but paying bills, electricity, sorting all that kind of, you know, your broadband network or your internet or whatever.

sorting all those individual contracts would have been an absolute, you know, I would have done it if I did have an option, but just extra faffing convenience that I've had to remove just by what I've done. And interestingly with renting in Sweden, you have to, you can't just go, people from the UK here, where you just, you go right move, where you go on spare rooms, and spare rooms is probably actually an equivalent thing with Blockit, but you go on right move to find a renting property or for landlords. And to do that,

you would go and you'd search and you'd be the first come first serve and you get a first refusal if you've been a B2C and got through everything quickly. However, in Sweden, that doesn't really happen. You join a queue called HomeQ and to join HomeQ you need to have a personal number and bank ID. And bank ID is something else completely. But to get HomeQ, you have to be in the system already. And the problem with this is a lot of people...

who have children, will put their kids in HomeQ when they're old enough for all the big cities, or just in general, in one. But every day you're on HomeQ, you get a point. And so for me, I've already had HomeQ for about six weeks, so not that many points I've accumulated. But for some of the nice apartments in town, one's I would try and look for. You need about 15 ,000 points. Well, no, 1 ,500 points, sorry.

visit 100 points, which is, you know, in the five years of being on the queue. And that is, you know, insurmountable for me to achieve before I can live in somewhere as nice, five, nearly five years of being in the country to get something I want to live in for what's for the first time contract, which means from landlord to tenant. So what happens a lot in Sweden is what's called secondhand contracts, which you can find online, Facebook, Marlplace, Blockit, all this, you know, various websites, which there's a markup on, which happens a lot with, with.

James Doran (08:49.709)

people who aren't from Sweden. So it kind of feels a bit of a way of keeping things insular. So that wasn't ideal for me when I first moved because it was absolute faff and I didn't want it to be, you know, paying more than I needed to live here. So I got lucky that what I'm in is kind of a very long Airbnb and it's a bit expensive, but it's not over the top and it's a lot of hassle, but I will probably look to find somewhere new in the near future.

So yeah, that's my compilation how I got here Again, there's any questions. Just please ask me or the comments or whatever. I'm sure I'll happily Provide more information or do another post or a podcast about it all and then it's finance I had Monzo before I moved which is a really good UK bank allowing me to spend Pounds and well my money in my UK account which is in pounds in into Swedish Crohn's without much of a any transaction fee

and just using the exchange rate that they choose which was, god -sent because I didn't have a Swedish bank and couldn't get one until I had all the personal number and everything else. So that was a very useful thing to have a good British bank to do that. Also I noticed like prepaid international cards and other things like Revolut which do a similar thing so it's interesting just to check that out before you move if you do move somewhere abroad. But yeah, so that's how I got there or got here. I'm still here.

yeah, as I said before, if there's anything you want to know a bit more in a bit more detail, I'm happy to show that. just let me know. And if not, we'll see you for section two of the podcast about being here. Welcome to section two of the podcast all about being there. So here's where I'm hoping to be some back off with the guests about, but I want to really just

give you all a bit of information on what life or day to day life is like in the locations we're talking about. So as I said, for me, it's Gothenburg. And yeah, when I first moved, it was quite strange because I was very lucky that I was, I'd been to Gothenburg quite a few times before with work and therefore I knew people as well. So my first kind of arrival, I kind of knew my way around to get out to get, get from the airport to the city center.

James Doran (11:16.333)

and to my accommodation, but also then how to use the trams, how to use the local network and be able to at least know a bit of the language, not a lot, but I can read some things and know where I'm going and where the main points are in the city. So that was a huge benefit for me for when I first arrived to live. It was weird though because on my accommodation,

the keys actually on my phone. So I'll just show you quickly. But I have this app here, this app, and you have to tap here. And this is the key to your phone, to your house. Now that was quite strange because I was really nervous that, it's the key on my phone. Will I have it before I go? And it was quite stressful before I arrived. But luckily it did. And I found the accommodation and it worked. But the big problem with that is when I was going out with my...

friends and colleagues who I knew before to learn more about the city, find places to go. I was basically limited to the battery life of my phone, of how to, when I can go home. And I had this like fear of always not being able to get in because my phone had died. So either I took a power bank with me everywhere or a charger and tried to borrow something or politely asked someone behind the bar or at a coffee shop, excuse me, can I borrow?

your cable or can I just put my phone to charge there? Can I charge my phone behind the bar? And more often than not, everyone said yes. So I'm not finding, but it's always feeling a bit cheeky or like I shouldn't have to do that. A key should work, but you know, we're trying to integrate new technology, which is great. But for me, it just didn't have that kind of what is the fallback? Should something happen? What if my phone was stolen? You know, I would then not be able to come into the place where I lived.

or even call them, you know, the kind of physical override to get into some work is a huge benefit. So that was a kind of fear at start. But going back to when I first moved, I was very lucky that a good friend of mine, Victor, had agreed to meet me for dinner. So I wasn't alone when I moved. And then also some of the friends from work were planning on going out because when I moved was actually the summer break for a lot of my friends in work and they weren't actually going to the office every day. So.

James Doran (13:41.293)

It was quite quiet, but a lot of them had agreed who were in the city anyway to come join me for some food and for some drinks. And it was actually a really good night out really and a very nice kind of start to life here. And suddenly, two days later, my birthday was when I was here. I'd been away from my girlfriend and my family and things. So they all kind of took me out and we had a really good night, which was I was blessed to have such wonderful friends.

But the kind of first impressions of the city and the culture. In the summer especially, there's a lot more going on. There's a lot of things in the city going on, there's always people around. However, flip that into the winter, you can go on a walk and not see anyone or no one makes eye contact and it feels a bit insular.

things are more closed off, which is fine. People deal with winter and darkness their own way and cold, but it's just different to what I'm used to. I'm used to being able to walk within found me is finding a pub with people in, having a good time, no matter what day of the week normally. And you could even use that as a way of making friends. And that was quite difficult when I first moved is the usual avenues of which to.

to make social groups I found in the past were not the kind of metrics or, not metrics, but the mechanisms to use in order to do a game in Sweden. So what I then did was, my colouring of mind, mentioned to me about volleyball. I played volleyball at university in the UK. So I was like, great, I'll join a team because that way I'll be able to meet people and train and have some kind of...

regime in my week. I'm not just going to work, coming home, being alone. It's not great. So I went to tryouts with two teams in Gothenburg and chose the team closest to my house, which is the better choice because the other teams are good. I said I actually beat them last week, but yeah, it's a bit of a Gothenburg rivalry. So I joined this volleyball team, which is about a 15 minute walk from my house and they train three times a week and we have games every now and again. And it's a really good environment.

James Doran (16:05.197)

A to learn to read this because the majority of them are locals. And B just meet people who aren't who I work with and slowly build relationships with these people as well, which has been wonderful. I've really enjoyed that. I met some really good people and had some really good fun. I had some good structure to my weeks of getting some exercise, not just sitting in my house on my own or working all day, which has meant...

that life here is really good. And you find that with a lot, there's a lot of sports going on in Sweden. I've noticed there's, in Gothenburg especially, I've noticed I've not lived anywhere else in Sweden, but when I walk to volleyball, there's a hall with five sections. There's always handball on what's called floorball, which is kind of like indoor hockey with a perforated ball. Yeah.

and there's football and I don't know if football is not a good app but there's always some sports you can play it's a curling centre next to it yeah there's loads of things you can do and there's a huge beach volleyball centre in Gothamburg which I joined as well because that's a really fun sport to play so yeah there's always variations you can do and things you can play and ways to meet people another good thing as well I did when I got here was I got Meetup the app

which is all about mainly expats who don't really want and you have on the app different interests and from where you're from. So there's like a short stories group, there's language, there's walking, hiking, photography, all various things. There's football, I think as well, that's on Facebook. But it's a way of you go, there's an event on this week or someone's saying, let's go for a walk around this place.

and you go, yeah, I'm interested in that, so I'll go. I did Frisbee golf as well. And you meet people who are in a similar situation from all over the world, which is just amazing and a great way of just knowing some more people and building that relationship over time is a great way as well. So something that I recommend you do, because usually you will find something that you like or a hobby that aligns with what you do. On Meetup, it's not everywhere. It's usually if, but also if it's not where you are.

James Doran (18:29.133)

then make a group. Maybe someone will want to join and you'll do things that way. So one thing that's great is if you don't find something on there, you're like, you can start that and maybe someone else will come in and share that with you. And then the other thing I guess with my first impressions are being an English speaker as a native, it's super easy not to learn a language.

because everyone speaks English so well, even better than British people probably because it's just so, it's taught from a young age, it's taught properly and okay one thing that annoys me is everyone seems to learn American English which is not the same as what I'm used to so if some words are like, nah that's not right or spelling and things I'm gonna say no you're saying it wrong and I've become a fan of this because when I speak sometimes

After living here for so long and speaking with people who aren't first language English talkers I end up either adapting an American accent or Americanisms and what I then call my girlfriend. She's like you're saying city again Not city and all this other stuff and it was just quite amusing for the two of us to like notice this this could I change? Because you do kind of you just throw the cadence of how you sort of speaking you also maybe

Restrict your vocabulary in order to make sure what you're saying is getting across. For me, that's a great skill. So I didn't even think about it before I moved was, you know, it's gonna help me communicate much better with people who aren't of the same background as I am, who have some English, yes, of course, but not to the same, you know, they don't spend, you know, 20 years of their lives talking it. So they're not gonna be as exposed to a lot of the English language as I would be.

just knowing how to be critical with the words you choose is really useful. But yeah, so that's kind of my experience, I guess, my first experience of it and how I enjoyed moving here. I'll see you for section three, all about recapping it all.

James Doran (20:47.853)

Hello, welcome to section three of the podcast, which I actually haven't named yet, which maybe people could in the comments put an idea down for what it should be named. I'm thinking like just to recap, but the idea is it's gonna be some advice to give to people based on what they've done. So even just people who want to travel to the city, want to move to the country you live in, you know, moving anywhere in the world as well. So.

For me, looking back on my first six months of living in Sweden, it's been great. I've really enjoyed working here. Living here has been difficult because, as I said, my girlfriend lives back in the UK and that's been tough for the both of us. Some evenings we just talk on FaceTime, but it's obviously not the same. And it means you've got to put a lot of effort into that relationship, which is harder to do when you're both kind of absent from each other, but not absent from the relationship.

So that's one thing I've noticed since living here is if you move and your family or partner stays back home or somewhere else, be aware that it's going to be hard and it's going to be full of emotional moments. But hopefully if you both love each other and you're strong, then you'll be fine. You'll come out at the end of it with just an amazing appreciation for each other.

time you spend together is such a gift. So that's one thing which has been difficult about moving here. When I moved, well I was meant to move originally, I was single. So the delay from Covid meant I met my girlfriend and you know I would never ever not want to have met her and you know but I've also never want to have moved abroad. So I think just just being aware of both those things have...

made it a bit harder than it needs to be or needed to be if it was the other way around but you know it's nothing in life that's worth doing as easy so it's you know one of those things where putting the extra effort into call her we do yoga every day at the moment which is really good fun it's kind of thing we've been doing since the new year when we're not part is trying to meet up every evening and do a yoga session off YouTube so I'll go on my iPad show my screen.

James Doran (23:13.485)

and we would do that together and it's really really good and it's really helping our relationship I think just to have that kind of feeling like we're you know spending time together in the evening which has been wonderful actually I've really really enjoyed it but then looking back at the work in Sweden for me working here is different to the UK the culture is a bit different people seem to prioritize the lifestyle more than the work they do.

not to say that they don't do good work and all the lazy, the opposite. People are very efficient here. People do a really good job, especially at work. And it's really inspiring to see that there's no stigma of, hey, yeah, I'm gonna go get my kids from school. I'm gonna go, a lot of the banks don't open outside of working hours. So it's normal just to say, I need to go to the bank. I need to go to this place.

And people do it, people go run errands just all during the day, which I think we're getting to in the UK a bit more, be able to do that, especially since working from home is more popular. You had done times, you just run down the road or would be near somewhere and sort some things out. But I've noticed here it's much more integrated into society. It's just normal to do it and normal to focus on your wellbeing as much as possible. And that also, I feel, leads to...

better work because people are happy to work though, you'll be more productive and everything just seems to be, you know, much friendlier in that regard when it comes to, there's no feeling of anxiety if you need to do something that's not related to work, during work hours you don't have to worry about it at all, which has been nice. Another thing to kind of think about is if you're coming over, think about getting an international bank sorted.

and trying to get a bank account in Sweden before you move, if possible. It just makes things quicker or I got very unlucky with my personal number delay. It's between two and 18 weeks. My mom was about 13. Some friends I know was two. So it's all a lottery, but be aware to wait and be able to use your bank accounts back home and things before you...

James Doran (25:36.077)

For me it was four months I waited in total for everything to be sorted. Be aware that might be a possibility for you as well, so make sure you have ways of paying for things in the country, paying your rent and things, but also you're not hampered with foreign transaction fees. My company paid my UK account and I paid it back into Sweden to spend, which meant I was hit twice with foreign transactions, which is quite upsetting, but it had to be done whilst I was finding my feet.

So just be aware that could be a problem for you as well. Hopefully not. Hopefully it's all, you know, smooth sailing, but just be aware that could be an option or could be a eventuality. you know, a bit of advice for someone who wants to come to Gothenburg. there's a lot of apps you'll need and I'll probably put a few of them in the show notes or around the podcast for you just to look at and research. But the main thing is VashTrafik, which is the local, app for the.

trams and buses that's really useful for just getting around. I'd recommend that as the main thing to get. But also when you're here, if you want to do something, I'd go to the islands off the west coast, either the north or south. There's a tram you can get from the centre of town, goes all the way to South Holman, and then you get a ferry over, which is beautiful, especially here in spring and summer. Do it. Just do it. If you're coming to Gothenburg, it's beautiful. And then to advise people who are just...

moving to Sweden, again do it. If you have the opportunity to live abroad and work abroad I would recommend doing it because you can always go home. Usually I'm lucky I can go home, not everyone can, I'm aware of that, but normally there's an option to go somewhere else, we'll call go home, which if you don't take the opportunity to move and live abroad you might regret it when you're older. I knew I would have done so that's why I was like I need to go before before.

You know, I have to settle down. So I actually, I was obviously going to change my job before I came. One of the reasons why I didn't was because this was a chance to do the thing that I wanted to do since I graduated school or university was to live in a foreign country and immerse myself in a foreign culture. Now I've done that enough and I'm really happy I have done that. So if you've got the opportunity to do that or feeling a bit stale, then look into it because it'll open so many doors to open so many kind of...

James Doran (28:01.581)

avenues of exploration, whether it's language, whether it's, you know, different friends, different cultures, the empathy view and perspective of people from different cultures. Being an immigrant, like I'm an immigrant now in this country and how that changes would mean when I go home or move wherever I am in the world. My empathy for people who have done a similar thing only, you know, grows in my understanding of the struggles that they might go through. I would never have thought of.

before doing this myself. So I hope it just makes me a better person or a more understanding person. So that's why if you have ever a chance to go and do something, then please, yeah, really, really think about it. Because you will probably not regret it. Maybe it might not be easy. You might not like it so much. That's fine. You've done it. You've found something you don't like doing. That's a really valuable thing. Go back and carry on. So that's my main thing that I'd say to people was, yeah.

just either have a chance to go and live abroad, then do it. And then if you're looking for friends, get me to, or go on Facebook, go on social media, you'll find groups all over. There's like British people in Gothenburg groups, there's internationals in Gothenburg, there'll be all over the world, there'll be groups for expats in most big cities and countries. Yeah, I think they're the only big things I would say, and I hope you really enjoy it. I hope you've...

found something from this. Hopefully the future episodes where I'm actually in more of a conversation will be more useful. Yeah, this is my first podcast, my first ever attempt. So please bear with me. I'm going to be perfect first time around. And I accept that. But if you have any constructive criticism, please send it my way. I will grow. Thank you for listening to my podcast. Or the expat pod, that's what I say.

It's been great having you with me to explore the start of this journey. If you liked it, please give it a review. Please give it five stars on Apple. And that's kind of how it works and helps open it to other audiences. Please share with your friends and family. If you know someone who's lived abroad and wants to have a bit of fun with it, who's looking to move abroad, please share it with them. They can, you know, hopefully.

James Doran (30:20.461)

glean some information from this. But also if you just find it for entertainment, please keep listening, keep enjoying it. It does get better, I promise. But yeah, I'm on all social media. I think the expat pod is the handle for most things. So please give me a follow. It'll be in the show notes. You can find me anywhere. And we'll see you next time. Thank you so much.