James Doran (00:07.086)

My name is James, your host. I'm with Adi who's an Indian chap living in Sweden. Is that fair enough? Yeah, close enough. Do you want to describe where you've come from and like all the various places you've lived? Your history is quite confusing to me. Yeah. And I know you. Everyone else might find it hard to understand. Yeah, definitely. My name is Aditya, but everybody calls me Adi and that works fine. I'm originally from India.

but I was born in the UK. I grew up in the US, moved back to India and I've been in Sweden for close to six years now, the summer. Great, and how are you finding it so far? No, I really like it. I really like Sweden. I've had minimal to no complaints so far. Perfect. It's a really nice country to live in. People are nice. The winters are the one thing I don't particularly enjoy, but I'm sure we'll talk about it. Perfect.

James Doran (01:12.782)

So we're on section one, about getting there. So I guess you, it's about getting to Sweden. So I guess more about how you originally actually finished your high school, all your degree in India and then came over. So what was it you looked for? Why Sweden? Why did you choose the US, you can't see. Yeah. So I finished my bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in India, in Bagrock. And I was...

interested in doing my master's degree in aeronautics because I wanted to study aerodynamics and I wanted to come to Europe. So those were kind of my prerequisites. When I started doing some research, I had basically four options in mainland Europe. I didn't want to go to the UK because of high tuition fees and job insecurity because of the visa.

stuff related to getting to the UK and staying in the UK. So four options KTH in Stockholm, Linköping University in Linköping, Polytechnico di Milano in Milan and TU Delft in the Netherlands. So those are my four options. I applied to KTH and Linköping in Sweden. Delft was a bit too expensive because...

They had the actuation fees and it was comparable to the US, so it didn't really make much sense. I didn't want to go to Italy, wasn't particularly keen on going to Italy. I applied to the two universities in Sweden, got a scholarship at Linköping and why not? I had a few friends already studying at Linköping and they had good things to say. So, that's what I did. It's not something I've ever heard of. Delft, you hear of, we're former students at engineering universities.

a good one, like to Munich and Stockholm, the capital city. You never heard of Linköping? No, but in the aeronautics world, it's actually quite famous because that's where Assam is from. So Saab fighter jets and basically just Saab as a company, the headquarters is in Linköping. So Linköping was and I think is the aviation capital of Sweden. Interesting fact about Sweden.

James Doran (03:33.518)

So how was the process of actually, now you've found a university you want to go to, you've got the offer. You talk about the UK being difficult for visas, why was that? Did you do much research into that extensively or did you just go, no, it seems difficult to do, look somewhere else? No, so I had some friends that went to the UK and so in the UK you need to get sponsored to get a job, to pay for your visa basically.

And it's not something companies typically want to do. Another factor was the fact that master's degrees in the UK are only a year long. That actually at the time wasn't recognized by the Indian government if I ever wanted to go back as a master's degree. So they think apparently, it probably doesn't matter, but then they say that master's degree needs to be at least two years long for them to recognize it. So that also then kind of ruled it out.

So I guess India, I'm not a master's degree because my mom was one year. Probably not. Not according to the legal classification. But I'm not specifically saying master's. It doesn't matter. I don't think in hindsight it probably doesn't matter so much. But it was just more the uncertainty of finding a job. It's the risk you didn't want to have. That's fair enough. So then you chose the Interpreting University, you chose your course. What was the next step? Did you have to apply for a degree?

I think it's Europe or to Sweden specifically? So to study in Sweden you need a, at least from a non -European country, non -EU country, you need a residence permit at the time. So it's something you need to apply for and basically as soon as you get your admission letter from the university you send that in, this residence permit application to the migrations agency.

gets the ball rolling really, they have a checklist on their website and you start checking things off. I think the most annoying thing about that whole process was having to go to New Delhi, which is a two hour flight for me from home, just for a five minute appointment to go get my fingerprints and picture taken for my application and then fly back another two hours and then you're done. And the cost of it. Yeah, exactly, the cost and time and all that.

James Doran (05:55.854)

And where is home for you? So, I don't know. I like that. So, what part of India are you from? So, my family is from Bangalore in India. So, that's kind of in the southern triangle, the middle part. Okay. Best weather and best people. Also very humble. Maybe some bias. That's interesting. And yeah, when I went to America for a visa, this is my thing. But also, the UK is typically smaller than India. I took a train, but no plane. It's still two hours.

I spent that before and say at friends house, but yeah, the spending more time queuing than your appointment. It's like going to a theme park. Yeah. And you're cute for a ride and you go on the, and then the ride lasts 90 seconds and you get off and you go, Ooh, a queue for two hours for 90 seconds. Yeah. But yeah, that's interesting. And then, so after all that process is done and you've been accepted, what was next is you have to.

Did the university offer you that or did they offer you something? What did you have to do for that? So that was actually another cool thing with Lean Shaping was that they, at the time again, it's changed now, were giving international students fixed accommodation for two years in a student dorm. KTH in Stockholm didn't do that. So they were offering, I think, like a six month or eight month contract for international students to just get them set up and then...

basically asked them to find places by themselves. So that was a really cool thing. So no kind of stress there. And the student housing and tripping was amazing because it is predominantly a student town. It's all students are living in the same area and it's like a huge corridor room, dorm kind of thing. You have your own room, you have your own bathroom, but then you share the kitchen and living space. Yeah, really cool. Had a lot of fun. Yeah, there wasn't much to it. So accommodation was sorted by uni.

And as soon as basically this whole trip to Delhi and back and the visa process was done, I just had to sit at home and wait for them to ship this residence permit card home because you can't, at least non -EU citizens can't enter Sweden without a residence permit card with their passport. So they will default to the gate if you don't have that as you're entering, as you're crossing the border.

James Doran (08:17.678)

taught me but I managed to get in with the paper of my approval because I was getting made in Sweden. No but that's because your passport allows you to visit Sweden with a visa so that's what the catch is. That's the lucky. So passport, the power of your passport matters yeah. Yeah I was getting worse in the UK since we made a good decision. Bad decision. A very bad decision in my eyes anyway because it's made my life much harder.

But no, it's interesting. So what was your, I guess, before you left, did you have any anxiety about moving or going? Were you going to like, obviously it's quite far away from your family and what were you thinking before you moved? Oddly, I didn't really have any anxiety. I was actually really excited because it was a new country and I was moving to study something I really liked. So I had brand new opportunities and I was more excited than anything. But...

Yeah, it was an interesting time. It was a big change moving to Sweden and... The weather was different. Weather was different. People are different. And we're significantly different. Exactly. But I think it helped moving as a student because then you're surrounded by a lot of other lost students. That's something I'm struggling with now is when you move as an adult, everyone's got their friends in groups and everyone's settled in and you're just this new entity dropping the ocean relatively.

or at least if your students are taps being turned on and loads of people flooding into the same basin and they're all mixing in together. It sounds like a bit of rain on the river. It's not as easy to integrate. That's good. That ends the kind of first section of my buddy. So thank you for that. Cool.

James Doran (10:07.758)

Welcome to the second part of the podcast about being so about your life in Sweden, really, and how you found it, your first impressions, etc. So I guess for me, the first question is, what was your first impression you get the plane? What did you think? So I landed in Stockholm in Arlanda Airport, and I arrived in Sweden in August. So that's really nice. Yeah, it's really nice time to be in Sweden. And the first thing that I was a bit that the

by surprise was just the length of the day. Because I landed I think in the afternoon or late morning and then had to take a train to Linköping which is about three hours and then figure out my way to get to uni, pick up my keys, go back to my dorm and then go grocery shopping and set up my room and things like that. And then it was like 10 p and it's still bright outside and I just couldn't understand what was going on.

So it was a sweet mask, really the first investment. Yeah, because like I was jet lagged. So like India's what three and a half hours ahead? Yeah. Half an hour? Do you have that? Yeah. I just thought it was hour and a bit. No, so during summertime it's yeah, like three and a half hours ahead. I guess is it several times over the year or one time? It's just one time.

Yeah, because like I was jet lagged and I was tired and sleepy and then it's 10 o 'clock and I thought I'd just go to sleep but then it's so bright outside. So that was just like what's going on. And I think the second biggest thing that really hit me was just lack of people around. Yeah. Just that it's so not as dense. Scarfs. Yeah. I find that in England that's not as dense. Maybe London is.

on par because London is busy. Everyone outside of London is quite chill. Yeah. Similar to Gothenburg I guess, some cities, but Linköping I guess is tiny. Yeah, and especially like because when I arrived, exactly, when I arrived it was still kind of vacation time for students, so there weren't students either, so typically you'd go out for like around at eight in the morning and not see a single person.

James Doran (12:28.014)

for over like 15, 20 minutes and then just get back. When you moved, did other students move at the same time as you or were you just by yourself a little bit? I moved by myself, but there were like two other people in my corridor. This corridor has around eight rooms. But there were, yeah, there were like two people there already. So they helped me settle in. Were they Swedish or were they all other people from other parts of the world? No, so there was one guy from India.

and there was one suite and they helped me settle in. Nice. It's quite useful to have someone there to help you with me. When I first moved to Sweden, how did you give me a checklist of things I needed to do, which I took my time to do. No, but that's the thing. It's like when I first got here and went to like a grocery store to buy bread, eggs and milk, I didn't know what I was looking at because it's just, it's a foreign language. You don't understand what's what. And it's like, I think they're three quite simple things to buy based on how they look. Yeah.

Even then the bread is different. The bread is different. And the milk as well. It's like there's so many of these cartons that you don't really know. You can't see inside. You don't know what's what. You came up with yogurt when I said it. That's what I did. Really? Yeah. Well, I bought another kind of milk that they call, steel milk or something like that, but it's a bit thicker. A film milk. Is it unpasteurized or something? I don't know. I don't know what it is in El Borregan. That's good to know. So I guess another thing is...

So you're now in Sweden, you're now in Linchping. What was it like day to day? What was social life like? Obviously, university is a bit different. Maybe since you moved to Gothenburg and Linchping, what was the biggest change going from student life in any country to working life in any country? Yeah. So I lived in Linchping for a year and a half and then moved to Gothenburg to do my master thesis. But then again, I moved with four friends.

we shared a flat together, which was really nice because then I was just with them all the time and we made some friends through work again and just hung out. So we kind of had our own circle. But as soon as they left, then I was a bit lost. After the massive thesis? Yeah. So then I had to find friends through interests or hobbies basically. And I think that's still the case now. That's a good point. With hobbies.

James Doran (14:55.15)

Have you noticed a big difference between what you did back home in India compared to what is available here in Sweden? Kind of, but roughly I'd say they've been the same. So I enjoy basketball, for example. So I had a basketball group in India and I kind of have a basketball group here now as well. I enjoy tinkering with cars and bikes and just doing DIY stuff. So I have some friends that like to do that and we spend some time fixing each other, helping each other.

fix each other's cars and mess around with, you know, nuts and bolts and spammers. So slamming things, you know, blocking the camera. That's all good fun. It's all legal. But one hobby I have picked up since I moved to Sweden was mountain biking. Something I always wanted to do, but then didn't really exist as much in India. But that's been a new hobby I found in Sweden and we're quite a few friends through that now as well. Right. So did you just get a bike and do it or did you rent a bike? How did you first?

get into that if you see something new for you. I always wanted to do it so I just basically bought a bike and asked if I could join some people I knew that were going mountain biking. I really sucked and I probably still do suck but it was a lot of fun. So what about turning up though? Yeah. It doesn't matter as long as you smile. I think about mountain biking because you've got different runs kind of like skiing I guess. The people who are really good can just go and do the harder routes and even on some of the routes like some of the trails there's options to...

you veer off and make it more technical or difficult and still have like a blue one or a red one or something. Yeah, exactly. It ends up being you can cater to all abilities. It's kind of like why I like climbing. You can have someone who's an Olympic champion and someone who's completely novice but they're on the same wall. Yeah. It's all about being social. Yeah, yeah, completely. Another big one was music for me. Playing music and going to gigs. I have a small group for that as well with similar music taste which is... It's your pro rock taste, right? Yeah.

Prog Rock and Metal as well, so a little group that... It's quite popular here in Sweden, Metal. It is. Metallica are playing right now. They are. Rammstein and Estonia as well. Yes, also another kind of factor in me wanting to come to Sweden was... Metal scene? The metal scene. It's not so big in India? It's huge in India. But... I guess India is huge, so there's surely something popular.

James Doran (17:20.461)

No, but comparatively, I think it's even bigger than Sweden. Like, yeah, just a number of things happening. But it's just that a lot of really cool bands started out from here in Sweden. So it's kind of like, the highest of my favorite bands started out in Sweden. That's okay. It's all about being here, unless you have anything more to say about like, how you found banking or like when you first moved, did you have to spend your money from India or?

Because for me, I had to keep using my UX Bank account until recently. What was it like for you? No, that's exactly it. So that's something I'd recommend everybody moving to, not just Sweden, but any foreign countries to get like a Forex card from home for the first few months when they start, when they set up. Because especially in Sweden, it can take quite a while to get things set up. So it's a long process in Sweden, but I think having...

a forex card from your home country will really, really help. Because I've had so many friends that moved with me and ended up not being able to pay things because the cards don't work and you know, especially... It's like a prepaid travel card by CU County. Yeah, or even just like debit cards from like back home because the banks say that they're like international cards but they don't really work. Do you have to let your bank know you're moving abroad first as well when you came?

Typically, yeah, you need to kind of enable international banking, especially because it's so far away from India to Europe. There were a few things to do there, but it wasn't too bad. You know, Forex, Cardan, you're good to go. And what was your biggest change culturally between Sweden and India that you noticed? Was it something you just thought, this just seems odd? It can be good or bad, it's just different. It's a whole parallel issue for you.

Interesting. And food culture in general. It's just like the options to eat out are so limited. In Sweden? Yeah, yeah, in Sweden. It's just something that I see. Burgers everywhere. Yeah, it's just like it's either burgers, pizza or like the same. Yeah, and the same like Thai stuff. There's not so much street food. There's not so many other options.

James Doran (19:48.941)

I mean, of course there's a lot of options in the city, but I think it's still very limited and just I did notice that in neighborhoods like where I live now, there's nothing. Exactly. Where as at least growing up where I'm from and I've lived all over the country in England, every kind of neighborhood had like something like a little shop even, like some takeaway food. Yeah, exactly. You know, somewhere to socialize and kind of congregate. Whereas I've noticed here it's...

very much clustered. Yep. You go into the city, you go into Bokopnam, or Lindholm, and you have to go to the bigger areas in order to socialize. Yeah, which I find quite odd because this is supposed to be the second biggest city in Sweden and it still feels a bit small. But even in Stockholm, if you go outside of the kind of center section, I was thinking the north part of it, near Harvapalm.

And around there there was not much other than residential areas or hotels. You had to go 10 minute walk, 20 minute walk to get somewhere. Whereas you'd see someone on your block or in your neighborhood, there'd always be something. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. You bring up not to Istanbul Harve. It's been quite a popular one. I mean, to be honest, it used to bother me before, but...

Maybe I've been here too long that it doesn't bother me. I've been to Sinro five times. I'd rather go to a pub and be social with people rather than have it in my house. It's expensive. Yeah, that's the other thing is. But I think I've also changed as a person to be a bit more planned. I think that's a result of being here for so long. Because this symbol I get and being allowed to buy alcohol only at certain times is a problem only if you don't plan.

Yeah, because I'm quite a spontaneous person. I don't really do planning. Yeah. Maybe as I get older, I will do, but I like to be quite reactive to things. Yeah. So it can get quite frustrating. Especially when I have to walk like 15 minutes to get to go to the airport. Yeah, that's another thing. Accessibility and I mean, the public transport here is really good if you live on a good link. Exactly. So what neighborhoods are worth?

James Doran (22:12.173)

More for writing things, I guess. But yeah, it's interesting. I think more for being here or at least we can wrap it up. No, but I guess the only other thing about Sweden is just on what you were saying is if you live in the city, then public transport is great. Connections are good. Frequency is good. But as soon as you actually really want to explore the country or actually go out and see a bit more, I think you really, really need a car, which to be honest, I can kind of accept.

It's not as car dependent as like the US or UK. Exactly, I haven't got a better car here. But we're lucky in that we can borrow them from work. Yeah. So my parents are going this weekend, my brother. So I'm going to get a car from the office and use that to go to the airport to pick them up. Yeah, that's it. The airport's got bad transport links. There's a bus, but that's it. Yeah. Well, like usually there's trains and it's the second biggest city, for Christ's sake. Yeah. You usually have...

I think three or four ways of getting there, like Heathrow and Gatwick. You can get buses, trains, the tube even. It's quite frustrating. On that bombshell. We'll end that section.

James Doran (23:28.589)

Hello, welcome to section three of the podcast, which is kind of a recap of your time here. I know you're still living in Sweden, but let's just like put a pin in your life so far of being here and kind of recap how it's been and what you would evaluate it so far, midpoint or baseline for yourself. To be honest, I didn't think back then that I would live here for this long and I still don't know how long I'm going to live here. I like my job. I like the place. I have good friends and you know.

Life is good, so I don't see a reason why I wouldn't be here until one of those things changes. Would be the first thing, I think. And as a country as well, like for me as a person, I think I adjust well to this kind of culture. I don't know why or how, but I just think it's in line with kind of my mentality and the way I think. If I could, and you start building this kind of ideal country to live in, with all the...

best part from all the places you've been. Does that exist? It doesn't, that's the problem. I don't know. Or is he earning for something? I think Sweden comes pretty close to be honest. It's just the weather and the food are the two things I think would... Home cooking to counteract the food? Is it more the food culture? It's the food culture. It's just like going out to eat street food. I guess because it's so cold though. The weather and the food...

street food might go hand in hand. Could be. Over global warming it improves. I would hope for that. No, of course not. Every cloud has a way. So what's been your, obviously your reflection you said is you really like it here and you don't see yourself leaving anytime soon. Like me, you've got a relationship which was not in the country you moved into. What was that like when you first moved? You were together when you first moved, right? So. Yeah. Ish. Yeah.

No, whatever we were. But it was hard. It was not easy. It was a tough time. But then she moved closer and that made things easier. But, you know, with visa restrictions, everything gets super complicated and you can't really just move to each other that easily because you need to have a job lined up and a visa lined up before you can actually make that happen. No, I mean, it sucked. That's something I'm not even in the UK.

James Doran (25:50.541)

She has to get stamped and she's only here for three months every six. I know it's not as bad as could you, she would require a visa to travel to you, but it's something to think about. And yeah, if she wanted to move, it would require a visa or we'd have to get like a Samba relationship or something. You have to do something formal to have that opportunity. Yeah. And it's not that easy to get jobs in Sweden, applying from outside. It's quite hard because they, the companies I think need to prove that.

They couldn't find that talent already within Sweden. And then we're in the EU as a second? Yeah, so it's like first preference is Swedish national, then European passport, and then all the rest of us basically. But it's just the way it is. And it makes life a bit annoying. But it's getting better, I think. More and more companies recognize that. People from different countries bring different thinking. And that's one thing that's come from COVID, where...

Hybrid working has become this thing where if there's talent somewhere else, we don't need them to be where we are. We can cast the net up rather a field in order to find the perfect person for the job. Do you mean in the sense that they don't look for bringing people over anymore? Are you saying that? Well, not initially. No, maybe they'll go for a remote and then that'll be a way in because they have a job and then they can just transfer within the company. Couldn't be. Like I did. I had a job in the UK.

not working for Sweden, but I think I was able to move across because I already established myself within the company. Could be. I mean, yeah, everybody's working from home these days, but I think it really depends on the company because I know there are some companies that are making people come to work now and they want people to be there face to face. But it was what I was trying to say a little more on a general comment that I think companies are appreciating.

getting into that international talent adds different perspectives and different ways of achieving the same thing or similar things, you know, you don't know what you don't know. So it's, I guess the diverse workforce gives you so many perspectives and different empathy. Yeah, exactly. In order to understand the problem from different situations. So trying to design the car for someone who's not in your situation is very difficult because you don't know.

James Doran (28:15.725)

problems they have. Like for me, I'm quite tall. If I was designing a car for a 50 % female, I would not appreciate the problems they have with looking over this deal well or something. And vice versa. They wouldn't worry about headroom. No, exactly. So getting that broad spectrum of talent. Be that in background, one of those is quite useful. Cool. And what's so more about Sweden now and Gothenburg in particular?

What's your favorite part of the city? What would you recommend people to go visit if they were coming to the Aborste? So the forests or the alcobala goes, they are pretty cool. Yeah, I actually, the thing I like the most about Gothenburg is that nature is so close. I really like nature and being out, whether it's, I don't know, in the Arctic, Palago. Basically, I like going where there's not that many people. You noticed when you first moved here, of

not see many people. So that's the thing. Like I don't mind people in city areas because that's what the shock was. Yeah, that's where I would expect them. But then when you go outside to get away from it all, I think Sweden's an amazing place for that. It's like five minute drive this way, that way. And you're already kind of in a mountain or a mountain, but like a hill or a forest. I find that with the tram as well. I can go the bus from the...

We start with Stoke -Farm into it, half an hour and then Scotthouse, the park. If I run there, I can play frisbee golf or I can go to... I'm going to do the big lake thing, the south of Scotthouse, store the dam's car. The lake, just south, east of the city. And then you've got, I don't know, Sotholman, 35 minutes away by tram. And then you get a ferry and you've got all of the...

South West yeah it's quite cool and then Slotskogen is nice that's what I was trying to say. Hissingsparken is also very nice got lost there. Is that all north right? yeah yeah. That's on Hissingen. Yes. You can google that. Awesome and then so I suppose you the city where you like

James Doran (30:40.621)

If you could go back in time, if you could tell yourself when you first met a piece of advice or one thing you change or one thing you would do differently, what would it be? It can be nothing. You could do it all again the same way you did. Not much really. It wasn't perfect, but I try not to think about things like that because, you know, I'm here because of all the choices and things that happened along the way. And...

I can't really change it. You want you because of your mistakes? Yeah, I mean, I don't think it would be that way. So if it isn't much, I would change as such. Well, not you then. If someone was coming over to do what you did, but it's not you, would you recommend something to them which you wish you knew before you moved? I try to make these clean checklists for everyone that moves. I mean, you've got two already, and two under. I press you three. Exactly.

So I start saying service. No, but I think actually think about where you're moving from a quality of life perspective would be the big thing. Like don't move to a country just for the sake of moving to a country, but also think about like a long winter, something you would like and could handle. I mean, it was hard for me. The UK is not exactly, you know, known for its long, long winters or.

long daytime in the winter, it's still quite dark, but it's a bit darker and a lot colder. It's a big shock. Also, I'm assuming you're going to be moving for work or would like to work at some point. I'm doing a bit of research about what kind of companies exist and what the job market generally looks like in advance, I think, would really help. If you don't plan on leaving immediately, I don't want to say if you plan on settling because you never know, it just happens.

It would be good, I think, to just be aware of the kind of industries and the job climate. Exactly. It's like so again, using automotive as an example, there's like two companies or three companies in Sweden and that's it. Whereas like the UK, for example, is a much better. Yeah, but they are. But then you have a lot of options. Yeah. And suppliers. Exactly. It's quite Germany as well. There's a lot of options.

James Doran (33:03.501)

for automotive and things like that. I wish I had known before, I guess, in a way, a better understanding of the opportunities and just the job market and kind of, yeah, as you said, the flying. That's good. Thank you for coming on to the podcast and, you know, sharing your story or your life, your journey so far being in Sweden, comparing it to your home. It's been really interesting speaking to you and your background after.

conversations, lots of questions for help. But still obviously learning more and more and then I started a bit about university. That was really quite interesting for me. As I came just for work. I'm quite jealous because I would have liked to have that experience where I move in with loads of people in the same situation and not have to go to work every day. You have an option of your days a bit more yourself. So, you know, thank you. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any reflections on your first podcast.

appearance? No, it was fun. Thanks for having me. I've never done this before so I didn't ramble on for too long. I just hope it's enjoyable or useful. I think the whole purpose of this is to give some information to whoever watches this. Even if they're from India or the UK or anywhere in the world, there's something in there. Or it's entertaining at least. And someone can laugh at it or chit chat and rambling all about random things.

But that's one. Thanks for having me. No worries. And if you liked it, if you found something interesting or you have any more questions, please let us know. Get in touch on social media or in the comments section or however you wish to do it. I think I'm on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube. Please just feel free to go in touch and hopefully we can address some concerns in the future doing FAQs.

ask Ali some questions more. He's the encyclopedia of moving to Sweden, as what I was known, which will hopefully, you know, transcend into other countries. But yeah, thank you. Hopefully you can share this with your friends or one day move abroad. It'd be great. We'll see you next time. Bye.