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Making it in Sweden: a Frenchman in business

For Frenchman Yann Blandy, moving to Sweden straight after finishing his studies was the prelude to a successful career in business.

Published: 30 April 2008 11:52 CEST

Name

Yann Blandy

Age

37

Where do you live?

Stockholm

Where are you from originally?

France

What do you do?

Regional Director (VD) for Cision Northern Europe (a multinational media intelligence company).

What was your first job in Sweden?

HR Assistant / Secretary

What brought you to Sweden and when did you come?

My then girlfriend, now my wife, in 1995.

What did you do before coming to Sweden?

I studied in Paris

How did you find your first job in Sweden?

I sent 150 letters; got 1 interview – I looked for jobs in 1995 before Internet recruiting was founded and before e-mails. I sent 150 paper applications!

What’s the best thing about working in Sweden?

Acceptance for you are as a person; respect for competence rather than age, gender or nationality.

What’s the worst thing about working in Sweden?

Decision making is slow and there is too great an emphasis on consensus.

Do you speak Swedish at work?

Yes

Do you speak any other languages at work?

Yes, English.

Reader question: When am I eligible for a Swedish pension?

The Swedish pension is part of the country’s social insurance system, and it can seem like a confusing beast at times. The good news is that if you’re living and working here, you’ll almost certainly be earning towards a pension, and you’ll be able to get that money even if you move elsewhere before retirement.

You will start earning your Swedish general pension, or allmän pension, once you’ve earned over 20,431 kronor in a single year, and – for almost all kinds of pension in Sweden – there is no time limit on how long you must have lived in Sweden before you are eligible.

The exception is the minimum guarantee pension, or garantipension, which you can receive whether you’ve worked or not. To be eligible at all for this, you need to have lived in Sweden for a period of at least three years before you are 65 years old.

“There’s a limit, but it’s a money limit,” Johan Andersson, press secretary at the Swedish Pension Agency told The Local about the general pension. “When you reach the point that you start paying tax, you start paying into your pension.”

“But you have to apply for your pension, make sure you get in touch with us when you want to start receiving it,” he said.

Here’s our in-depth guide on how you can maximise your Swedish pension, even if you’re only planning on staying in Sweden short-term.

Those who spend only a few years working in Sweden will earn a much smaller pension than people who work here for their whole lives, but they are still entitled to something – people who have worked in Sweden will keep their income pension, premium pension, supplementary pension and occupational pension that they have earned in Sweden, even if they move to another country. The pension is paid no matter where in the world you live, but must be applied for – it is not automatically paid out at retirement age.

READ ALSO: Ten key questions to help you plan your Swedish pension now

If you retire in the EU/EEA, or another country with which Sweden has a pension agreement, you just need to apply to the pension authority in your country of residence in order to start drawing your Swedish pension. If you live in a different country, you should contact the Swedish Pensions Agency for advice on accessing your pension, which is done by filling out a form (look for the form called Ansök om allmän pension – om du är bosatt utanför Sverige).

The agency recommends beginning the application process at least three months before you plan to take the pension, and ideally six months beforehand if you live abroad. It’s possible to have the pension paid into either a Swedish bank account or an account outside Sweden.

A guarantee pension – for those who live on a low income or no income while in Sweden – can be paid to those living in Sweden, an EU/EEA country, Switzerland or, in some cases, Canada. This is the only Swedish pension which is affected by how long you’ve lived in Sweden – you can only receive it if you’ve lived in the country for at least three years before the age of 65.

“The guarantee pension is residence based,” Andersson said. “But it’s lower if you haven’t lived in Sweden for at least 40 years. You are eligible for it after living in Sweden for only three years, but it won’t be that much.”

SEE MORE: But what does it all mean? How to decipher Sweden’s orange pension envelope

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