Move to Sweden as a Support Engineer

Hello,



I'd like to explore the possibility to move to Sweden, my field is Informatics, but as Support Engineer, we do a lot of things: incident response, oncall rota, automations, security, networking etc...

I hope it makes an idea of what I do.


I currently live in UK, and I'm on around 90k pounds per year (it would be 98300 SEK monthly) + benefits (around 3.5k pounds).

I live in the surroundings of London, 90k in London wouldn't even pay for a 2 rooms.


Many say that I have high salary, but it has never been high enough to provide a high life quality, plus, as of now the reality is that it's 20% less worth prior to the pandemic, so not nice at all, but I've never starved.


The first issue I noticed in Sweden is the salary for my position, which is not different from a Software Developer and almost Software Engineer, it's around the half!

In the big picture, it wouldn't even make sense to think about working on a role above mine.


Funny story is that taxation in Sweden is much higher, so those less money will be felt even more.

I understand that some additional public service is provided, but I don't see that in my life. Maybe if I hadn't the car (in UK public services are a joke), but still doesn't add up to the entire loss, even with a 1:1 comparison.


I have a few questions:

1. Do I have the correct numbers in hand?


2. What kind of advantage I would have in Sweden? Trivial question, but I mean beyond the good work-life balance as advertised by everyone


3. What kind of additional personal security can I receive?

Permanent health insurance?

Better government benefits if the worst happens?



My objective to come in Sweden is not money, even though what I saw about salaries and life cost is the first thing (it's a good measure, that's all), I just wish to get rid off the sick environment where we all work, in UK/US the working mantra in our industry is work always, even outside startups, everyone races with each other and it's an extremely unhealthy environment, plus the turnover is very high at any salary band, and I swear that I've seen higher turnover in Support/R&D than in a bad call center.


As a direct consequence, I expect the people to be better too (not mandatory, just a nice have), in UK it's just incredible, but what can I pretend from such life style of working like crazy, long hours, many weekends taken away and most probably you're not even paid, but the payment wouldn't solve the problem, LET'S BE CLEAR on that.

The people can't be any good, that's an assurance. On top of that, they also don't socialize, but I always wondered if it was due to the unhealthy working space more than the massive immigration, both make most of their daily struggle I guess.


I've seen a lot of troubles with massive immigration in Sweden, but as in UK, just staying away from those places should be enough, I just hope they solve it as some point.


At the end, I want to come in Sweden to be in peace, be in a country where pretty much everything sounds, work as I should, have proper time off or free time after working hours, have sufficient money to live nicely and pay every insurance I may ever need, do the sports I like and possibly live in a safe area, that's it.

I love the cold and the mountains, I couldn't choose a better place.


Oh, possibly having enough space of living because in UK is a serious pandemic, but I guess that renting/buying an house is possible only for an handful of people, certainly not with the salaries of my industry AND certainly not with the life cost nowadays.


Thanks everyone.

no one?

Your post is hard to follow, in part because your inquiry is intertwined with unnecessary comments such as "I always wondered", "both make most of their daily struggle[,] I guess", "I just hope they solve it at some point", and so forth. Other phrases such as your wish to "pay every insurance I may ever need" are unclear.


Taxes are unreasonably high in much of the EU, and tax burden in Sweden is one of the heaviest worldwide. The idea of welfare economies' "good quality of life" is an overstatement. In reality you would be supporting the finances of more and more of those economies' aging population.


The high turnover in the US is a result of the at-will employment doctrine that applies by default in employment relations there. The parties could override that doctrine in their contract, but candidates are afraid that even proposing some alternative could deter the employer from hiring them. Candidates don't even require from employers any reciprocity regarding an n-week notice of resignation. By contrast, labor markets & politics in Europe are less flexible, more protectionist than the law of supply & demand. Europe's protectionism and systemic rigidity are a double-edged sword: The turnover is lower than in the US, but so are salaries, career progress, and ultimately your purchase power.


Another factor that keeps salaries low in the EU is employees' leniency as to remaining underpaid, a pattern that only professionals from elsewhere (US, Switzerland, Singapore, etc.) are likely to notice.

@pragmatist thank you, yes my post is not super easy to understand, the context is quite complex, but I see that you mentioned important things anyway, so your understanding wasn't so bad.




My salary can be compared to one in US, but it doesn't make me rich in UK, thinking that in Sweden I'd get more wealth/security with more taxes and half salary, it sounded immediately bad, so this is the main thing I wanted to underline.


With much less cash left, I thought I can forget an additional health insurance (not super necessary in Sweden but as a foreigners complications are higher), unemployment insurance, I didn't see any permanent income insurance in Sweden but probably I don't know much about Sweden.


I still have to explore critical illness and essentially all the necessary ones, so I'm not fully aware of how it works in Sweden for those.



At the same time, I see a lot of openings in my field, it should be easy to find a job, but I don't see the wealth coming, or maybe I reached too much in UK which is hard to reach anywhere else.



A foreigner that doesn't speak the language spends even more money than a local (translations, travel back home etc), usually you're paid more if you go in a country where you don't speak the language, and I talk by experience.


I don't see that in Sweden, and despite it's genuinely respectful, business doesn't know respect, so this 1:1 comparison is very discouraging for me.


This + the half salary doesn't make Sweden a good choice, what do you think?

I see a lot of openings in my field, it should be easy to find a job


Beware of what is known as ghost jobs. Back in 2012 I made the mistake of quitting my job in the US upon scheduling job interviews with several intermediaries in Europe who expressed interest in my profile. All those hiring processes turned out to be fake.


Ghost jobs are common also in the US and the rest of America, but they are much more prevalent in Europe.


This + the half salary doesn't make Sweden a good choice, what do you think?


I agree. Unfortunately the same conclusion applies to much of Europe.

@pragmatist I wouldn't leave UK or my current job without a job in hand, especially if I need to move country.

Today I believe that some of them at least are true because Sweden is a small country and everyone is struggling to find employees, plus I'm not first experience, I have something to offer above the average, but if the salary doesn't allow me to rent/buy by myself safely then it doesn't look great at all.