Citizen of the world Sinead now happily resides in Nyköping
Software developer Sinead was able to keep her job at an Irish based company when moving to Sweden with her family. Despite never having been before, she found it easy to get sorted and quickly got accostumed to life in Nyköping.
Tell us a bit about yourself — where are you from and where are you right now?
I am half British, half Irish and currently living with my husband and our one year old daughter in Nyköping, Sweden. I was born in South Africa, grew up in the UAE, studied in the UK, worked in Ireland, Germany, India, and married an Indian man — I really am a citizen of the world! I have been living in Sweden since August 2017 and I absolutely love it.
What do you do for a living?
I am a software developer working for an Irish company called Retail inMotion. We provide an end-to-end travel retail platform with support for supply chain logistics, on board retail, mobile applications, and much more, for airlines all over the world. I worked for them while living in Ireland before I moved to Sweden, and now I work for them remotely. Day to day I work on bug fixing, improving our web platform and implementing new features for our app.
Tell us a bit about your journey towards becoming a digital nomad?
When I moved to Sweden, I wanted to continue working for Retail inMotion as I really enjoyed my work and the company as a whole, and they were kind enough to let me become a remote contractor for them. I registered my own company in Sweden and now work for them from the comfort of my own home. We have many remote contractors all over the world — Spain, Poland and Romania to name a few, so it wasn’t an unusual move. Since Covid-19 hit, many more people at the company have become remote workers and moved back to their home countries.
What made you want to visit Sweden as a remote worker?
I had never visited Sweden before moving here, but because my husband is a non-EU citizen, we had to pick a country to live in that was not Ireland or the UK. We ended up picking Sweden because the amount of English speakers was very high, and we had heard great things about living here as an immigrant. It was the best decision we ever made! With the internet and social media, I think it’s easy to get an idea of what a new city will be like without having to visit it, which made it even easier to just go for it.
What pros and cons are there being a digital nomad in Sweden?
Swedish employees have a fantastic work-life balance and a really strong emphasis on family culture. My husband and I both get to work from home and spend plenty of time with our daughter due to the generous parental benefits, which we wouldn’t get to do as much in the UK.
There are also numerous networking events and social groups you can attend in Stockholm and other cities so you don’t feel like you are missing out on the social aspect of going to work. If you don’t speak Swedish, getting set up might be a bit confusing but pretty much everyone here can speak English and are all really helpful.
Your best tip for someone wanting to go live in Sweden as a digital nomad?
Join meetups and facebook groups based on your interests so that you can connect with like-minded people who can then give you tips on getting set up in Sweden. It is pretty easy if you have someone to explain all the things you need to do, and the facebook groups are great for that.
Wanna share your nomad experience? Get in touch!
✏️ ronja@svenskanomader.se
