We have been visited several companies in Sweden. It is not hard to find that most of the leaders focus on the diversity for their team. Working with people from different countries seems like very common in Swedish companies.
In Sandvik, we noticed that the company’s slogan is “Developing innovative solutions for a changing world”. Bettina gave us a very interesting presentation about the company culture and value. I remember she showed the picture below:
This is so true when most of the managers selecting their potential employees. It is true that people want to work people they like, but it is also true that people only like people who are similar to themselves. However, the fact is that every human being is different. There is no exactly same person in the world. There is a Chinese saying “seek common ground while reserving differences . which demonstrates the importance of learning to work with diverse people if we want the company to grow big and stay long.
Same thing happens in Sqore. The slogan for them is “Opportunities for all”. They are like an agent which connects employees and employers, and offering them the opportunities to get a better job. There are many team members from all over the world. We met employees from the U.S, South Africa, and South Korea. I wish I could work in a company like that. People share different culture and share different opinions when they are working. It must be fun. The world is too big for us to imagine how different we are when we are working with people who share different languages, education and culture.
Thinking about the diversity of Swedish companies, we realized that the policy in Scandinavia is quite open for international employees. As long as a student has a company sponsoring, he/she will be able to work in Sweden. The situation is different in the U.S. U.S. has very strict rule for international employees. After we graduate from Chapman we only have one time to do the lottery for working visa. The probability is about 40%-50%. It is very understandable that there is less people here in Scandinavia but the opportunities are valuable especially for world explorer.
