As I arrived my first day I was greeted by a small team of four other people, making me the fifth employee at this location. The CEO and founder of Ecobloom is my supervisor, so he showed me around the office and where I am going to be working for the next two months. He also explained to me how work in Sweden is not like America. Even though he is the “CEO” he urged me to hold him accountable, and in return he will hold me accountable, demonstrating how the social hierarchy of a typical American company is more of a flat line here. I was really surprised, but interested nonetheless.

He also explained to me that at startups, you will not be doing minor, unrelated tasks, such as getting coffee. You will be doing just as much real work as the other employees, something I am very excited for because I enjoy the field of work I am in. 

I briefly mentioned in my last update that I am a Communications Intern for a small startup called Ecobloom. In my contract, my responsibilities entail sales work, marketing, public relations, and various media tasks. Most large companies have one person, or even a team of people for large corporations, designated for each of these categories. However, since the company is so small, we only have one person in charge of all content creation.

Another surprise after coming to the office for the first day was learning that many of the already few employees work remotely, thus this small group of people will be my only coworkers for my time in office here. This was my first challenge as the only other employee who does communications work not only doesn’t come into the office at all, but she also only works eight hours per week. This, combined with the fact that my boss had a conference the second day of working, allowed me to feel somewhat lost in terms of work.

However, I decided to take initiative and work on what I knew my boss mentioned on my first day. He briefly explained that he wanted me to do what I enjoyed doing, and to let him know what kind of work is working for me, and what isn’t. He asked me for ideas on projects, and since it was my first day, I had few to none. But, for my second day I took the time and wrote out a complete document, including thorough research for what communications work I could do during my time here, and what would best improve the company. I made sure to write politely and formally, mentioning multiple times how I would do whatever work he saw best fit.

The third day, my boss was still at the conference, so I decided to continue with the theme of initiative and create mock advertising and marketing materials for him, just some potential ideas since he had mentioned he was thinking of pursuing this area of business. I got used to working with Adobe, and sent him another complete document by the end of the day.

Swedish workplaces are much more relaxed than America. While I was furiously typing away on my computer my coworkers reminded me that I could go on a break anytime I wanted, or that there are actual napping rooms on a different floor if I wanted to relax. I had never seen something like this in America before, so the concept of taking longer, intermediate breaks baffled me. I noticed however, that this actually improved my work and by taking a few extra minutes to walk around, eat a snack, or stretch, I felt revived and ready to continue working. 

In terms of skills for this workplace besides taking initiative, I would say flexibility is huge. On my fourth day, we all took a trip to one of our client’s indoor farms, installing some of our EcoSense technology. Now, of course I am not a tech person, but this interrupted the routine I had started, and I am a huge lover of routines. Naturally, I was somewhat bitter about taking an hour and a half detour from my work, and I felt somewhat useless when I first got there. But once we started working, I found so many ways to be flexible and help with things outside my comfort zone. You also have to be flexible in this type of career as well, so it is good practice for me. The broadness of my job means I’m creating ads one day, then sitting in on sales meetings the next. I could be writing a press pitch to local media, or completing competitor media audits an hour later, it all depends on what is most important at the time. 

So, although I have found the Swedish workplace to be much more calm and relaxed than America, skills to stay on track and adapt to new, unfamiliar circumstances are vital nonetheless to success. 

Until next week!