Why should you bother looking for a job when they are literally being thrown at you? Why should you do anything else than just e-mailing your personal network to find the next job? Because looking outside of your personal network takes you out of your comfort zone and increases the likelihood that you will find your dream role or find the dream company to work for.

So, what are the general recruitment channels in Sweden if you are a developer? Below are some of the channels to use.

1  Personal Network

Tapping into your personal network is often the most common and easiest way to get started with a job search. It usually also gets you far enough to get a good position in an interesting company. People who generally come into play here can be:

• Family and relatives working in the same industry
• Previous colleagues as well as current ones – depending on the relationship you have and how open you can be about exploring new opportunities
• Friends of friends – tap into your friends’ network to access companies or people in key decision making positions that can be hard to reach without an introduction.

2  Social networks

Social networks are a great place for companies and hiring managers to broadcast the roles and positions they are currently recruiting for. It’s also space where companies, who really have done their homework when it comes to caring for their employees and caring to find the best employees by offering a great workplace, can exhibit their workplace. They are a good source of information and insights into the company. The most commonly used networks are Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

3  Job boards

Depending on your level of skills and the type of position you want to reach, job boards are a good place to go. This is especially important if you have a limited network in a location where you are looking for a job. They can be terribly boring to research, but given the difficulty for companies to hire great people, applying there can actually land you some interesting positions. Typical sites in Sweden are: Monster, Uptrail,  Swedish Startup Space, Indeed, Glassdoor and CS Jobb.

4  Recruiters

A big recommendation here is to talk to two or three recruiters of your choice. They should be specialized in your industry, have a nice approach and you should be able to feel trust and confidence towards the recruiter. You want to make sure to pick someone who works according to best standards in the industry so that you can rely on your information being safe and your CV not being sent across town to all companies looking for someone like you.

You should be able to have a good dialogue about your interests, type of position and company you are looking for and also define how to take further steps together towards your next job.

A good recruiter can open you to positions that are not even out in the public.

5  Events

Going to industry events related to your skills, role and seniority level is a great way to know what is going on inside your industry. It also allows you to connect with new people that you wouldn’t get to know otherwise. With every new connection comes a new opportunity. There is also a good chance you could land an interview from attending that type of events, so don’t neglect this.

Meetup is a great place to look for these events.

6  Tools

There is a variety of tools you will need to use in order to land your dream job. The more platforms you are available on the better it is.

Twitter – is a great place to keep track of what is happening and what companies are hiring. It is also a very easy place to engage in relaxed conversations with people that are looking to hire new talent.

LinkedIn – Even if it’s a bit dull at times, it is still the number one platform to do professional networking. You can see jobs, research companies and people from there and also use it to make new connections and communicate with your existing ones.

GitHub – for developers. This platform is a place to share your code, contribute to others and follow other people’s projects.

Stack Overflow – a good source of knowledge, sharing your knowledge and expertise by answering questions and also a place where companies are promoting open positions.

Traditional communication tools are the phone (yes, a real-time conversation is good), SMS (to check in quickly at different stages of an interview process) and e-mail (to communicate and send documents across).

All in all, there are several recruitment channels in Sweden that are good to work with to find your dream job in a dream company. If you are willing to invest some time and efforts into it, I can assure you that you will tenfold the chance of finding that dream position of yours.