After a day like today, I wish I was at Hondacrossen instead. I really shouldn't be writing about this here but I am frustrated and need to clear my head. The Medical faculty at Göteborgs Universitet arranged a 1-day seminar for people like me with a PhD and no tillsvidare position or really any stability at all. The point was to tell us what options we have out in the big big world and maybe give us some hope. Here were some of the suggestions...

Suggestion #1: Join a union which understands your problem and can try to convince the university to change. But the university is already aware of the problem and is waiting for cash to come from the government.

Suggestion #2: Go to Medical school. What a great tip. Why didn't I think about that in 1996? If I had wanted to be a doctor I would have already done that.

Suggestion #3: Work with a temp place like Proffice or Adecco. Yes, that is definitely more stable.

Suggestion #4: Use your innovative research idea to start a company. First, my research is on alcoholism which most people think is not a real disease. And we still don't know how alcohol is working even after much study both in and outside of the lab. =) But if they want an innovative idea, I can invent a little robot in a flying ship that will go around your body and shoot all the alcohol molecules. Yes...that should attract investors.

Suggestion #5: Listen to advice from people you know. Most I know have told me to get into medical writing. So I started a company as a 'Plan B'. But Swedish companies seem to write everything internally and charging people at the university for my writing talent is far more complicated than you could imagine.

Suggestion #6: Apply for any jobs that you really want. I would if anyone had anything even remotely close to what I can do.

So what is my conclusion? If you have a tillsvidare job in this country, do everything you can to keep it. There are no jobs in Sweden...period.

Meanwhile, I should try and get into importing cycling parts or something. Any brands you would like to see in Sweden that aren't already here?