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We'll Call You
‘A reflection of our times. Hits so close to the mark as to make you blush.’ - Radio Sweden P1
A regional office supplies magnate who yearns to be a poet.
A purchasing manager who sees big city life as the route to avoiding school reunion shame.
An interior design fanatic who needs to make up her mind about a contentious mug.
We’ll Call You is a collection of nine stories of the aspirations, self-deception, apathy and despair of the modern job interview, written by Jacob Sundberg, a communications officer and freelance writer.
A regional office supplies magnate who yearns to be a poet.
A purchasing manager who sees big city life as the route to avoiding school reunion shame.
An interior design fanatic who needs to make up her mind about a contentious mug.
We’ll Call You is a collection of nine stories of the aspirations, self-deception, apathy and despair of the modern job interview, written by Jacob Sundberg, a communications officer and freelance writer.
- GenresShort Stories
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 13, 2021
The job interview is quite an odd procedure. In an hour, via a series of questions, you have to prove yourself to a group of people that you are actually capable of performing the job you are applying for. Which means that answers to ten or so questions will change your future. Sometimes there’s a tour chucked in but the process is the same.
Obviously this leads to certain situations. In one particularly memorable interview I experienced , all the people in the interviewing board all had the same name and the skills they required were not of a librarian but a computer programmer as they wanted someone to create a sophisticated database (no XL sheets please they said) of their library AND to restore their books in the process. When I told them this the reply was – you are an apostle, we want Jesus, Goodbye.
The job interview can be absurd.
Jacob Sunderberg, in his short story collection, We’ll Call You is about the weirdness that is the job interview. All 9 of these pieces touch upon an aspect, which I’m sure most people have experienced at one time or another.
The opening story, An Exotic Touch is straight out of Monty Python sketch : an interviewer is interviewing a foreigner and is doing his best to present the company as open minded but in his quest to be politically correct he ends up sounding condescending AND a racist and the interviewee just walks out on him.
The following story, A Sense of Style, is about another type of personality, the one who lies to impress. In this case it’s a person with heightened aesthetic qualities who is interviewed for a job at a high end interior design shop. The owner then tests her by praising a Moomin mug and seeing if she will betray her opinion on the mug to get the job. I’m sure at all points we have gone against our tastes in order to be hired at a dream place. (well I never did as you can see by my fiasco).
The exact opposite happens in the stand out story, That’s Just so me. An interviewer asks the interviewee to be honest about the poetry he writes as a hobby. This piece displays the eccentric/conniving side of bosses.
There are more aspects to the interview that is explored. Bigger than Dylan is about the overly nervous interviewee, Slow Cooker Saturdays is about the overly enthusiastic boss and Close to Home is a witty look at how a prestigious location of a workplace may not be the best reason for changing a job.
All 9 stories in We’ll Call You are humorous, relatable and, more importantly, fun. There’s a deadpan vibe that one sees in Roy Andersson’s films. At the same time one does learn about Swedish culture, which something I appreciate when reading translated literature. If anyone has gone through a rather strange job interview, I definitely recommend this book and even if you haven’t We’ll Call You is a pretty good guide/forewarning of what can can happen to you or how to avoid acting like these people when interviewing prospective candidates.
Obviously this leads to certain situations. In one particularly memorable interview I experienced , all the people in the interviewing board all had the same name and the skills they required were not of a librarian but a computer programmer as they wanted someone to create a sophisticated database (no XL sheets please they said) of their library AND to restore their books in the process. When I told them this the reply was – you are an apostle, we want Jesus, Goodbye.
The job interview can be absurd.
Jacob Sunderberg, in his short story collection, We’ll Call You is about the weirdness that is the job interview. All 9 of these pieces touch upon an aspect, which I’m sure most people have experienced at one time or another.
The opening story, An Exotic Touch is straight out of Monty Python sketch : an interviewer is interviewing a foreigner and is doing his best to present the company as open minded but in his quest to be politically correct he ends up sounding condescending AND a racist and the interviewee just walks out on him.
The following story, A Sense of Style, is about another type of personality, the one who lies to impress. In this case it’s a person with heightened aesthetic qualities who is interviewed for a job at a high end interior design shop. The owner then tests her by praising a Moomin mug and seeing if she will betray her opinion on the mug to get the job. I’m sure at all points we have gone against our tastes in order to be hired at a dream place. (well I never did as you can see by my fiasco).
The exact opposite happens in the stand out story, That’s Just so me. An interviewer asks the interviewee to be honest about the poetry he writes as a hobby. This piece displays the eccentric/conniving side of bosses.
There are more aspects to the interview that is explored. Bigger than Dylan is about the overly nervous interviewee, Slow Cooker Saturdays is about the overly enthusiastic boss and Close to Home is a witty look at how a prestigious location of a workplace may not be the best reason for changing a job.
All 9 stories in We’ll Call You are humorous, relatable and, more importantly, fun. There’s a deadpan vibe that one sees in Roy Andersson’s films. At the same time one does learn about Swedish culture, which something I appreciate when reading translated literature. If anyone has gone through a rather strange job interview, I definitely recommend this book and even if you haven’t We’ll Call You is a pretty good guide/forewarning of what can can happen to you or how to avoid acting like these people when interviewing prospective candidates.
January 1, 2021
We’ll Call You is one of the most entertaining short stories collections I’ve ever read! The nine stories centre around job interviews, and perfectly capture the embarrassing manner in which some people blunder their way through taboos. I cringed and giggled my way through An Exotic Touch, which was so astutely observed. Think David Brent!
Thank you Nordisk Books for the advance review copy in return for an honest opinion.
Thank you Nordisk Books for the advance review copy in return for an honest opinion.
September 17, 2021
We'll Call You by Jacob Sundberg
This book was recommended to me by @librosintranslation. Gracias! :) And what a great book! It’s a collection of short stories all taking place during job interviews. Jacob Sundberg describes perfectly the awkwardness of these situations taking place in different companies and in different industries.
One of the short stories, An Exotic Touch, shows an interviewer trying to appear as open minded as possible while interviewing an immigrant but ends up sounding racist and condescending. He even convinces himself he is open minded and progressive without realizing he really is not.
A Sense of Style shows a young woman interviewing for a position at an interior design shop. The interview seems to be going well and the interviewer is praising her until she asks her about a mug, a moomin mug. A simple question that makes her doubt her sense of style and panic. And who hasn’t panicked with a question on a job interview and ended up giving the answer they thought the interviewer wanted to hear rather than the truth?
I won’t write about all of them otherwise this review might end up too long, however I would highly recommend this book. Most of what we see of Nordic literature (at least in the UK) are thrillers/crime fiction, which is a shame as there is so much more to it. Their ability to tackle everyday life in an introspective way is something that really appeals to me.
This book was published by Nordisk books, a small publisher that is trying to bring more contemporary nordic fiction (non-crime) to the English speaking public.
===================================
Este livro não foi traduzido para o Portugues, mas para quem tem o hábito de ler em inglês vale a pena. São contos curtos e fáceis de ler que se passam durante uma entrevista de emprego em áreas diferentes. E o autor consegue transmitir toda a esquisitice, dificuldade e conflitos que acontecem durante as entrevistas.
A literatura nórdica tende a apresentar uma narrativa introspectiva ao descrever a vida de todo o dia, o que me fascina. Infelizmente boa parte dos livros traduzidos destes países são thrillers/ histórias de crime, o que é um pecado.
This book was recommended to me by @librosintranslation. Gracias! :) And what a great book! It’s a collection of short stories all taking place during job interviews. Jacob Sundberg describes perfectly the awkwardness of these situations taking place in different companies and in different industries.
One of the short stories, An Exotic Touch, shows an interviewer trying to appear as open minded as possible while interviewing an immigrant but ends up sounding racist and condescending. He even convinces himself he is open minded and progressive without realizing he really is not.
A Sense of Style shows a young woman interviewing for a position at an interior design shop. The interview seems to be going well and the interviewer is praising her until she asks her about a mug, a moomin mug. A simple question that makes her doubt her sense of style and panic. And who hasn’t panicked with a question on a job interview and ended up giving the answer they thought the interviewer wanted to hear rather than the truth?
I won’t write about all of them otherwise this review might end up too long, however I would highly recommend this book. Most of what we see of Nordic literature (at least in the UK) are thrillers/crime fiction, which is a shame as there is so much more to it. Their ability to tackle everyday life in an introspective way is something that really appeals to me.
This book was published by Nordisk books, a small publisher that is trying to bring more contemporary nordic fiction (non-crime) to the English speaking public.
===================================
Este livro não foi traduzido para o Portugues, mas para quem tem o hábito de ler em inglês vale a pena. São contos curtos e fáceis de ler que se passam durante uma entrevista de emprego em áreas diferentes. E o autor consegue transmitir toda a esquisitice, dificuldade e conflitos que acontecem durante as entrevistas.
A literatura nórdica tende a apresentar uma narrativa introspectiva ao descrever a vida de todo o dia, o que me fascina. Infelizmente boa parte dos livros traduzidos destes países são thrillers/ histórias de crime, o que é um pecado.
January 4, 2022
Good collection of short stories centered around job interviews. Although some of the stories entertaining, they were structured and written in a very similar way, which made it slightly boring towards the end. I found the language in the book to be a bit awkward at times, and I wonder if it was due to the translation from Swedish to English.
Overall I love the set up and topic, but feel like something was lost in translation.
Overall I love the set up and topic, but feel like something was lost in translation.
January 9, 2022
Funny and often absurd, a great satire of corporate culture and career ambitions. There were some stories where you could see where this was going, others that felt ever so slightly repetitive, but overall a good fun read.
August 3, 2026
I think it was around ten little, weird and veeeery cringy vignettes about awkward situations interviewers and interviewees possibly could but hopefully never have. Very charming and well written, just not my kind of book, 3,5🐟
February 10, 2021
Another Nordisk Books winner, this time a hilarious set of short stories, job interviews to be exact. I enjoyed reading every single story.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews