I’ve held job interviews, and the reason to why we focus more on the personality than hard quizzes is that it’s an expensive process to hire someone, and we want to make sure that the person will stay, and that he/she has a personality that we like. It’s also hard to fire someone because of bad personality, but you can fire someone who is incompetent. (Well, it’s actually hard to fire someone in Sweden regardless of reason, but it’s a bit easier if he/she is incompetent)

One thing that suprised me was that you said that you should send a thank you letter. I have never heard about that, and would get surprised if I got one. I would also say that it’s a better to pick up the phone and give a call instead of sending an email after a few weeks.

Another important tip is; never lie in your CV. I know that it in some cultures is acceptable to boost your CV, but Swedish employers don’t like it.

You left a comment some days ago on my blog, thank you for it (I also replied to it).
This post is really interesting, handy and descriptive.
As you said, Swedish recruiters are quite focused on your personality. They pay attention to your hobbies and you shouldn’t be surprised if they ask you how you spend your free time I found it a reasonable question, because the Swedish people are really concerned about their free time.

For some foreign workers to be interviewed requires a complete change of your mindset. For example, in Sweden it is frowned upon to know that you do a lot of overtime. To be a hard worker doesn’t mean you stay in your office more than it is expected.
Moreover, you shouldn’t be competitive, the work-group backs up on a cooperating climate.
Yet, when you have your job interview is not strictly necessary to suit up. In some context you can even give a “dim view”, they start to think “who’s who” you are.
On the contrary, in Italy we always suit up although you have a junior profile… your aspect is much more important than your competencies.. unfortunately !
I can give you a proof. Some months ago I was interviewed by a blue chip Swedish company in Italy and they make me understand they didn’t care about a dress code.
Probably there is more to add… but there are just few words that may be interesting.

About cv format.. what kind of resume format do you suggest to use ?
You said that the cv should be rearranged with info like: Personal Interests and hobbies, community organizations and so on.
I’ve already enclosed all these information in my cv. We in Italy use the European template that already provide boxes to fill in with these kind of details.
Have you tried to use the EU cv format ?

http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/europass/home/vernav/Europasss+Documents/Europass+CV.csp