Wesam’s meteoric career at Scania
Wesam Patros, Parts Manager at Scania’s site in Erbil, Iraq
Ten years ago, he left Iraq to build a new future in Sweden. Recently he returned to Iraq as Parts Manager at Scania’s site in Erbil. Meet Wesam Patros.
At 11 years old, Wesam Patros was taught the watchmaking profession by his father. He remembers the techniques to this day, and he would still rather repair precision mechanical equipment himself than have someone else do it. Later, he followed in his father’s steps and studied to be an auto mechanic.
When he was 24 years old, Patros left his family in Erbil in northern Iraq to start a new life outside the country. He ended up with relatives in Södertälje, Sweden, and completed the basic Swedish language course for immigrants. He began a more advanced course, but he soon quit.
“I started working part-time at McDonald’s in Nacka, a suburb to Stockholm,” Patros recalls. “That was a much better way to learn Swedish.”
Patros converted his Iraqi driver’s license to a Swedish one soon afterward and changed jobs to drive for a bakery in Stockholm. His former boss at McDonald’s offered him a job as manager at McDonald’s in Södertälje, but Patros wouldn’t be distracted from his goal: he wanted to work for Scania.
On June 26th, 2007 he achieved it. Patros started at the engine assembly line in Södertälje where he assembled five-cylinder D9 engines and learned their construction – invaluable experience for his future, it turns out.
Patros filed an application for the position of Parts Manager at Scania’s Erbil location on January 29th, 2010. A few months later, the job was his. By then he had turned down an offer as Quality Manager at Scania’s Iskanderiyah site near Baghdad.
“I have my family in Erbil, and I wanted to reunite with them,” he says.
Not surprisingly his family is very happy that Patros is finally coming back. They are building a house for him and the family he has formed during his years in Sweden.
“My wife is from Iraq, and she came to Sweden two years ago. Since then we’ve had a son. They’ll stay in Sweden until the house is finished.”
To prepare for the challenges of his new position, Patros attended a tailor-made, two-week training session at Scania-Bilar Region Stockholm’s parts warehouse in Hovsjö in Södertälje.
Patros education as an auto mechanic, combined with his experience from the engine assembly line, makes him a perfect fit for the job in Erbil. But he returns with mixed emotions.
“It’s a new situation and role for me, and I feel a bit anxious. I will also miss friends and relatives in Sweden,” Patros says.
But his contacts with Sweden will continue. Patros will attend training sessions in Södertälje, and his colleagues have assured him that he can call whenever he needs any support.
Name: Wesam Patros
Age: 34
Family: Wife and a son
Interests: Malawi cichlids and photography
Languages: Swedish, English, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, Arabic and Kurdish
Add comment
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own blog. All new comments are subject to moderation before being displayed.
Scania Images at Flickr
Comments
No comments