Four suitcases, a Bang & Olufsen speaker, and a painting. That’s all Ruben Hughes brought with him when he moved to Copenhagen from New York City in 2017.
“Something changed in me”
Hughes had been to Denmark twice before for work. Those visits made him reflect on his life in a way he never had while living in New York.
“When you live in New York, it’s like a race. When you walk out the door, everyone’s looking down and walking straight. Everyone’s going from A to B and not really thinking about what’s in between.
And when I came to Denmark, it was the first time I actually reflected on my life. When I came back to New York to visit, I felt like something had changed in me, in my perspective.”
When he returned from the second visit, he was offered roles at two separate companies in Denmark and decided to take a job with MENU (now Audo Copenhagen).
Part of what had lured him into taking the job was the working culture as he saw it in Denmark. “A lot of people were leaving at three o’clock. They were having coffee for an hour. It felt like people were really intentional.
“It wasn’t about working hard; it was about working smart and enjoying the environment you’re in. In New York, it really felt like we were just trying to work hard, and we’d stay till eleven o’clock at night.
“Here it felt like this work-life balance. I didn’t know what that was at the time, but I could feel it.”
“The first eight months were a dream”
In the first period after moving to Denmark, Hughes experienced something of a honeymoon period.
He moved to Copenhagen in October and quickly got to experience the Danish autumn and Christmas season.
For him, “The first eight months were a dream. My senses were completely heightened. I would see birds flying outside and I would be like, wow: the birds, the sky, the air, biking… Everything was just so fresh and new.”
However, he then started feeling more isolated from friends and family back in the US, and the differences between him and his colleagues in Denmark started becoming more and more obvious.
Working as a creative lead
Hughes is good at his work. He creates brand campaigns, and most recently he worked as creative lead for LIEWOOD, a children’s lifestyle brand.
A creative lead is responsible for pulling together and leading the team that builds the creative image of a brand. He describes it in two parts.
Creative refers to the tentacles: photographs, events, sites, and installations. Lead refers to bringing the team together to deliver on the vision.
Hughes had wanted to be an art director since childhood. His father was a video editor at ABC, so he spent his early years in the newsroom, watching commercials get cut and running printouts down hallways.
At barely twenty-one years old, he managed a social account for Gap with a million followers and sat in on shoots with photographers, soaking up knowledge and old anecdotes.
He taught himself how to use a camera and continued to rise in the world of brand management, taking over as social media lead for Squarespace.
“I didn’t know about Janteloven”
When he arrived in Denmark and started his new job, he struggled with elements of Danish work culture.
He notes one episode early in his new job when he was asked to give a short speech for a new colleague. He suggests the speech he gave was very American and did not mesh particularly well with Danish culture.
“I think maybe some people thought that I was a little bit on a high horse”, he says. “I didn’t know about Janteloven. I didn’t know about the cultural differences.”
He would experience other cultural clashes too, a similar refrain repeated itself a few times professionally: he performed well in his work; there were however some cultural gaps that still needed bridging.
Building a network
For Hughes, adjusting to the new country was a process, both professionally and personally. He became good at networking and made friends in his new home.
He was selective about the changes he made to his way of life, taking on board some that worked for him, but never changing his own identity entirely. He says, “I don’t think I’ll ever be Danish. I think I’m too American in a lot of ways.
“I like the part of me that makes me different, because I think it’s the part that attracts people to me. And at the same time, it could be the part that is the most challenging.”
However, he is now much more settled in his new home. “I definitely think my future is in Denmark. I married a Danish woman. This is home. I’ve built this network here.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself”
To other internationals who are either about to move to Denmark or who recently have, Hughes says, “Don’t be too hard on yourself. And be open to all the things you’re gonna feel.
“Moving to a new country can be similar to the feeling you get from falling in love: the honeymoon stage, followed by seeing things more clearly, understanding the differences, and ultimately learning to embrace them. Be open to that process.”
