Eric Eikrem’s Blog

I have had the pleasure of getting to know several foreigners living in Tromsø (Norway). Many are couples where one is either working or studying, while the other is trying to find a job, preferably an interesting one. It is surprising how many people have a hard time finding something relevant to do, even though they have excellent qualifications. Here are some ideas on how a foreign professional can get a job in the private sector, both in Norway and elsewhere.

What Do You Want?

The first step is to decide what kind of a job you are looking for, that is, what corresponds to your professional goals. Moreover, it is important that the job fits your personality and salary requirements.

• Make a list of all of your skills, determine which kinds of businesses and industries need them most and find those companies that will most likely benefit from them.
• Fit the job to your skills, not the other way around. Do not tweak the way you present your own skills and experiences to fit a company or a job description.

Building a Network

Some important points on networking:

• Attitude: Remember that you are not selling your knowledge, skills and attitude as such. You are selling a fit between your competence and the company’s needs. You need to demonstrate your desire and ability to help the company succeed. Everything you communicate should reflect this.
• Volunteer: As a foreigner, it is a great advantage to have local references. One way of achieving this is to do volunteer work. Good side effects; you show an interest in the local community and you develop a connection to it.
• Online Presence: Create an online presence with relevant information on interests, education and experience, related to needs and requirements of local companies. LinkedIn is a good starting point. If you are a bit computer savvy, your own blog can also be useful, see for instance WordPress.

• Elevator pitch: Develop a short description of who you are and what you are looking for that can be presented in less than 2 minutes, preferably less, see also How to Develop Your Own Elevator Pitch (WikiHow). understand your background, your accomplishments, why you want to work at XYZ company and what your future goals are. Be prepared to deliver the pitch; practice!

Your Curriculum

One basic challenge for you as a foreigner is that educational institutions and companies you have worked for may not be known to the receiver. Unless you have studied at world-famous institutions like Oxford, Cambridge, MIT or Harvard, or worked at globally well-known companies, a short description of each should be included, with a link to the institution’s English web pages, if any, in all online information.

• Language: Make sure your CV does not contain any linguistic errors. Consult with a native speaker if necessary.
• References: References that you include must be able to speak fairly good English or the local language. If you have any local references that speak the latter, highlight these.
• Consistency: Make sure your curriculum is consistent throughout, that is, it represents yourself in the same way irrespective of channel (online, offline, blog, LinkedIn, etc).
• Unique soft-skills: Being from somewhere else implies a skill-set that might be unique at your location and that may be interesting to some companies; language(s), knowledge of interesting markets, and cross-cultural soft skills. Highlight these skills if they are relevant in the local job market.

Job Searching

Finding something interesting:

• National: Most national employment agencies have an online job portal of some kind, , such as the Norwegian administration’s vacancies on nav.no in English.
• Regional: Portals that focuses on a region. The European EURES is one example.
• International: There are several international portals available, including Monster and Stepstone. Moreover, LinkedIn is full of job offers, usually posted in the pertinent professional groups.

When you do find something interesting:

• Internet search: Find out as much as you can about the company and it’s key people, including company history, mission, products and services.
• Use your legs: If it’s a retail company, visit a few of their stores, observe the customers, and even strike up a few conversations. Talk to existing employees–ask them what it’s like working there, how long the position has been open, and what you can do to increase your chances of getting it.

Interviews

Guides on how to handle interviews abound. A couple of important points for a foreigner:

• If you’ve moved around a lot, be prepared to offer a good reason for it. You’ll need to make a good case for why you want to stick around in the area where the job is located. A company doesn’t want to hire someone who still wants to relocate.
• Be prepared to outline why you are where you are today, how long you intend to stay there, and why. Give specific reasons. The more details and specifics, the better.

Alternatives

Online

If you find yourself lost in the sticks with no job prospect in sight, it might be the right time to consider an online job. Look at your skills; Is there anything you can do that does not require a physical presence? Before you get going, consider this:

The folks I interviewed who are making decent money at home also made decent money in the regular workplace world. They tended to have good educations, strong business skills and a history of workplace success. If you’re organized, focused, a self-starter and possessed of in-demand skills, you could do OK at home. If you’re not, your options are likely to be more limited. [1]

Starting Your Own Business

If there are no opportunities that fit your aspirations, perhaps it is worth considering starting you own business? If you have a business idea with a considerable technological height, that is addressing a potentially big market, or both, get in touch with you local CONNECT, see Global CONNECT. It provides a range of free services to entrepreneurs.

Job Searches in Norway

Finding relevant vacancies may prove difficult:

In the wake of the fall in economic activity, the demand for labour is expected to remain low in the near future. The very strong growth in the construction industry has been replaced by a strong decline and this negative trend is now expected to continue for the immediate future. A decline in the level of activity is also expected across a large part of industry. These are the two sectors where the demand for labour will probably fall the most. There could also be a fall in some private service-providing industries, such as trading in goods, for example. [2]

If you are undeterred, here are some sources of information, in English, on formalities, requirements and vacancies:

Public information:

1. The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV): Probably the best starting point for information on vacancies, labor regulations, and so forth, in Norway.

Job search engines:

1. Vacancies on nav.no in English
2. Career in Norway – Part of the the official Norwegian trade portal, Nortrade.
3. Monster - Lots of offers. If you do not understand Norwegian, do not choose Norway as your location; all texts switches to Norwegian. Choose your country of origin.
4. Stepstone - International career portal, based in Norway, with local offices on all continents.

LinkedIn – important groups:

1. Norge / Norway – Discussions mostly in Norwegian, but membership is still useful; group membership opens up the possibility to communicate directly with group members.
2. Foreigners in Norway
3. By location:
   1. Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland – Scandinavia Group
   2. Nordic
   3. There are several local and regional networks (search for your town or region).
4. By sector:
   1. The Norwegian Computer Society (Dataforeningen); ICT
   2. Silicon Vikings; ICT
   3. NOM – Nordic Online Marketing (+1000 members from Nordics)
   4. Scandinavia Supply Chain and Logistics Network

Note: If you switch to advanced search in LinkedIn, you may search for both vacancies, companies and people within a limited geographical area.

Major international sectors and companies:

1. ICT: There are numerous international software companies with a presence in Norway. However, your best bet is probably ICT companies with an international outlook, but with their headquarters in Norway, such as Opera.
2. Telecom: The only major telecom  with their headquarters in Norway is Telenor. In addition, you have Tandberg (part of Cisco), which provides videoconferencing equipment globally.
3. Maritime: The majority of shipping companies use English as their working language. Major shipping lines include Wilh. Wilhelmsen, Stolt Nielsen, BW Gas and the Grieg Group. NorShipping is an important event in the shipping sector.
4. Marine: Aqua-farming is an important sector in Norway, and it is a major exporter, in particular to the European market, see for example Aker Seafoods and Marine Harvest.
5. Oil and Gas: A sector totally dominated by English as a working language. Moreover, a significant part of the work force of major companies are foreigners. See also Shell, Elf Total, BP and StatoilHydro.
6. Multisector:
   1. DnV, based outside Oslo, is one of the largest ship classification societies in the world. It also works with risk management at large.
   2. Stolt Nielsen – Sea farms, tankers, terminals and bitumen.
   3. Fred Olsen & Co. – Energy, shipping, marine services, cruise line, travel…

Nortrade, the official Norwegian trade portal, is a good place to search for companies within a specific sector.

Starting Your Own Business in Norway

A fairly complete guide to establishing a business in Norway is available here.

Help to develop you business may be found at:

1. Innovation Norway: A company, owned by the Norwegian government, that is responsible for supporting innovation in Norway. See also Innovation Norway’s offices abroad (In Norwegian, but you may glean contact information from the pages).
2. CONNECT Norway: The national CONNECT, with regional offices in most parts of Norway. Again, of if you have a business idea with a considerable technological height, that is addressing a potentially big market, or both, get in touch. CONNECT provides a range of free services to entrepreneurs.
3. Business development offices of municipal and regional authorities.
4. The local chamber of commerce.

References

1. Real work-at-home jobs, by Liz Pulliam Weston, MSN Money, Sept. 16, 2008
2. EURES, Living and Working: Norway, downloaded October 10, 2009.