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WORKING IN NORWAY

First steps: What to know when searching for a job in Norway 

Whether you have recently arrived in Norway or have worked here before but are now unemployed or looking for a new opportunity, this is how you should start your job search. 

Published: 26 January 2024 13:21 CET
Pictures is a person during a job interview.
There are a number of things you need to know when looking for a job in Norway. Pictures is a person during a job interview. Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash

Norway draws thousands of foreigners to the country for work each year. High wages and decent job security mean that many who arrive in the country for work end up staying. 

Whether you’ve recently arrived in Norway, lost your job, or are looking for your next challenge, there are several crucial steps you need to take to aid your search. 

Register as a job seeker or unemployed, and register with the police 

Those who have already worked and paid taxes and national insurance in Norway may be able to register as a job seeker with the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) and receive financial support while they search. 

NAV is also one of the go-to places for job listings in Norway, along with Finn-no, so it should be considered an excellent place to start your search. 

Meanwhile, others may need to register with the police that they have lost their job under the conditions of their residence permit. 

READ ALSO: How work permit holders can stay in Norway if they lose their job

Therefore, if you have already spent some time in Norway, you need to check whether you are required to register as a job seeker. 

Be aware that some forms of financial assistance from NAV can delay your eligibility for some citizenship and residence rights. This mainly concerns økonomisk sosialhjelp, but you should still check the rules. 

If you are required to register as a job seeker with the police, be sure to do so as soon as possible. 

Take time to refresh your CV and do some research 

Before getting fully stuck into your job search, it may be worth seeing if there are any ways you can tweak your CV to make it any more appealing to Norwegian recruiters. 

When it comes to writing a CV, there are plenty of templates online adapted to what’s typical in Norway. 

Additionally, many recommend replacing the word “I” with “we” where appropriate to show you are a good team player. 

If your Norwegian skills are good enough, try and write up the CV in Norwegian. If not, stick to English. If you submit a CV that somebody else has translated for you, the employer may feel that you are trying to deceive them by pretending that your Norwegian skills are better than they really are.

Some foreigners in Norway have reported changing their names to a more “Norwegian one” on their CVs. While this might sound like a smart hack on the surface, it could lead to awkward situations later in the job-hunting process. 

READ ALSO: The dos and don’ts of writing a killer CV to impress Norwegian recruiters 

Research can also provide a massive boost to your job hunting. If you only have the language skills to work in English, it’s best to put together a shortlist of all the companies in your industry with English as the working language. 

Additionally, Statistics Norway, the National Data Agency for Norway, keeps quite detailed statistics on the average and median wages in certain professions and sectors. This should give you an overview of how much you should expect to earn and will prove advantageous further down the line. 

Looking for jobs 

There are several places to look for jobs in Norway. As we’ve mentioned, NAV has most of the job listings in the country offered on its site. Users can also filter jobs by whether they require English or Norwegian. 

Finn.no is most people’s place to look for jobs. On the site, you can fill out a profile and be sent a weekly roundup of jobs that match your profile. 

Besides these sites, LinkedIn is also popular. Many international companies with English as the working language post their opportunities on Linkedin; therefore, it’s worth making a shortlist of companies to follow on the site as you’ll be notified whenever a job is posted. 

The Local Norway also has a page featuring jobs and opportunities across Norway. 

It’s also common to find jobs via one’s personal network. If you have a network established in Norway already, you should heavily consider asking around. 

There are also several recruiters in Norway who can help match you up with a job suited to your skills and experience. If you need a new job and an income stream as soon as possible, recruiters offer plenty of opportunities. 

Member comments

  1. The links provided in this article seem to not be working right for me. Some don’t open the page such as the “guidelines to a good CV” and others take me to the wrong site such as the “page featuring jobs and opportunities across Norway”. I’m reading from the app on my phone.

    1. Hello, thank you for flagging this issue up. I will inform our tech team of this problem. The links work fine on desktop, but appear to be having issues in our app.

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For members

OSLO

Is Oslo’s project to speed up work permits on track?

The City of Oslo aims to cut work permit processing times in the capital down from nine months to just three days. The Local has contacted authorities to update readers on the latest developments.

Published: 6 May 2024 10:09 CEST
Is Oslo's project to speed up work permits on track?

For years, Norway has been grappling with a shortage of skilled professionals, notably in the technology and IT sectors.

Recognising the need to address this talent gap, The City of Oslo and other partners launched a pilot project in 2023 called Kompetansespor (Competence Track).

The primary goal was to reduce the lengthy wait times for skilled workers to get work permits from around nine months to three days.

READ ALSO: What’s next for Oslo’s plan to slash work permit waiting times?

But what is the current status of the project? And is the new super-fast work permit process any closer to becoming a reality?

How the project has evolved in 2024

Since its inception, Competence Track has evolved into a more ambitious project that goes beyond just cutting work permit times.

The project’s focus has shifted towards new goals, which mostly revolve around exploring the use of a “digital wallet” to streamline the immigration process.

To make this happen, partners involved in the project, such as the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), will collaborate with other key stakeholders from the governmental, municipal, and private sectors.

READ MORE: How Norway’s permanent residence rules have been tweaked

As the UDI explains in a document seen by The Local, a digital wallet refers to “an electronic application or platform that allows users to securely store, manage, and share digital identity credentials and other types of digital data,” which plays a “central role in handling digital evidence or verifiable credentials in a digital ecosystem.”

The wallet allows relevant authorities to access the holder’s paperwork, rather than having documents and credentials stored separately across several portals. 

New goals

The main aim for 2024 is to develop and explore an efficient and user-friendly process flow that can support the immigration of skilled workers to Norway.

According to a document that the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) shared with The Local, other goals for the year include creating a prototype to test the efficacy of the digital wallet in improving immigration processes, investigating the feasibility of pre-qualifying employers to speed up the immigration process, and showcasing how collaboration across sectors can create better services for users.

The project remains committed to reducing administrative burdens, processing times, and information exchange accuracy, as well as preparing Norway for future challenges related to global mobility and digitalisation.

Meanwhile, the Oslo Business Region writes on its website that additional target groups such as students and family members of work permit applicants would be included in the fast track residence permit scheme. 

From the information available at the time of writing, it seems that project will still revolve around Oslo.

Gustav Try, an advisor at the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), told The Local that the UDI’s Department of Managed Migration is currently working on a new test phase called “Pilot 2.0”.

“We are currently working on Pilot 2.0, but it is not finalised. The plan is to pilot it on selected students at the University of Oslo (UiO) in August. We are also considering piloting it on skilled workers, including UiO employees, throughout the autumn,” the department said.

Back in September, Thea Ullhaug Pope, senior content developer for the City of Oslo, told The Local that one of the long-term ambitions of the project is to try and get the scheme adopted by other regions and then nationally.

However, while the Competence Track project continues to progress, it seems unlikely that the initial ambition of reducing work permit waiting times from nine months to three days will be achieved on a mass scale anytime soon.

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