What can we do to find a job ?

Hi Adriana,

Welcome to Expat.com 

We created a new thread as from your post on the Oslo Forum for better visibility and interaction

I invite you to please check out those articles from the guide:
- Find a job in Norway
- The labor market in Norway
- If you are young...

Also I suggest you browse through the Jobs in Oslo section and drop your resume in the work sector that you feel more comfortable doing please 

And even to browse through the discussions on - Working in Oslo and to post your questions and to share your job hunting experiences please 

Thank you

Maximilien

Hey,

As you can read in many other threads on the forum, it is not easy to find jobs in Norway, especially these days. Learning Norwegian would be a good start so it will open many jobs, even without qualifications. The other possibility is to use your network, eventually the community/country where you are coming from. Most jobs in Norway are never advertized on internet, so you must heard of them through your friends.
Good luck

Hello,

AuNordDuMonde has offered some good advice. Learning Norwegian is essential. I was just reading in the newspaper this morning that one job working in Kiwi received 850 applicants. Many of these were native Norwegians, and even they didn't manage to get the job. You should keep applying for as many things as you can. You should also try to build a network Get out and talk to people. Take a Norwegian class if you can afford it. I know so many people who have been new to the country and got their job through a friend. In Norway it's as much who you know as what you know.

Good luck,

David

It's tough Adriana, there's no other word for it.

I presume you have registered yourself with NAV as a job seeker, if not I'd do that right away as you will be assigned your own saksbehandler (Adviser / case worker) who will give you help and advice.

There is work available, but as mentioned by other people, a lot of it isn't advertised. Also someone else said that it's not what you know, it's who you know, which is more true here in Norway than anywhere else, Go on the internet and look up free Norsk courses in your area, perhaps look up the red cross (Røde Kors) as here in Trondheim they offer free help to learn Norsk, but bear in mind that just learning some Norwegian will not be a magic cure and make your job situation all smooth, it can certainly increase your chances but not completely.

Norway is going through a bit of an identity crisis at the moment with the old Vs the new. The new is embracing an international culture and accepting people for who they are, but the old are still wrapped up in the old closed society mindset, suspicious of foreigners and anything that's not Norwegian (sometimes quite rightly so). So, it really depends upon where you apply for a job and who the person is, handling the recruitment, and which mindset they are in.

On the whole Norwegians are very friendly, accommodating people who, once they get to know you will treat you as one of their own, so the key is to meet people, chat and get to know some people, become a familiar face to people, do voluntary work, find out which city mission Churches offer tea and coffee during the day and go along to get a feel for the culture and just talk to folks.

You may want to check out this free introduction to Norwegian from the NTNU University . http://www.ntnu.edu/now

Lykke til (Good luck)