If you are young...

I lived in Harstad for a year with my mom trying to learn Norwegian so I could hopefully move to Oslo, get a job, and my own place. Finally I could not take living in such a small cliquish town anymore, so I said screw it, packed up my bags and moved to Oslo before I was even near being fluent in Norwegian.

I first got a job working a cafe in Oslo City called MamaMia. They seem to hire mostly foreigners and if you are not fluent in the language and are desperate for a job, this might be a place to apply. The keyword, though, is desperate. The owners of this place are pure evil and treat their employees like machines. This is why they hire foreigners, because we don't know our rights. If you let them know that you know your rights, they will typically leave you alone, because once you get hired somewhere, its hard to get fired. Thankfully, I quit soon after and found a great job at Kaffebrenneriet.

Most Kaffebrenneriets will hire people who are not fluent in Norwegian. The owner is American himself. I worked here for 2 years and loved just about every moment of it. It was my first job where I was often excited to go to work. The people working here are typically all really nice and social. They have some great summer and winter parties and I have made some friends for life at this place. I have been to many other coffee shops in Oslo and many of them hire non-Norwegian speakers. Many of the bars, especially the American ones, also hire non-Norwegian speakers as well. Unfortunately from my experience, I have found that the easiest jobs to get if you are not fluent in Norwegian are those in the service industry. However, it really helps you learn the language fast and working in Norway is nowhere near as stressful as working in any job in the states, from my experience. My go to place when looking for a job is Finn.no and Aftenposten.no. That is where I found the jobs I got hired for. If you are interested in a particular place, you can often go directly to their website to apply for a job. You get a free coffee at Kaffebrenneriet if you apply through there website at Kaffebrenneriet.no.

 

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