Tips for getting your first job in Norway

Getting your first job in Norway as a foreigner requires quite a bit of know-how as it's not like any other place you've been to.

First : Location.
Unless you are an oil & gas professional OR you already speak fluent Norwegian do not start in Trøndelag for example Trondheim. Other than these 2 things you will likely be sucked in and spit out, you will return home broke and disillusioned. Instead. focus your job search on Southern Norway, Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen etc as there are a lot more international businesses down there and the requirement to speak Norwegian is much less dogmatic. you will still be expected to learn Norwegian but you can learn as you work.

Second: Preparation.
Register yourself with NAV (The Norwegian government employment agency) as a jobseeker. You will be assigned a personal case worker called a saksbehandler who can give you help and advice that you will likely not find elsewhere. After you've done that register yourself with Manpower and other employment agencies such as Adecco. Employment agencies in Norway are called Bemanning, so for instance if you are targeting Oslo, then go to Google and search for "bemanning oslo" and it will bring up a list of them you can register with. You will find it useful to use Google translate as most of the Bemanning agencies will be in Norwegian, although the bigger ones will have a facility to display English also. By all means search the "jobb" section on Finn.no as you may get lucky.

Thirdly: Compromise.
Be prepared to do other kinds of work to get onto the employment ladder, I'm talking cleaning, dish washing, shelf stacking in shops etc, you have to be prepared to take the jobs which Norwegians don't and when there, practice speaking Norwegian as much as you can. Norwegians can speak English and they all understand it up to around the age of 55-60 but they don't really want to use it at work. You will encounter this yourself in which you can quite happily get by using English in Norway with no problem whatsoever, but when it comes to the job market it becomes a lot more important to them (and you if you cant speak it). Yes, it's a pain and can feel a little nonsensical but that's just the way it is, but the good news is that if you work in Southern Norway it's nowhere near as much a problem than it is in mid-Norway.

Fourthly: Qualifications.
Norway has a fetish for qualifications - Agencies get high on qualifications, but don't worry too much. Here are some guidelines. In your own country you may be a qualified and experienced "XYZ" worker, but if Norway doesn't recognize your qualifications and / or experience then it's not worth tuppence and you can look forward to a lot of polite rejections mixed with a lot of silence. Its a good idea to check what qualification Norway is prepared to recognize. Perhaps you could start here. http://www.nokut.no/en/
Norway has it's own trade school called fagskole and associated trade qualification called a fagbrev. You may or may not be required to obtain a Norwegian fagbrev depending upon what kind of work you hope to do and it may be possible to get credit towards a fagbrev from past education (At Norway's discretion).

In closing, I should add that applying for work in Norway is best achieved by actually going along to visit employers in person to have a chat with them.
Also know that you cannot get unemployment benefit here until you've actually had a job in the previous tax year and paid some money into the system, last time I checked, the previous years earnings had to be around 150,000 kroner before you qualify.

There isn't really a set formula to getting a job here in Norway, some people can be extremely lucky (not many) but most will have a hard time. On the whole it's not easy but it can be easier depending on where you start as mentioned at the beginning and how open you are to different kinds of work.
You can suffer brutal treatment from Norway, but it won't leave any bruises on the outside, only the inside so the more prepared you are, the better.  I had it hard here for a long, long time and the above is just the benefit of my personal experience. I can only hope and pray it helps you too.

Thank you so much for the tips for getting your first job in Norway - my husband and I are trying to move there, and are finding it difficult to get a job - we've been trying for about 6 months, so, we will press on!  Thank you!  The Schilling's

Mr & Mrs Schilling, I send you my very best wishes and I hope that you can be successful.

If there is anything else I can offer advice on please don't hesitate to ask. I'll always help if I can.

In closing I noticed your surname when said has the same sound / pronunciation as the Norwegian word for chicken but it's spelled kylling  No offense intended just for your information.