How easy it to find a work, being an English speaker only?

Hi Laurahurst90,

I have created a new thread with your post on the Stavanger forum, it might encourage members to interact with you.

Thanks

Priscilla 

Hello Laura,

I've been in Norway since 2008. In Oslo now. Have a Norwegian wife from Bergen. Funnily enough my wife and I had been talking about Stavanger the other day, my wife was saying it is a very nice city (I haven't been.) we were talking about "the nice places " in Norway.

Regarding employment, it depends on your skills. It can be very difficult when you only speak English but a lot of it is down to motivation and whether you have a skill set that is in demand. For example, I know people who hardly speak any norwegian who have gotten jobs in nurseries for children for example. I have an English friend who has a good job in law (shipping). He only uses English at work.

Do finances dictate that you have to work? Another route is study. Stavanger has a good university and some courses (masters level I think) are in English. They also have a one year preparatory course where you can learn norwegian if you want to widen your field to courses taught in Norwegian.

I have to warn you though that Norwegian is a tricky language to speak like a native. You will certainly learn it while you are here, and some aspects of the language are easier than English - but the prepositions still drive me mad now ( basically you just have to learn all the expressions.)

Good luck with the move

Robert

this has come up several times before. Some of the other threads I found by typing "English" in the forum search box

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=166095https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=433222https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=399199

one thing I often tell people when they ask "how easy" something is, is that it depends on you. Some people are good at networking, which makes finding jobs seem easy. Others aren't so good at it. It also varies hugely by industry and what credentials you have.

One other thing that's not working to your advantage is that Stavanger is an oil town, which is an industry that's shedding foreign workers like mad at the moment. If it's anything like Oslo these days, there are likely to be a lot of smart English speakers also looking for work.