Hello again!
So, I
came to Norway , I had to study for two years in a magistracy. As I already reported, I only had funding for half a year, then extended it for another half a year, and then I had to finance myself. Therefore, in addition to finding a job in the specialty, the question of finding a job while studying was relevant. I will tell you about my experience in searching for various works.
General moments
As I already wrote, in order to start working, you need to get a tax card - skattekort. The tax system in Norway is progressive, the tax grows with income and can reach 49%, without a tax card, the employer will be obliged to pay the same 49%, you never know. Since I was absolutely sure that I would find work as a last resort in September, immediately after receiving my personal number I went to the tax office and ordered a card, explained the situation, and a week later I received a 36% card (I don’t know, maybe I really looked as a person who earns 500 thousand crowns for 3-4 months before the end of the year, but that is, that is). So, I have free time, personal number, tax card and the right to work up to 20 hours a week. Forward at work!
Work while studying
The first thing to do is create a CV - CV. It should be painted, information about yourself: contacts, photography, education, work experience and personal qualities. That's just the last two points, and we need to focus. Education should be written only to show that it is not a fool, but personal emphasis should be placed on personal qualities. The resume is made one for all places, and already for each vacancy it is necessary to make the application - søknad. It is necessary to tell about yourself and convince that it is you who fit this job. I will be honest - none of my resumes have fired. I took it to warehouses, cleaning companies, hotels, even shops, but no. The main problem is the language and size of the city. The city is actually student, 8-9% of residents are students, the amount of work is very limited. As a result, you can get a job practically only through an acquaintance, with a few exceptions. One of them is sykehjemm, something between a hospice and a nursing home, most of the guests have certain diseases, up to complete paralysis. But language is required there, so I was passing by again. Some successfully arranged by coaches - but this requires experience (even from Russia will do), but I flew again. As a result, I was arranged for an acquaintance at the same hotel where I had carried more than one resume. Briefly - I worked on a rag for a year and a half, nothing terrible, the work was irregular, but 6 thousand exactly went out a month, during all sorts of meetings and conferences the monthly salary reached 12 thousand kroons. That is enough for life.
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Job specialty
It is unlikely that a respected reader would like to read about the polishers, so closer to the main topic.
Since the job search process is 90% remote, you need to prepare a presentation package for yourself (or, if you like, a portfolio) where you need to gather all the useful information about yourself.
Russian diploma
Many advise Russian diploma to wipe and throw. In fact, this is not entirely true. I translated my diploma and made several copies. I sent one copy of the translation of the diploma and certificate to a special office for the confirmation of foreign education - NOKUT. You need to fill out a special questionnaire in English or Norwegian and send the whole thing in a large envelope for 100 kroons (it will be more reliable), and six months later you will receive confirmation that the Russian education is credited and counted. My 5 years of specialty turned into 240 points - bachelor and master's year. It is also a good idea for a translator to ask for translations in electronic form, to attach neat text files much better than scanned copies (better readability and lower weight).
Summary
I did not bathe and took the Europass as a template. Many will say that this is trivial, but this option has several advantages. One of them is a familiar form for personnel officers, plus many sites allow you to download a resume in this format and disassemble it at once into different fields, conveniently. What to write in the resume? The most important thing is the relevant work experience. No experience? Well, the practice at the university, then all passed, is not it? The language level can be written in words, and you can put down the level, A1, A2, B1 and so on.
About studies - write about 2-3 lines for each place of study (culturology and basics of library and bibliographic knowledge are not worth writing), write better about the diploma - what was done and what did you do (do not be afraid to give yourself an assessment) - the diploma came out cool, everyone applauded standing). If you participated in some societies - write what they did. I was not so active in Russia, so I joined the student parliament in Narvik. Yes, the people are not shy about the fact that they are entering the parliament purely for the sake of a beautiful line in the summary, but you should not just sit there either.
Guarantors are very important. According to pervosti, I wrote teachers, with whom I spoke well, then I wrote in the head of the hotel. It is advisable to enter those who can tell about you from a professional point of view. And do not be afraid to replace some people with others. For example, a teacher from the Narvik School is replaced by a professor from the University of Trondheim NTNU. 2-3 people no longer worth it.
Hobby? Be sure to write, but briefly. Still, the summary should be no more than two pages. There is also a line in Europass - a position to which you are applying. Since the resume is written one for almost everyone, I wrote Electrical / Automation Engineer.
Photography, I believe, is needed. Still, in Norway, the personality of a person is very important, for many resumes with a face - a resume from a person, and without a face - from a candidate. And the photo should be more lively than as a passport, you can with a slight turn, the background also should not be clipped. A good option is to take a picture at the computer or against the background of the blackboard, a light natural smile will not be superfluous either.
Statement
I preferred to write in the language in which the vacancy was published. Also it is necessary to indicate in the application the name of the company and the vacancy (such as “I saw that your company,“ Horns and Hooves ”, is looking for an engineer), in the application it is necessary to indicate which of the skills or knowledge are suitable for this vacancy.
What came as a surprise to me personally - in Norway letters do not begin with “Dear sir or madame”, just “Hei”.
Social networks
I recommend to have a profile in LinkedIn, as a reference to a resume is better to specify it, rather than Facebook or other social networks.
Publications-works
It is clear that everything must be translated into English. I downloaded what was on LinkedIn, it's easier.
In general, all documents are ready, it’s time to enter the labor market. We must do this in advance. First, you will send more - more chances, and secondly, with each letter, the text will improve and improve, some minor flaws will be corrected. Phrases will be rearranged. It was especially noticeable how my letters changed in Norwegian.
I was looking for a job simply - 1-2 sites with work (for example,
nav.no - just a filter by profession. If the vacancy at least somehow fit, I sent a letter there.
Of course , refusals fell one after another. And then he came -
Næringslivsdagen and summer work
This is something like a job fair in a Narvik school. Many companies like ABB, Siemens, Stattkraft, Jernebane and many smaller ones. You can talk with them, take contacts, learn about the possibility of summer work or write a diploma with the company. For the whole day of conversations, my language almost fell off (plus my levels of English and Norwegian at that time made themselves felt), but I distributed the whole pack of summaries. What is the most funny - in a couple of weeks I received a call from one company, Demas AS, which is located in the town of Brestabotn - Brøstadbotn - for 487 people. I was offered a summer job as an installer in a factory for the production of electrical cabinets for 5 weeks. I happily agreed.
I will not particularly dwell on what I did there, I will say that I received: first, a good salary (about a third higher than a hotel in an hour, plus many more hours); secondly, some practice in production; thirdly, practice in the language (although the Brestabotn dialect is one more song); and fourthly, beautiful lines in the summary in the section “work” and “guarantors”. In the process of work, I hinted several times that I really liked it, and I would be happy to work with them later, but somehow I didn’t go further. Therefore, on arrival in Narvik, I began to look for work further.
First call
I decided not to bother too much and just made a carpet mailing. Basically on two points: to write a diploma in the company and a vacancy in the company (including internships - trainee). I sent 3-10 resumes per day, October came, and N ringslivsdagen was held again in Narvik, where I was like again, talked to the best language level, collected a bunch of business cards with contacts. After talking with representatives of Demas, I did not see in them a strong desire to take me to work, so I started sending out my resume with redoubled force. First of all, I sent it to those I met at the event, and in the letter I wrote “hello, remember, we met in Narvik, there was a very pleasant conversation,” then I added to those I found on LinkedIn. The letter necessarily indicated that "based on the conversation with you, you have very good conditions for employees, and this is very important." In general, at the event everyone says that they have many, many vacancies, they need everything at once, but this is not always true, this is life. In response, I received answers like “Dmitry, it was very pleasant to talk to you, I gave your resume further. Now we are forming a budget for the next year and, based on this, we will inform you about the decision. ” Need I say that 95% didn't write anything else?
However, in just a couple of weeks I received a call from an unfamiliar number, which was also not defined in the phone book of Norway. Having picked up the phone, I heard a vigorous Bergen dialect, whence I understood such words as “filed, work, actal” and interrogative intonation. After thinking for a second, I proudly began to report that yes, I submitted (when ??) to your company (which company?) For a vacancy of an electrical engineer, and this is still relevant. “Great,” I hear back, I’ll get back to you. Then we called up a couple of times, and I received an invitation for a Skype interview from TS Group. Just in a couple of days, when I almost memorized the entire website, Steen (a cadre from the TS) writes that if I still don’t understand, they want to get me a job with the subsequent submission to hire at Motus Technology, Type a link to the site. I began to study in panic what kind of Mutus it was. Yeah, solutions for oil and gas at sea, cool, cho.
Interview
So I prepared, laid out the paper with the words, hints, took a fully charged tablet, occupied a free audience at school and wait for the call. A call at the appointed time, I turn on a smile and with sweaty fingers I press “answer from video”. I greet, I see the moving lips of two people, but I hear nothing. I explain the situation, they call me back a couple of times, but nothing changes, they hang up. In a panic, I am ready to kill myself against the wall, but I see that they are calling me again. I answer and see a picture from another camera, and as a bonus, I also hear it. We greeted again, they asked me which language I prefer, I answered “Norwegian” (I realized that nothing, but there was no way back), I told lightly about me, where I taught, they told about themselves, I even said got it. Then they started asking questions. The questions were different, for example, why I study in Narvik, why I chose engineering at all, as I have on my personal front. Then they asked what I like to do in my free time - I replied that I don’t have so much free time, and I need to study, and earn money, I teach Norwegian ... I was interrupted - "why do you teach this?" I honestly said that we didn’t have any courses at all, but without a language. They honestly replied that this surprised them a lot, and they are impressed by the fact that I am learning the language and even more or less speak it. Then I was asked if I would not like to visit Molde (exactly where they are) for a personal interview, to which I replied that it would be interesting to visit the “city of roses” (the informal name of Molde). In the end, they asked me if I had more questions. Since the panic suddenly returned, and the entire vocabulary was spent, I asked what the weather was like in Molde (and indeed I thought that I had successfully blown off the interview). I have never seen such a surprised look in a double copy. However, later they said that today the first snow fell in Molde, turned the camera towards the window. I said that in Narvik there is also snow today, and after that we spent another 15 minutes talking about the weather in Molde, in Narvik, in Murmansk, in Oslo.
After the conversation ended, I realized that I must continue to look for work. However, a week later, just after I passed on the rights, I received a letter in the mail saying that I was invited for a personal interview in January. Perhaps it was one of the best days of my life. However, after a couple of weeks, when I was in Oslo, I received a letter saying that I would like to have another video interview in front of my personal interview. At that moment everything fell down at me. I wrote this straight: “Have you doubted me? Should I prepare something for this interview? What questions will be addressed? ”In response, they wrote to me:“ Everything is in order, we just want to have another interview. Get ready - if possible use the headset for better sound. "
I passed the second interview when I was in Murmansk, and three people were already talking to me - the Director Mutyus was attached with a bonus. After talking for an hour about any garbage, we said goodbye. I would like to note a couple of points. “Doesn't it bother you to move to such a small city as Molde?” - “Have you ever been to Narvik?” - “I see.” “Isn't it difficult for you to understand us?” - “Of course, it is difficult, you speak three different dialects, my brain melts, but what to do?” - (after a pause) “yes, I speak Bergen dialect - and I speak western - and I am on the same ". That is, there were a couple of critical moments that we managed to translate into a joke. I can’t say that it was right, but in any stressful situation my mind starts to jerk stupidly.
Job offer and contract
A couple of days later, Stine asked me to send me the written works that I have. I sent all the works at the school of Narvik and a partially translated Russian diploma (explained that the translation is in progress). A week later, she called me to make a formal offer. To the question “is a personal interview?” I received the answer “to us, everything is clear”. Well, I accepted the offer and congratulations. A week later I received the documents by e-mail, printed out an agreement, an offer, signed and sent back by e-mail.
According to the contract, from June 1, I started working as an engineer in the TS Group with simultaneous rental in Mutus and a probation period of 6 months. If, after a year, I and Mutus are satisfied with each other, I will turn to them on a permanent basis. Thus, in mid-February, I got a job and stopped looking for another one. It is worth noting that I received positive answers from other places right up to mid-June - in this most Norwegians will pull to the last. Perhaps I would get a better and more interesting option, but at that time I wanted to get out of Narvik as soon as possible, and who knows, I would have another chance.
In March I applied for a working residence permit, and at the end of May I already had another card for a period of one year. On the 28th of May, somehow I finally passed my master's thesis, loaded the things into the car and, having had dinner with a couple of friends in farewell, went to Molde - 1100 km with two ferries.
How an engineer works in Norway and what money is spent for, I will write in the final article of the cycle. This article is just about how the job was searched. If dear readers have questions on the topic of finding a job as an engineer, I will answer with great pleasure in the comments.