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Comment by hiAndrewQuinn | Hacker News Reader

The Logic of Political Survival predicts that any country with an already strong and healthy democracy which later discovers enormous natural resources will have a much better shot at overcoming the curse of resources than those where these trends are weaker. Selectorate theory is the real key here, and it's why Norway is probably going to knock it out of the park with its newly discovered phosphate deposits as well, which dwarf the oil profits several times over. The pre-discovery takeaway is to get that democratic process alive and healthy well ahead of time, no matter the circumstances.

On a totally unrelated note, if anyone wants to help me land my first gig over in Oslo, I'm conviniently next-next door in Finland. Have EU passport, likes keeping a good thing going, willing to learn Norwegian (Fosse's plays are great) -- will travel.

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>if anyone wants to help me land my first gig over in Oslo, I'm conviniently next-next door in Finland

I made a website to help non-norwegian speakers find a tech/it/software job in Norway. All the job posts should be in English and only a few jobs require some Norwegian knowledge.

If you know Java, .NET or JavaScript/Typescript there are a lot of well(-enough) paid jobs in Norway.

https://nordictechjobs.com/jobs

Wonderful! Glad I got my reps in with C# and Azure last year.

Interesting but without salary ranges it's hard to know if it worth applying. What are typical bracket for software engineer as junior, 3 years, and 5 years of experience?

You would have to find a junior or more experience eng and check his earnings online.

As to earnings by industry, you can check them on the statistics bureau website: https://www.ssb.no/arbeid-og-lonn/lonn-og-arbeidskraftkostna...

>What are typical bracket for software engineer as junior, 3 years, and 5 years of experience?

For Oslo the salary range is something like this, a bit lower in smaller cities. These are the "typical" brackets, but you can definitively get a lot more:

- 0 YOE - €45k-€60k

- 3 YOE - €55k-€90k

- 5 YOE - €70k-€150k and up

A "median" salary in Oslo for a developer with 3-8 YOE is around €70k-80k. Anyone who has 5 YOE and actually asks for a higher salary can easily get 1 million NOK or €90k++.

Expect a 32%-38% tax rate on your income.

If you earn 1 million NOK (€85k) you will pay €27k in tax.

Here is the tax calculator from the official tax office: https://skattekalkulator.app.skatteetaten.no/

EDIT: Here is an article in Norwegian about software developer salaries. It shows about the same numbers as mine, just a lower ceiling.

https://witted.com/blog/software-freelancing/lonnsniva-for-u...

>If you earn 1 million NOK (€85k) you will pay €27k in tax.

That leaves €58k. After paying all taxes I make €53k in Romania. So moving to Norway means I would lose a lot since the prices are much higher there.

Eastern Europe is one of the best place to live as a developer.

Outside of US, yes. And I've heard developers in China and India are doing pretty good, too.

Are you making a quantile-quantile comparison? It's probably likely that you are making way more than the average romanian dev and the same is likely to apply in norway.

Thanks for the detailed answer and adding information about taxes! I've to adjust to the cost of living but at first glance that seems still quite higher than what are practiced in my country, especially with some experience.

Anywhere from 500-600k NOK with a fresh bachelor's degree to well over a million NOK with experience.

The best paying jobs are usually provision-based consultant/contractor positions. Some companies go hard in that direction, others lean more towards job security and stuff like that. You get paid less, but you get paid the same amount regardless of whether you have work to do. They spend more money on social things like company trips and other events etc. Then there's various benefits like pension, insurance, they might pay for internet and gym memberships, lots of stuff like that.

You pretty much just have to see what they offer.

We can throw this 'logic of political survival' theory straight into the thrash. Because this is strictly the logic of n=1. Humans trying to see patterns where none exist. Norwegians did very well, because they did. Maybe they're special or lucky or blessed by Odin or whatever. Or because of some other more legitimate reason. But in any case it's not because it's an inevitable result of strong democracy.

Counterexample: us Netherlanders didn't do very well with our once plentiful gas reserves. Which is why the resource curse is called Dutch disease. In spite of having at the time a century of democratic tradition, our prime minister chose to pump the wealth straight into the social system and not build a national wealth fund. Causing a decade of economic decline.

Even better than EU, you're part of the Nordic Passport Union. Which I believe means you can naturalize as Norwegian with just two years residency there.

If you already have an EU passport, what would be the advantage?

Rules change (see Brexit).

You don't have to apply for a work or residence permit, which means that you can stay in the country indefinitely. If you're from the EEA you have to exit Norway every 3 months, unless you qualify for a work and residence permit, basically, you have to have a job.

Is the 3-month thing actually enforced in Norway on those who do not cause a nuisance or seek benefits? Not only is it rarely enforced in EU countries, but I vaguely recall hearing that there have been court judgements in some country or another that EU/EEA citizens who overstay there cannot be forced to leave.

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