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Comment by angersock | Hacker News Reader

Is anyone familiar with emigrating to these countries, especially if you have a tech skillset? Good idea, bad idea, horrid idea?

EDIT:

Let me refine that query--emigrating as an English-speaking American software engineer and tech, without dependents.

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Landing a job in the tech industry in norway is no problem - especially if you are a software developer, IT-consultant, or have any kind of engineering-deegree. Currently there's a huge demand for engineers, esp. in the larger cities. Not knowing the language is not a problem at all, english is well understood and spoken. Source: Working in a multicultural software company in Oslo.

I should seriously investigate this. I'd love colder climates, I have EU citizenship (though, d'oh, just remembered, Norway isn't EU...), and my GF would love to live in Europe and has Norwegian heritage (though she's a fourth generation American, so ...)

Norway isn't in the EU, but it is in the EEA. Its easy to get the residence permit for EU citizens.

I'm from the UK and settled here 8 years ago. All it took was a trip to the tax register in Oslo, fill in a few forms and that's it.

Jobs are relatively easy to find. The main job board in Norway is at: http://finn.no/jobb

Only thing really to complain about is the expense of damn near everything. But even that, you can get used to.

Check out "How to socialize with Norwegians": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYILBHDlDUc

and: http://monda.no/blog/ifln/

Anecdote: A good friend of mine from my PhD program emigrated to Norway. He took his technical PhD and got a job at Google. He then moved to ARM. He's now working for a Norwegian company.

He loves it.

Guess it can be a good idea.. The unemployment rate is low, but there are far less jobs for people who don's speak Norwegian. Wages for programmers is lower than the U.S I believe, and it's an expensive country.

In exchange for a lower pay (and higher taxes?) you get vacation, great job security and a lot of benefits.

Before relocating, check if your skills are sought after :)

My GFs brother is a (german, studied in Germany and Spitzbergen) geophysicist and he just landet his first real job after graduating in Norway at an oil company. There seems to be a demand in this field.

The weather might be something to take into account. Personally, I wouldn't want to live in far northern countries like Norway because of the limited sunlight hours in winter. I've found that more than the temperature, it's sunlight exposure that has a strong influence on the way I feel.

Living in a country that may get a few hours of weak sunlight in winter doesn't appeal to me, no matter how high the standard of living might be otherwise.

Your personal preferences will vary, of course.

When I worked in Stockholm, I had a few colleagues who preferred to take a large portion of their generous (32 day) annual holiday in february or so and go someplace warm. Working through the summer is not unpleasant: the pace is slower, the office is quiet, the evenings are long, and you could still have a week or two off.

You can also look at it the other way around. In the summer, some (north) parts of Norway you will always have sun :)

I work in a norwegian (infosec) company [1] and we have hired several english (only) speaking persons to get the best talents.

Norway have quotas for people with specific skills and it is my understanding that it is not that hard to get a Visa.

I also know several other companies, e.g. Opera Software, are mostly english speaking and most large companies in Norway within Oil&Gas, and Finance have english as a corporate language.

[1] http://www.mnemonic.no/en/Andre-sprak/English/Career/Jobs-at...

Not sure why you're being downvoted, but family in Norway always tell me there seems to be a big demand for workers in the fields of science and tech.

As others have already written, people with engineering degrees who speak English shouldn't have a hard time getting a job in the major cities. I work as a developer in Oslo, and know for a fact that developers are in high demand.

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