Hello!

Looking for advice on salaries vs cost of living in the larger norwegian cities, Oslo, Trondheim, Bergen, maybe Stavanger.

For some extra information first:

After a recent “career change”, from manual labour jobs to being a software developer now with 2 years of experience in web development (React and TypeScript frontend with .NET backend, and some other tech) I want to move “back to the north”.

I used to work in northern Sweden(arbetsledare in a hotel) before the career change, and I liked it a lot. This year I have visited Iceland and Norway, and while Sweden was lovely, I really liked Oslo. I don’t mind the cold and the dark, having lived in Norrbotten, and I don’t mind big cities either as I’m living and working in Budapest right now, which is more densely populated.

I started looking around on [finn.no](https://finn.no) checking out apartments and jobs, and tried to google some of my questions but you never know how reliable the information might be.

An obstacle that cannot be removed fast enough is the problem of language, while I think I’ll pick up norwegian at a decent pace, having a knack for languages and already speaking some swedish, I will need to find a job first that accepts English only.

I’m also looking for a balance between city vs nature activities, although I am mostly an indoor guy, I do like going out sometimes, and like for a lot of people, big bodies of water, forests and mountains are awesome and I definitely need more of it in my life (I live in the middle of Budapest, besides parks it’s a concrete jungle)

Obviously Oslo has the most opportunities, but the apartment prices? Hoooly moly, as far as I see unless I bunk in with someone else and rent a room out of 2-5 in an apartment and want to live alone, I’ll need to spend around 10k or more in Oslo.

Can anybody tell me what I might earn as a software developer with 2 years of experience? Just so I can kind of calculate how much of an approximate salary would go just for rent?

Would you recommend Trondheim instead? Is it cheaper a bit? I heard there is a decent demand for developers there too.

Basically any advice on this matter that comes to your mind is appreciated. I know that ultimately it’s always pros/cons but I’d appreciate anything from both natives and other expats.

tldr: 2 years experience fullstack developer, where to move in Norway pros/cons, or something like that 😀

by ANoNameMoose

7 comments

  1. Oslo might be expensive to live in, but that is where most IT jobs are. I think the salaries are higher there, as well.

    Then again, living costs are lower elsewhere, but so are the salaries. So, relativly speaking, it doesn’t matter.

    If you are serious about your career, you should move to Oslo.

  2. Just know that in a competitive market, not knowing the language puts you in the back of the line.

  3. Why not try Sweden again if you’ve already experienced life there? Work/life balance is very similar, salary potential is better if you’re good at what you do and you chances are already much better if you speak a bit of swedish. Salaries lower higher, but so are also prices and your monthly expenses so I don’t think there are any financial benefits to working in Norway.

    I don’t know about Sweden, but in Norway we’re expecting less demand for developers in the times ahead and things are currently pretty tough for some of the IT consulting firms here. 2 years is also not good enough to be very attractive for employers imo.

  4. Oslo is expensive to live in but you don’t have to live in Oslo. I live an hour away and commute every day and it works fine. After training you should have opportunities for home office which makes this easier. I recommend looking for areas either side or north of oslo near a train station. Bærum is pretty expensive but Lillestrøm, Lørenskog, Asker, Eidsvoll, Lier and Drammen are all popular to live in whilst working in Oslo. I have many friends who work in Oslo but live in these areas.

  5. The climate in Trondheim and Bergen is a big downer. I am from farther north, but am moving to Oslo because of the westher

  6. There is a huge demand for developers/programmers. Language will not be a problem. If you have the proper education/experience, landing a job paying 700-800k should be very possible(in Oslo). With that salary you can easily rent someplace nice.

    Just build a proper CV and start submitting it. You will most defineatly will get interviews.

  7. Why Norway? Don’t want to sound like an asshole but if I had decent IT skills I would not be here. You’d get paid similarly to what other countries pay, yet you’ll pay more for almost anything, the country is boring as heck if you aren’t the outdoorsy type, and you hit a salary ceiling way faster than any other EU country.

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