Hi

I've been here a year and a half and am still looking...if you know the language, your options will be considerably expanded. The number of applicants for English speaking jobs is astronomical, plus most Danes speak English well enough that they also compete for those jobs. I'd recommend having enough saved that you can live twice as long without a job as you had originally planned. K

KristenWithaK wrote:

I've been here a year and a half and am still looking...if you know the language, your options will be considerably expanded. The number of applicants for English speaking jobs is astronomical, plus most Danes speak English well enough that they also compete for those jobs. I'd recommend having enough saved that you can live twice as long without a job as you had originally planned. K

Hi,
I plan to move to Copenhagen mid November but you gave me a very bad news. I don't speak danish at all and until I will I was hopping to find a job as an unskilled, something like newspaper delivery or dish washer or cook help. Even if I have a university degree back in my country I know it will be very very hard for me to find a job in my field. What kind of job were you looking for in this year and a half ? Can you please give me some informations about some cheap accomodation ?

Thx

Well, dont be too disheartened. I have only been looking for work in the field that I worked in while in the States, which was office admin work. I have bad knees that don't allow me to work in a job that would require me to stand all day (waitressing, etc) so my options are probably more limited than yours. I speak only rudimentary Danish, but I came here not speaking any. You can go to one of the language schools here for free, at least for the first 3 years. I am married to a Dane, and he has a job, so I also don't have the immediate pressure to get a job. I do have friends at language school who have gotten other jobs in restaurants, janitorial jobs, etc without too much trouble, but they can't live on that; they are married and have a spouse who works. As far as accomodation goes...I have no ideas there. I know that there are rental associations that people join to get controlled rent. We belong to such a collective, making our rent only about 7000 crowns a month as opposed to the 16,000 to 20,000 that some people spend. The cost of living here is outrageous, but there are some things that you get here that you dont in the States. In the US everything revolves around money and material things, whereas here it seems like the focus is more on the quality of your life and time to enjoy it. I have kids, so that is really important to me. In the US I had a nice house, car, etc but I also worked 50 hours a week and hardly ever saw my kids. Here I live with much less, but I have a better relationship with my family and I am much less stressed out, so for me it balances out. I hope that helps, Kristen

KristenWithaK wrote:

Well, dont be too disheartened. I have only been looking for work in the field that I worked in while in the States, which was office admin work. I have bad knees that don't allow me to work in a job that would require me to stand all day (waitressing, etc) so my options are probably more limited than yours. I speak only rudimentary Danish, but I came here not speaking any. You can go to one of the language schools here for free, at least for the first 3 years. I am married to a Dane, and he has a job, so I also don't have the immediate pressure to get a job. I do have friends at language school who have gotten other jobs in restaurants, janitorial jobs, etc without too much trouble, but they can't live on that; they are married and have a spouse who works. As far as accomodation goes...I have no ideas there. I know that there are rental associations that people join to get controlled rent. We belong to such a collective, making our rent only about 7000 crowns a month as opposed to the 16,000 to 20,000 that some people spend. The cost of living here is outrageous, but there are some things that you get here that you dont in the States. In the US everything revolves around money and material things, whereas here it seems like the focus is more on the quality of your life and time to enjoy it. I have kids, so that is really important to me. In the US I had a nice house, car, etc but I also worked 50 hours a week and hardly ever saw my kids. Here I live with much less, but I have a better relationship with my family and I am much less stressed out, so for me it balances out. I hope that helps, Kristen

Since you were so nice and answered I dare to bother you with other questions. How does those rental associations work? How can you join them? Do they help you to find a rent? How are the danes ? I mean with the people from other counties. Do you know by any chance how did your friends that work in restaurants managed to find a job ? This kind of jobs are not advertised on the internet, at least I wasn't able to find any. Did they looked from door to door ?

The rental associations have waiting lists, and it can take many years to get to the top of the list, so if you plan to stay in Denmark a long time but dont want to buy a house, I would recommend getting on some of the association lists for future housing. They do charge small fees yearly, but I am not the one who usually deals with that stuff; my husband does it all. This site tells a little: http://www.justlanded.com/english/Denma … troduction

and this "New to Denmark" site is very good for anyone moving here: http://www.nyidanmark.dk/en-us/citizens … o+live.htm

I am not sure how my friends got jobs, but there is a job board at the language schools and also the local municipality that you live in will have job listings and can help you with stuff like that.