Carlie: Hey there. It’s Carlie with another episode of the Expat Focus podcast.
When you’re looking for a job in another country, it’s important to know how to make your application stand out – or, in the case of Denmark, fit in. Karey Anne, the CEO and founder of Welcome Group Consulting, knows exactly how to do this. A longtime expat in the country, she faced her own career challenges when she first moved to Denmark and has since worked in operations for Danish companies, including in the area of recruitment. On the show today, Karey Anne is going to go through five must-dos to really help with your local job search. In this chat, she also has some really useful insights into Danish work habits.
So, how did your company Welcome Group Consulting come about?
Karey Anne: I arrived from the UK around 15 years ago – it was 15 years in September. So, I met a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Dane out in India, and returned here to Denmark, and for me, the challenges … I think that I hadn’t anticipated expecting Denmark to be exactly the same as the UK, which it wasn’t at all. So, I was faced with the battle of having to find somewhere to live, and then having to try and build my network, and then having to try and find employment. And although I was a law graduate and had a very good job in the UK working for HSBC, it was very, very difficult to get into the local market. So, unfortunately, I had to commute for the first couple of months, back to London, where I worked there. And over the years, I’ve thankfully found work here in Denmark. But it was through some really hard work. It was very, very difficult to get in.
Once I managed to find employment here … I actually worked in operational management, so I was actually doing the hiring and the firing and the training, so I saw a lot of the recruitment process here in Denmark. And through my experience there, I gathered a lot of information. And that, coupled with how difficult it actually is to break into the system here in Denmark, figured out a couple of years ago that perhaps there was a need for this in the market, for Welcome Group Consulting to be able to be established and to help expats and internationals from abroad to get on and thrive here in Denmark.
Carlie: Is there a particular type of expat that you help?
Karey Anne: No, actually, we help … we’ve helped, previously, diplomats and professionals, but we’ve also helped students. So, it’s not that people have to come with a certain employment contract or that they were a spouse or that they have to earn a certain amount of money. What we try to do is to guide and give information and the tools needed for people to be able to thrive here. So, there’s no threshold and there’s no limit on the people that we try and help. We just try and provide the information for people to be able to help themselves.
Carlie: And you’ve put together five ways for expats to help themselves get a job in Denmark, and we’re going to talk through those today. The first one you point out is networking, which I guess really goes across countries, but why is it especially important when you’re looking for work in Denmark?
Karey Anne: It’s especially important because here, they have a very strong social connection and social structure here. And that works from all the way down in nursery school, that very often, the classes stay together all the way up, sometimes into university and the business schools. So, what happens is it makes people very well connected but very close to the people that they’ve grown up with. So, breaking into those circles can be very, very difficult.
But what it does mean is the second you break into those circles, it means that people want to help you, that very often, if they can’t help you themselves, that they know somebody that can. So, the idea is that you’ve got to try and get yourself accepted, get yourself into one of those circles. And once you’re in there, you receive information, you receive kind of intelligence, and information that you otherwise wouldn’t have had – either where to look or a little helping hand sometimes.
So, it’s very, very important to network, not just with regards to building a social structure or a social network for yourself, but also to make the connections to actually enable you to find employment.
Carlie: Is it necessary to make sure that you’re networking with Danes? Because I know, obviously, there are very strong, now, expat networks that you can make in so many countries, especially through groups such as Expat Focus’ Facebook groups for example. But do you need to make sure you’re networking with the right people and the right culture, I guess?
Karey Anne: Well, I wouldn’t say that you need to target a certain culture or certain people, but networking with Danes of course, when being in Denmark, is great, because it helps you to understand a little bit more about the people and about the culture, and that’s really what the idea is. Because once you get a job, you’re brought into an environment where questions may arise about why things happen in a certain way, or why are you eating that strange teacake today, or why are we celebrating something [05:43]? And you receive answers to things that you otherwise wouldn’t have had, so you get a social aspect that you otherwise wouldn’t have had.
Of course, reaching out to other expat networks is also very, very important, because you’re reaching out to people that have either started the same journey as yourself or are somewhat further ahead, the journey. So, they’ve been where you are right now. So, they’re also a very good source of information, because they’ve taken the same steps that you’re now taking, and they can also show you what’s worked for them. So, I wouldn’t certainly say that it’s multifaceted. I wouldn’t target just Danes, but I certainly do not support the idea of a segregated community where, when you move abroad, then it’s just expats. I think it’s great to try and combine and integrate, once you’re actually in a certain country.
Carlie: Your second recommendation when it comes to finding a job in Denmark is the CV. I know when I moved from Australia to London, I had to get used to what a UK CV format is, and start it with this … I forget what they call it. Like a personal statement, which we didn’t have in Australia. And then I moved to France, and I found out that I had to put a photo on my CV, which was bizarre to me. What’s the CV format for Denmark?
Karey Anne: Yep. Denmark is also … it’s very different to the UK and America, for example, in that it’s a very flat structure, both in the work culture and geographically. It’s a very flat country. And what that means in the workplace culture is that very often you may get a head of department or even the head of the company that is involved in the recruitment process.
So, what you need to do is, when you are applying for a job, especially so here in Denmark, is to make it cost-effective, to make it as a business transaction – so it needs to be efficient. And here in Denmark, because of the strong social ties that we’ve already mentioned, they want to see that you’re going to fit in with the people that are already in the company. So, the idea of putting a picture on the CV – absolutely vital here in Denmark. If you don’t have a picture on there, you’re going to be overlooked. So, putting a picture on at the very start – and what I say you should aim for is actually a passport fail. So, you want something where you look approachable and friendly, but you actually want to have a little smile on your face, because you want to be perceived as “I can be one of you. I can be part of your team.”
And then, as you say, sometimes, especially in the UK, where you have this personal statement to start off your CV … here in Denmark, you’d have a summary. So, what you’d do is you recognize the idea that a recruiter doesn’t have very much time. So, you give them a quick summary. And you write that almost in the third person, just saying what your achievements are. And what it’s very important to do is to highlight your key assets that are actually going to benefit that company. And it’s very important that you adapt your CV to every single job that you’re applying for. So, don’t use the same CV and just tweak your cover letter. You actually need to put some keywords in your CV, to actually make the CV sound interesting to the recruiter as well.
Carlie: Do the Danish like a colorful CV, a fancy style?
Karey Anne: I wouldn’t say colorful, because the Danes are not very colorful per se. So, if you walk around a stall here on the shopping streets, and … people wear very safe colors, so blacks, greens … the dark colors. So, anything that’s going to make you stand out too much is going to stand out in the wrong way.
Now, the idea is to stand out – so, a template, a good template, or a stripe of color would be wonderful. What I advise people to do is to print out your CV, put it on a table, and then walk away. And what very often happens … the Danes like their coffee. So, they tend to take coffee breaks every once in a while. And what they may do from time to time is to return to a table with a CV printed out on there. Now, returning to a table, what I call it is the coffee test.
So, if your CV is printed out and on a table, when you look from afar, what does it look like? Does it look like it’s very word-heavy? Does it look like it’s interesting? Does it actually stand out, if it was next to somebody else’s? And that’s what you want – you want your CV to stand out, but it’s got to stand out for the right reasons. So, nothing with a food background, if you’re not working in food. Nothing that looks too well designed and kind of … you [oversee] the content. So, you match it to what you’re going to, and some kind of understated color would certainly make you stand out.
Carlie: Your next point is the cover letter, and it’s kind of reassuring to me, reading this, that it doesn’t sound like you need to make too many tweaks to what would typically be expected in a cover letter for Denmark.
Karey Anne: No, I don’t believe so either. They’re not so different to the rest of the world. What I would say the main difference in the cover letter is, that in Denmark, the dress sense is very … [almost] down-to-earth, very smart casual, if you would. So, the cover letter actually needs to represent that. And you do that by giving a certain amount of professionalism, so you include keywords that are actually shown in the job vacancy itself, and including them and mixing them in with your attributes and what you’ve achieved previously. But what you also need to do is you need to, again, stand out, but you need to show this friendly professionalism.
So, the way you do that is professionalism … is to let them know the previous achievements and what you’re capable of and what you’re going to be able to help them achieve as a company. And then you have this friendliness. So, it’s okay to let them know that you run or that you’ve just moved to the country with your husband, for example, or that you are looking forward to joining the company because you’ve heard that they have a certain club that you’re looking very much forward to discovering more about. So, it’s a real blend of professionalism but also this friendly, personal side. I believe that’s what makes the cover letters here in Denmark stand out, a little more than maybe the UK and the US, for example, or some parts of Asia.
Carlie: Nice little dash of personality that you’re able to put in there.
Karey Anne: Exactly, and that’s what you’re going for. Because we talk about, here … we do some workshops, training people that come to the country, and we talk about three golden rules that recruiters are actually looking for. And some of those are to fit in, so the idea that once you get the job, that you’re going to get along with the team that’s there.
The idea is that you’re also going to meet all the requirements, so that you can fulfil the job. And that once you get the job, that you’re actually going to stay. Because of course, no recruiter or company actually wants to repeat the process shortly after they’ve actually employed somebody, because it’s just not cost-effective for them.
So, in the cover letter, you actually want to not only let them know that you can fulfil the job, you want to let them know that you’ve researched the company and that you really want to work for that company. So, it’s not just a matter of “I would like this job because I want to earn some money”. Of course, nobody’d ever say that. But very often, I feel, back in time, when I was applying for jobs in the UK, it wasn’t quite as important for me to understand the company and their vision and mission. Whereas here in Denmark right now, this is very important, to understand who the company are and what they’re seeking to achieve. And you do that by researching them, and then just putting a little line in your cover letter to let them know, “I see your company, and actually, I agree with what you’re doing, and I look forward to being a part of it.”
So, it is that mix of the personal with the professional there that the cover letter, here in Denmark, that you’re looking to try and achieve.
Carlie: I have a question when it comes to language. I don’t think recruiters in Denmark or HR departments are really going to expect you to know Danish. Is it worth trying to inject a few Danish lines into your CV and cover letter or get it translated, or is it not really necessary if you’re not fluent in Danish?
Karey Anne: No, I was going to say if … what you need to is, very often, if you assume that the person you are speaking with … what you tend to do is you tend to mirror one another. So, when you’re looking at a job vacancy, this is way of a company communicating to you. So, you need to read the way they’re communicating with you and reply in the same manner. So, if they’re announcing a vacancy in English, then you would also reply in English. So, it’s fine to write that you speak Danish or that you have conversation Danish, but you certainly don’t need to prove it by putting a couple of lines in, if they’ve not asked for it.
Of course, on the other hand, if the vacancy that you’re applying for is in Danish, then of course they would also expect that the application process would be written in Danish language. But you should never feel that you have to prove your language skills by putting a few lines in there. That’s not necessary.
Carlie: Have you had feedback from the expats you’ve worked with you have landed a job, about how they found Danish workplaces, and fitting in, I guess, in a Danish workplace?
Karey Anne: Yes, yes! It’s quite fun, because some of the people that we’ve worked with, we offer employment membership. So, it’s a monthly membership that, once they’ve got out of it what they want, then they leave us. It’s almost like Netflix – you see what you want, and then you cancel the membership.
But what we’ve found in the majority of our members is they’ve actually kept this monthly membership and turned it into personal development, if you would. And then, we still meet up once a month, they get a personal hour where we sit down and talk about different things. And what we’ve found is they like, very much, this link to Danish culture, where they can ask us about certain aspects of … “Why does this happen?” “The boss came in and nobody was willing to take charge? Is that the norm? Is that how it works?” So, they’ve enjoyed this aspect of almost being able to debrief from what they’ve experienced in the workplace, and then being able to ask us, “Is this normal?”
And of course, myself and some of the other coaches that work together with our members, then we’ve worked in these environments, both in organizations abroad and then working here in Denmark. So, it’s very easy for us to identify these differences. But certainly, it allows us to be able to empathize and to relate to our members. So, when they come with certain questions or raise certain issues, then very often, it brings memories back to us, because we’ve been there. So, there’s a lot of things with our members that, even after them finding a job, that we still continue that relationship and have the connection with them.
But certainly, workplace culture here in Denmark is very different to elsewhere.
Carlie: Is there a common encounter in a workplace in Denmark that typically catches expats by surprise and comes up again and again?
Karey Anne: Yes. I would say the social aspects. As we talked about, there are strong social bonds that the Danes have here. But it also goes into the work culture, that when it’s lunchtime, then very often, in Asia or in the US or the UK for example, people will take rolling lunches, so maybe two or three people at a time. In Denmark, people tend to all go to lunch at the same time, or certainly a team at a time. So, it means that everybody gets to sit down, they get half an hour to sit and chat and kind of debrief off one another.
But for me, I have to say it really unnerved me, it kind of freaked me out the first couple of times. Because the idea of leaving your desk when you’re quite busy, the idea of not being able to answer customers, and the idea of nobody being there to take the phones, it was just so foreign to me that it really made me feel quite uncomfortable. And that’s absolutely something that we experience time and time again, when people come back and ask, “Is this normal? Why do they do this?”
And the social aspect of it, that’s really at the center of the workplace, that they see it so important to have time to kind of switch off and to be able to talk, and to talk about things outside of work, that they value that more than somebody being there to be able to take the phones for the 30 minutes that you’re going to be missing for lunch. And it’s not just the work lunch period that the social thing comes into it. There’s also the … they very often have Friday drinks, where everybody is expected to go, even if you don’t drink, if you’re pregnant, if you’re Muslim, for whatever reason, then you’re kind of … if something’s organized through work, everybody is kind of expected to be there, to show their commitment to one another, to getting to know their colleagues. So, again, that’s something that kind of unnerves people, which is very, very different to the rest of the world but is certainly the norm here.
Carlie: I know I was surprised when I came to France and sat in a coworking office, and everybody, from around 12:00, 12:30 would just leave their desks and disappear for a good hour. The office would be quiet, and I’d be the only one – and still am, a lot of the time – the only one eating lunch at my desk, like I did in London, powering through. And everyone would notice but also comment on it, and be like, “Oh! You’re not leaving.” And “Oh! You’re eating your lunch at your desk.” And it’s such a foreign concept here, and I was like, “Oh, I’m the strange one.”
Karey Anne: Yup. Exactly. And that’s a very good point, because the idea is that when you’re actually applying for a job, what you’ve got to imply is “I’m one of you”, and you do that by remembering those golden rules, letting them know that you’re going to fit in by researching the company. But actually, when you get a job, it’s also just as important – you show that you fit in by understanding these social norms and these workplace commitments, if you would, that the Danes have.
So, certainly, I’ve also been witness to sitting down and eating at my desk, and for me, if you’ve got a busy day, then it just seemed normal, of course you’d sit down and you’d continue! Because I have to leave work at four o’clock or five o’clock, so you put as much energy into your work as humanly possible, when you were there. So, for me, it was also quite natural to sit at my desk and eat, until, again, like you, I had colleagues that started noticing and saying, “Well, actually, it’s a little weird,” or “This is odd, that you’re not eating with us.” Or “We’re afraid that you’re going to burn out, that you’re going to get stressed.”
And I have to say, here in Denmark right now, we have a very strong social structure, as I said, both in the workplace and out, but they have a very strong focus right now on work and home life balance, and a great focus on stress in the workplace especially. So, they are, actually, really, really worried about people that work too hard, that seem to give too much or that don’t seem able to incorporate something else, whether it be leaving for lunch or leaving early or being able to talk about their children or switch off for ten minutes at a time.
So, this idea of you thinking that “Okay, I need to prove that I’m actually good at my job,” or “I need to do my best,” to the Danes, they actually read it differently, and they get worried about you. So, for them, instead of them seeing you achieving, they actually see you in a light where they actually get worried about you and think, “Okay, this person’s no longer achieving, because they’re not going to be useful to us in a couple of months’ time, when they go down with stress.” So, you’ve got to be very, very careful with that side of it, sticking out in that way. Because it’s not expected here.
Carlie: Working smarter and not harder.
Karey Anne: Exactly. And that’s really saying that the working hours here are some of the lowest in Europe. So, we’re looking at a 37-hour week, so a lot of people enter the office … or they may have flex hours, so you’ll enter the office at around … between 8:00 and 8:30, and you’re leaving again between 4:00 and 4:30. And with 30 minutes break. And the Danes, they like their coffee, so they’re up and down, from the kitchen, maybe six, seven times a day. And each time, have a little chat with somebody along the way. So, they’re taking these little breaks.
But what they do is in the time that they’re there, they deliver – so, they’re committed and they’re very switched on. You will very rarely walk into a Danish office and get people that are strolling around or on Google or busy buying things on eBay or on bored.com, for example. This very, very rarely happens in a Danish office. Because whilst you’re in the office, people tend to be efficient and do what they need to do, so that they can leave again.
Carlie: Karey Anne, your fourth recommendation is to do with LinkedIn. I know it’s a platform that I only really started to use when I moved to the UK, and in Australia I used to get these invitations all the time, and be like, “This is not relevant to me. What even is this thing?” LinkedIn is very relevant for Denmark, isn’t it?
Karey Anne: It is. And back to the point that we talked about, that when you are recruiting, you’ve got to think about the cost-effectiveness of it. So, for organizations and companies here that are recruiting, it’s very, very expensive. We have a system that works, infrastructure that works, but everything’s expensive here. We have very high VAT, and tax on everything else. So, for a recruiter or for a company, if you’re looking to recruit somebody, you’re looking at paying in excess of 10,000 Danish Krones. If you were looking to use a job portal, for example … and that’s even the cheapest plan that’s without your logo, and it really doesn’t look very good. So, a lot of people don’t choose to go for those plans.
So, what’s happened is cheaper alternatives, like LinkedIn and other social media networks, have actually sprung ahead being one of the leading recruitment platforms here in Denmark. So, LinkedIn is key to the recruitment process, and LinkedIn plus the other social media platforms actually serves for 92% of all recruitment platforms for recruiters, so they’re using the social media platforms.
So, LinkedIn, again, I was very much like you, Carlie, but LinkedIn didn’t say anything to me. When you’re in a job, I think that’s the thing, that you don’t realize you need it. It’s like insurance – you kind of need to have it there before you actually need it. So, the idea is that whilst you’re in a job, create a LinkedIn profile and connect with your colleagues. Google things, how to make a keyword-rich summary of yourself, and what that does is … I’m not sure if you’ve ever experienced before, but if you google your name, very often, the first thing that comes up with your name is your LinkedIn profile.
And the reason being is that it’s linked to SEO, so the [social] engine optimization. So, what that does is it actually puts you out there, it increases your reach. So, having your LinkedIn profile, it increases your network, it puts you in touch with potential recruiters, and it also puts you in touch with recruiters far and wide.
Now, I work in an office with lots of different agencies. We’re in a coworking office. And in that, there are people that recruit in India, in the USA, in the UK, and they sit here in Denmark, and for them, it’s not important where the right candidate comes from, as long as they have the right skills and the right qualifications to be able to meet and fulfil the job.
So, LinkedIn is a fantastic way of you increasing your reach. And what you’re doing is you’ve got to google how to better and how to establish your personal brand. And that’s what LinkedIn really is – it’s about you selling you. So, you’re creating your personal brand and you’re actually advertising yourself. So, you’re putting yourself in potential reach of those recruiters, which is absolutely vital when you actually need that insurance or you need to actually look for a job. So, LinkedIn is key, especially so here in Denmark, because of the increased costs and standard of living here.
Carlie: There’s a common saying, that you know when an employee is about to leave, when they update their LinkedIn profile.
Karey Anne: [laughs] Yeah, exactly. But the idea is to do it along the way. So, there’s no problem increasing your endorsements, for example, and connecting with old colleagues, connecting with colleagues that you currently work with. I think it’s become so natural now, here in Denmark, that a lot of people are on there, whether they’re actively seeking employment or not. And of course, on LinkedIn, you can select that you’re seeking employment or not. It is acceptable to have a LinkedIn profile, and it’s not a sign to an employer that you are seeking something else. It’s just showing your professional side, and as long as you show the side of you and the professional qualities that you want to communicate or to share with an employer, then there’s nothing wrong whatsoever with creating a LinkedIn profile and having it there.
Because it’s to build upon, it’s kind of the masterplan, it’s the template of what you need going forward. So, the sooner you start it, the better or more in-depth it’s going to be.
Carlie: We’ve gone into this fifth point a bit already, in that once you have your professional social profile, you need to increase your reach – it’s got to be working for you. And that’s really important in Denmark.
Karey Anne: It is very important. And the reason being that the country’s so small. So, what tends to happen is recruiters are recruiting from far and wide, not just within Denmark. We look to Sweden, to Germany, to the UK, India, USA, Pakistan. So, increasing your reach is super important.
As well as LinkedIn, there are other platforms you can use. Facebook, they’ve just increased or they’ve just launched the job portal now. So, you can also put that you’re currently seeking and you can apply for jobs online. Google Plus, although quite an old system, it is still widely used. Because it’s a Google platform, you actually come up again on the SEO. So, that’s super important, to create a Google Plus account.
And then, every once in a while, you don’t need to put your CV on there, but you can just write a little article or a little update, saying that you are currently seeking, and again, put those keywords, perhaps put the same summary that you have on LinkedIn, put it in your Google Plus update. And that again will increase your reach.
Instagram, a lot of people create profiles or certain pictures. Anything from a signpost with a little text underneath, stating that you’re looking for new challenges or you’re looking for new direction or somebody to help you out, to putting something on there stating that you’re looking for a certain position within a certain company. And the thing is if you hashtag in the right way and put things on there and describe them in the right way, then people can actually share these. So, what it’s doing is it’s increasing the chances of it coming out of just your network and getting the word out, saying “I’m here and this is what I’m looking for.” So, again, increasing your reach.
And Twitter is very similar. You can put things out there stating that you’re looking for new challenges, or put some of these keywords. If, for example, you were in human resources or if you worked in training or stakeholder management, then some of these keywords are worth putting down on there. Again, the lessons that you learn in LinkedIn, talking about keyword-rich summary, these are the sort of things that you would use on the different social media platforms, such as Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram, and Twitter. And the reason being – it’s that reach. You’re putting yourself out there.
The other thing that you can use these social platforms for is to follow the companies that you’d actually want to work for. What you’re doing is, before you even get your foot in the door, you connect with the companies that you’re interested in. And of course, on certain platforms, it actually allows you also to comment once a company has put an article out. What that allows you to do is, of course, if it’s on LinkedIn, for example … the top line of your summary, whatever you’ve put out … for myself, I’ve got CEO of Welcome Group Consulting. Then, anything that I comment on, of course it comes up with my full name and then it comes up with the title of what it is I do.
So, when you’re commenting on a company or articles, then what you’re doing is increasing your chances of being seen and being noticed by the companies that you actually want to work for. So, as long as you’re commenting in the right way and it’s professional, you’re making connections. So, when it actually gets to the point that you’re actually applying for a job with them, very often, what will happen is recruiters will do their research, they will check on Instagram, they will check in their network to see if anybody is connected with anybody in-house. And if you’re connected with somebody in the company, then straightaway, you’ve kind of told them “I’m one of you. I’m potentially already in your social circle or within this company’s circle.”
So, it works in multiple ways, by increasing your reach, but also putting you in touch with companies and putting your name out there. So, it’s really, really important to use those social media platforms.
Carlie: What do you see as the easiest industries for expats to break into in Denmark and what areas are more difficult for expat job-seekers?
Karey Anne: It depends. I would say if you were looking for something that we call a survival job, so something where you just need something to do and it’s about earning money, then of course the hospitality industry … anything with foreigners, anyone that’s dealing with tourists. So, you’re looking at hotels, you’re looking at restaurants, you’re looking at pubs and restaurants. Those sort of things have a lot of English-speaking people, a high English-speaking workforce.
Of course, you’ve also got the manual labor – you’ve got cleaning companies, you’ve got car cleaning companies and rental companies. Those tend to be the ones that people go for the most. Of course, there are seasonal changes as well. You get the Christmas markets and different things happen throughout the year here in Denmark. So certainly, those are worth keeping an eye on, and knowing what’s coming up, and then you can also go after them. But again, that’s about networking. That’s about building your network with other expats or with other Danes and asking them what’s around. Because of course there’s nearly always somebody that knows of a bar job or somebody that knows of a Christmas market or somebody that needs a hand at a hotel. So, building your network will normally put you in touch with those kinds of jobs.
And some of the hardest jobs to get – you’re looking at some of the higher positions. So, some management, either middle to top management, they tend to be the hardest positions to get, for foreigners. And sometimes, [I’ve said], very often, recruiters recruit from outside of Denmark. And what tends to be happening right now is recruiters don’t care where you come from, whether it’s from outside of Denmark or within. However, they need the right people for the job, that can fill the role. However, because the workforce here in Denmark is very highly skilled to start with – a lot of people have high secondary education, they have a very high level of English – it’s actually put the prerequisites and the requirements that the companies require here in Denmark, it’s increasing it.
So, for a new graduate job, for example, suddenly, they want you to have two years’ experience, which of course is insane, because you’ve just graduated – how is it possible for you to have a couple of years’ experience working within the field.
Carlie: And fluent English isn’t an advantage.
Karey Anne: Fluent English is not the one that’s going to set you apart from a Dane. Knowing … you can twist it and say, well, cultural experience or industry experience with a certain culture, for example, would set you ahead. A lot of Danish companies right now are focusing on the UK, because there’s large growth over there. We won’t talk about [chuckles] Brexit right now. But there’s certainly a lot of people that are going after the UK, because it’s such a large market.
So, to be able to show that not only are you a native English speaker, but that you actually understand the British mentality and also the service and the service industry … because here in Denmark, the level of service is somewhat different. So, certainly, that can be very appealing, for employers, to show that not only are you English-speaking or native English-speaking, but that you understand service and customer service. And that’ll put you ahead.
Carlie: That’s it for this episode. If you want to ask Karey Anne any questions or share your own experience of looking for work in Denmark, just head over to expatfocus.com, follow the links to the Denmark forum or Facebook group. We have more podcast episodes for you on Denmark, a dive into how the healthcare system works, and what Danish expat life is really like. Just search for those in our library. If you like what we do, we’d love it if you could leave us a review. And I’ll catch you next time.
