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Being international and working in Denmark

Having an international background, you can often bring other perspectives and ways of doing things into a Danish workplace.

First job

Use your assets as an international in a global market

It can place demands on both you and a coming workplace because you need to work on understanding both your own and others´ working style and intercultural abilities when working across global teams with different cultures.

One thing for you to remember in Denmark is that you come with double competences:

»Internationals have double competences: they have professional competences, language skills as well as business culture insights from their native countries. These are of great value to Danish employers that collaborate with and navigate on a global market. I often experience that both the companies and the internationals have not thought about these competences – and it is competences that can make an international jobseeker stand out compared to other jobseekers. However, it will demand some research from the jobseeker to find out which companies these double competences could be relevant for« says Heidi Ås, who is international consultant at IDA.

What about Danish language skills?

You will also experience that a lot of jobs require Danish language skills, and you might want to investigate a little with the employers on that in case you do not master Danish yet. Is Danish required for all aspects of a possible job or will it be possible to cobble the job so that you only have to deal with more global aspects etc.? Have you thought about how your double competences might give the company an advantage in their sector that makes up for your possible current missing Danish skills?

The Danish model

Since IDA is a trade union, we also want to focus on the Danish model and why approximately 65% in Denmark are a member of a trade union. The Danish model is a unique Danish system for regulation of pay and working conditions on the labour market through collective agreements.

Did you know that Denmark has no legislation that dictates minimum wage or working hours? Moreover, firing employees is easy and cheap for businesses.

So at first sight, this may seem like heaven for employers, but these two points are some of the pillars in the Danish model. A model that has proved to be effective and just as beneficial for employees as for employers – and a model that people from all over the world come to Denmark to hear more about.

Even though no legislation dictates minimum wage, working hours, pension, maternity/paternity leave and other aspects of the labour market, this by no means implies that employers have free reins. Instead, this is where collective agreements between the traditional trade unions and employers’ organisations come into play. And the more members of trade unions, the better working conditions we can make for you.

Basically, the Danish model builds on three pillars that are all fundamental for making the model work.