Via this page, we will distribute hints and tips regarding working in Denmark.
It will be done as a series - every week something new. So, stay tuned and check in regularly. 
We'll have information which will help you to increase your chances of finding work or to have better results at work.

• Make your application and CV targetted
• Get information about the hiring company
• New approach for your applications: "Sell" yourself into a job
• How to build a professional network?
• The main characteristics of a Danish CV
• General info about a Danish application

Danes will tell you that they are laid-back and you will notice this in many areas.
However, you will find strong “rules” in the social interaction. During my first months in Denmark I always wondered how anybody can be laid back if you had to know and consider so many things. A complete Web of rules.

 
Thinking of the challenges in a new country, a picture came to my mind:
an iceberg. As I call it, the cultural iceberg

This term feels so right when talking about culture. As you know icebergs have the largest part below the surface. All the common knowledge, norms, etiquette are part of our cultural background and are “below the surface”. They are something we never think about, almost like reflexes. If somebody sneezes in many cultures, you’d automatically say something, like: “Bless you”, “Gesundheit”, etc.

Asked by a foreigner something about our country, we usually explain the “above surface” aspects and maybe refer to some from “below”, but probably not too many, as we consider them common knowledge – however, they often are common knowledge only in our own culture.


I came to realize that in Denmark the “below surface” part must be tremendously large. Denmark is a geographically small country and thus the traditions didn’t develop to be very different from one area to the other. There haven’t been large cultural minorities and Danes were not confronted with foreign cultures until recent years. Thus, the Danish values and ways of doing things remained basically untouched over centuries. They sank “below the surface” and are taken as common knowledge.

Probably for this reason you will find a lot of built-in information: e.g. if you are invited to a Danish party, invitations for 6pm mean that dinner is served, whereas at 8pm there’ll be only snacks. If you didn’t know this rule and served only crackers at 6pm, you might never see your Danish guests again. When you go shopping, it is expected that you use a separator between your items and that of the next customer. Not doing so, will be met with a very direct indication of what the right behavior is. You will also find that a lot of information is written from the Danish angle and often only the “above the surface” aspects are described.

Stepping out of the “cultural” filter isn’t easy, but I am sure the growing international population in Denmark will have its influence on what is considered implicit knowledge and we are playing a role in this change.

For now, get to know the Danish etiquette and the social "rules". Don't be the next TITANIC!