Rachel Duncan came to Norway for the first time in 2019. Three years later, she moved here with her husband. “Work-life balance is very important to the Norwegians. Back home, we say it´s important, but people rarely live that way,” Rachel says.
The first time Rachel Duncan came to Norway was on her honeymoon in 2019. She and her husband loved it and came back for Christmas following year. Then, her husband said: “I´m going to learn a new language!” He chose Norwegian.
– It was a bit random. We had talked about going on an adventure. But really, that is something everybody talks about, but nobody does. My husband was serious. I loved Norway as well, so why not?
– He came on a job visa; I have a spouse visa. In the beginning, we rented an apartment through Airbnb. Now, eight months after moving, we have our own house! We live on the countryside with nature everywhere and it takes around 40 minutes to get to work in the city.
Rachel is from Southampton in the South of England. Before the move, she had never lived outside of her hometown.
– This is my first time living somewhere new. I even went to university in my hometown, so I´m feeling a bit crazy doing this. Everybody says Norwegians are reserved, but I don´t see that. They are all so helpful, welcoming, and nice. We eat dinner with our neighbours and have a lot of friends already.
After a few weeks in Norway, Rachel found her own job.
– Back home, we all use LinkedIn to find jobs. So, I did the same here. I contacted a lot of recruiters, had several meetings and found Vårgrønn. Being a relatively new company with big ambitions in renewable energy, a job in Vårgrønn was a really exciting opportunity that I could not turn down.
LinkedIn is not as developed here, but it worked. Rachel now works as a Financial Analyst at Vårgrønn.
– I am responsible for supporting the preparation of our consolidated financial reporting, as well as assisting with financial analysis and cash management.
With 20 percent of the shares in the wind farm Dogger Bank in the UK, Vårgrønn is Norway's largest pure play offshore wind company. Vårgrønn is a growing company with a project pipeline spanning across Norway, the UK and other markets in Europe.
– Work-life balance is very important to the Norwegians. Back home, they say it´s important, but people rarely live that way. Back home, it is work, work, work – sometimes it could be twelve hours a day. Here, everybody goes home to spend time with their family.
