Timeline

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Employers explained

Sit (Studentsamskipnaden i Gjøvik, Ålesund og Trondheim)

Sit is a welfare organisation delivering a wide range of services to 45,000 students in the Norwegian cities Gjøvik, Ålesund og Trondheim. The services include student accommodation, cafes, kindergartens, gyms and health services.

In many countries, the universities provide these services themselves, but in Norway, this responsibility is given to a special type of non-profit organisations called “studentsamskipnader”. Sit’s largest university partner is NTNU, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Sit has approximately 350 full-time employees and about the same number of part-time student employees.

My role:

  • IT Project and Change Manager
  • Subject Matter Expert on Microsoft Technologies (Microsoft 365 cloud services the latter years)
  • Subject Matter Expert on privacy/GDPR since 2018
  • Temporary assignment as IT Service Delivery Manager 2021-2022

Nettbuss

Nettbuss was originally the bus division of the Norwegian state railway company, NSB. By the time I worked for them, they were Norway’s largest bus company with subsidiaries in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

My role:

  • Coordinate deliveries from multiple IT service suppliers, ensuring the quality and availability of IT services in the company.
  • Technical contact person and problem solver for the company’s subsidiaries.

Siemens Business Services

Siemens Business Services was a subsidiary of the German corporation Siemens.

My role:

  • The first two years, I worked as a course instructor, teaching official Microsoft courses for people who wanted to achieve Microsoft certifications. At the time, I was a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and a Microsoft Certified Trainer.
  • The last two years, I ran an ASP solution delivering virtual applications on a Citrix environment to a Norwegian estate agent company. The backend included Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft file servers, among other things.

NTNU (the Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

NTNU is Norway’s second largest university with headquarters in Trondheim. I worked for the IT institute.

My role:

  • Wintel engineer with responsibility for the institute’s computer labs for students. This included purchase, installation, maintenance and user support for hardware and software on Windows NT platform.

Trondheim City Concil

Trondheim is Norway’s third largest city, with a population of 200,000 today.

My role:

  • User administration, support and education.

Data Protection AS

A small, family-owned IT company specialising in IT security. I worked there for a short while until it became clear that the company finances weren’t sustainable.

My role:

  • Selling computer hardware, software and accessories.

Tapir Data

Tapir delivered a range of services to university-level education institutions in Trondheim and became later a part of Sit. I worked for the computer department, selling IBM and Compaq equipment.

My role:

  • Sales and marketing.

LVS (Ladehammeren Videregående skole)
ØVS (Ørland Videregående Skole)

“Videregående skole” is equivalent to college level education in the UK. Students choose between theoretical colleges, preparing them for university studies, and technical colleges that are more work-related. I worked for technical colleges.

My role:

  • Teaching digital and microprocessor technologies.

HTFS/E (Hærens Tekniske Fagskole/Elektronikk)

This was the Royal Norwegian Army’s own technical college for electronics. I worked there for nine months as a part of my compulsory National Service.

My role:

  • Teaching microprocessor technologies.

HSBØ (Hærens Sambands Øvingsavdeling)

The Royal Norwegian Army’s training centre for field communications systems. I had a three month’s introductory training course there as a part of my National Service.

Education Explained

NTNU (the Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

Please see description of the university in the “Employers explained” section above.

My education:

  • Single courses in project management and organisational change, taken part-time while working.

HiNT (Høgskolen i Nord-Trøndelag)

“Høgskoler” is a type of educational institutions in Norway teaching university-level subjects. However, “høgskoler” are a bit more practically oriented and focuses a little less on research compared to the universities. Most “høgskoler” are now merged into the universities. HiNT is now a part of the Nord University.

My education:

  • Single course in project management.

Academic degree: Candidatus Magisterii

Norway didn’t do academic degrees like Bachelors and Masters back in the 1980. The degrees were like this:

  • Candidatus Magisterii, usually earned after four years with a combination of two main subject fields. Roughly comparable to a Bachelor’s degree today.
  • A higher degree, usually achieved after two more years specialising in a specific field. The degree would be named after the field, e.g. Cand. Jur. (law), Cand. Phil. (philosophy, history, etc.), or Cand. Scient. (science). Roughly comparable to a Master’s degree today.
  • A doctorate (PhD), usually after two additional years.

My education:

  • A Candidatus Magisterii degree was granted, based on a combination of my studies within business administration and electronics.

HiST (Høgskolen i Sør-Trøndelag)

Technical “høgskole” in Trondheim, later merged with the NTNU university.

My education:

  • Single course in IT systems maintenance, completed part-time while working.

TØH (Trondheim Økonomiske Høgskole)

“Høgskole” in Trondheim teaching business administration and finance subjects. Later merged with the NTNU university.

My education:

  • Two years full-time studies in business administration, specialising in administrative IT subjects.

HDH (Hedmark Distriktshøgskole)

A “høgskole” in the south-eastern part of Norway.

My education:

  • Single courses in business economics and marketing management, completed part-time while I did my National Service.

TIH (Trondheim Ingeniørhøgskole)

A “høgskole” in Trondheim specialising in technical subjects. TIH later became HiST, and then merged into the NTNU university.

My education:

  • Two years full-time studies within electronics, where I earned an engineer’s degree.

FVS (Fosen Videregående Skole)

As mentioned above, “videregående skoler” is comparable to colleges in the UK. Students preparing for university do three years.

My education:

  • Three years full time study specialising in science, where I earned a college diploma which meant I was qualified for university.

Basic education

When I grew up, the basic, compulsory education for everyone was nine years at school, from the age of 7 to 16. Now, Norwegian children start one year earlier and do ten years.