/ Bringing good people to Southern Norway

- We will not become a better region by employing people who work next door. We need to bring more good people to Southern Norway. Everyone will benefit from that, says Jøran Bøch, CEO of Egde Consulting.

The IT company with just over 50 employees in Grimstad and Kristiansand has experienced strong growth over the past two years, and has hired an average of one new person a month. Most of them have been brought in from elsewhere in the country.

- It's all about digitalization, a slightly worn buzzword, which is occurring across all industries. More and more people need to go through their business and see how digitalization affects them. That's food for thought for us, says Bøch.

He leads a team of developers, testers, project managers, enterprise architects and consultants. Two of them are new recruits, Martin Nenseth (23) and Kristian Korsvik (32), both of whom have IT degrees from the University of Agder. While Nenseth has just completed his bachelor's degree in information systems, Korsvik, with his master's degree, has already worked for Statoil in Stavanger for seven years.

- 'It was time to move home,' says Korsvik, originally from Kristiansand. He brings with him cutting-edge expertise in digitalization, automation, integration and simplification of work processes in complex system landscapes. In other words, knowledge that many people want access to.

Mr. Nenseth's expertise is also in demand. He went straight into an assignment with a customer who is in the process of migrating their database solution to the cloud.

- After three years at the University of Kristiansand, I was determined to stay in the region and the city. During my studies, I built a good network and many friendships. I chose Egde because it is a company that is big enough to offer exciting tasks, while at the same time it is small enough for me as an employee to influence the development, says Nenseth.

The boss is pleased with the new hires.

- Kristian and Martin are good examples of how we recruit. We bring home experienced people, and we make sure to retain talents that have developed at the region's universities. In this way, we contribute to developing Southern Norway into the most attractive region for digital value creation," says Bøch.

He himself is from Telemark, but moved to southern Norway many years ago with his Swedish wife, lured by an attractive job at Ericsson.

- I have never regretted it. Southern Norway is a combination of exciting job opportunities and a good place to live for adults and children. Even more people should discover this," says Bøch.