Students and Internships

Students and internship

Orkla understands the value that students bring to our workplace in relation to their energy, new ideas and different experiences. There are many ways for students to become involved at Orkla before they graduate and start their own careers. From collaborating on your thesis with our subject matter experts to joining us as an intern during the summer or as part of your degree – the opportunities are endless at Orkla!

Internship at Orkla

O-Life is Orkla's summer internship program. It was startet in 2017 as a marketing focused program since we often recruit new graduates into marketing positions regularly. However, after the success of the first year, we expanded into other areas including Finance, HR, Mergers & Acquisitions, Information Technology, Environment, Health & Safety, Production and Supply Chain. We recruit nearly 50 students into our summer program in Norway in addition to various formal cooperation’s with business schools throughout the year in various countries.

We want O-Life to be fun for the interns, but also produce high quality work that we could apply to our everyday work. The program includes real learning experiences in an intellectual corporate environment.

Orkla as a company, is well known for its in-house learning academies such as Brand Manager Academy and Production Academy, so it was also important to stay consistent with what we offer. Internships are also important to Orkla because we believe that we have a responsibility to the community to provide valuable work experience to students but also because it gives us access to new ideas, insights and concepts that we otherwise would never get. We also use internships to push our own leaders to be better and create a ready pipeline of future Orkla employees. Interns are an essential part of our long-term talent strategy and will only expand it further in the years come.

To find out more about our internship program and offerings, click here.

The Internship Chronicles blog

Thesis cooperation

Several students have written their Master`s dissertations in cooperation with us. We advise students to contact HR centrally and provide information about your topic, the area of Orkla that you wish to cooperate with and the timeframe that you are working within. If you already know the individual that you want to work with, please contact them directly where possible. Due to volume of requests, it is not always possible for us to respond to every request and we do advise you to apply for internships at Orkla as a first point of entry as many students end up doing their theses here after their internship concludes.

If you wish to apply, please contact the relevant department or send a general request to: careers@orkla.no

Also be sure to check out the testimonials below to read about students' experiences writing their thesis in cooperation with Orkla:

"Orkla is a company that acknowledges and inspires you, and to have the opportunity writing my bachelor thesis with Orkla was a highly educational and a great experience. Even though everyone was in the process of transferring to home office and restructure their everyday life, they stood by us and contributed through virtually interviews. This just show how incredibly generous they are with their time and talent, which I am very grateful for. After a longer period working in OFN, being an HR-intern and writing my thesis – I firmly believe that Orkla is truly a home to grow."

- Andrea Øye, wrote her Bachelor's thesis in cooperation with Orkla

Meet our students and interns

Read stories from our interns' and employees’ initial experiences at Orkla.

Martin, Karoline, Vigdis, Gina, Martine

Martin Skraastad

"I think Orkla is a unique place to work, and what differs Orkla from other companies is their ability to help consumers during so many parts of the day. I also have to mention the people within the organization, from day one you feel like home!"

Karoline Bjørnstadjordet

"The best thing about working in Orkla is that you get the experience of working in a large company but at the same time, your work is based locally, which offers many unique opportunities for development within the company and being part of the big decisions."

Read more about Karolines experience here

Vigdis Bonvik-Stone

"Every day I face new and exciting challenges and opportunities to become a better marketer. If you are serious about your professional development Orkla is the place for you – it truly is a home to grow!"