He made an impression, and was selected to compete in a football talent competition entitled Proffdrømmen ("Pro player dreams") on Norwegian TV3.

Skjelbred made his senior debut in the Tippeligaen against Bodø/Glimt in 2004, and aged 16 years and 358 days became the second-youngest player to play for Rosenborg.

[8] After playing 268 minutes for the club in the Bundesliga, Skjelbred's transfer was called a "mistake" (Bisher Fehlgriff) by Kicker in November 2011,[9] and in November 2012 Skjelbred was named one of five players that HSV stated they would sell when the transfer window opened in January 2013.

After a very successful loan spell at Hertha (he was also voted Bundesliga Norwegian Player of the Season during this time), Skjelbred finally moved to Berlin permanently during the 2014 Summer transfer window.

In February 2020, Skjelbred confirmed he would return to Rosenborg beginning from the summer 2020 after his contract with Hertha Berlin expires.