welshfella

Hi people,

This is my first post and a bit of an introduction. I moved to Amsterdam from South Wales two months ago to live with my girlfriend (who is Dutch). Amsterdam is very cool and I am loving being involved in Dutch life. However I am finding it very difficult to find some work. I have applied for many roles and have had very little response. I have also had a few meetings with recruitment agencies. I am aware that the lack of language will be a problem until I get better at it. I am also finding that the level of my British qualifications may not be the same here in the Netherlands, i have been told that I should get my qualifications validated?

I am a qualified engineering technician and have worked in civil engineering the past five years. I also have tickets for AutoCAD 2D & 3D. Before that I was a builder and a bit of a jack of all trades, carrying out small renovations and repair work. I am not shy of hard work and know if I am given a go then I will not disappoint.

Is there anyone on here that would like to give me a job? or could point me in the direction of some unskilled labour in Amsterdam? i am willing to do almost anything to keep my Netherlands dream going!

Cheers

Xircal

Hi there,

See this site on how to validate your qualifications in the Netherlands: http://www.migrantservicecentres.org/index.php?page=413

But finding a job is going to be an uphill struggle especially in today's economic climate.

Your biggest obstacle is probably a lack of language capabilities. All Dutch nationals learn four languages at school which are Dutch, English, French and German. Some speak Spanish and Italian as well. Germany is the Netherlands biggest trading partner and if you're going to be working in any service industry, that will be one of the languages you'll be expected to be able to handle.

It's essential however to learn Dutch as a starting point. You have a Dutch girlfriend, so you have an advantage there, but I'd recommend you take a crash Dutch language course somewhere and devote all your spare time to learning the language.

Before you can go looking for work, you'll have to register with the "Gemeentelijke Basisadministratie" (city council registration) and for that, you'll need a verblijfsvergunning (residence permit). See this site for more info on that score: www.lize.nl/files/EU-folder%20Lize%20def.pdf

After you've registered and have obtained your residence permit, apply for a tax registration number known as a "Burgerservicenummer". The tax office is about 10 mins walk from Amsterdam Sloterdijk station.

After you've got those, apply for a DigID so that you can register for work on the WERKbedrijf site. You can apply for one over the phone here: https://www.digid.nl/index.php?id=1&L=1

Then click the link to "Inschrijven WERKbedrijf" here: https://www.werk.nl/werk_nl/werknemer/home Most employers looking for personnel submit vacancies to that organization. I'd suggest looking for call centre jobs since many industries have their call centres located here. I did a quick check on their site using "callcenter" as a search string and came up with 26 vacancies, so worth a try if you don't mind doing that kind of work.

This independent site is also worth looking at: http://www.monsterboard.nl/

You'll also need a Dutch bank account since all financial transactions with your employer and any dealings with government institutions are handled through your bank.

There are no national insurance contributions to pay in the Netherlands and to qualify for a full pension, you only need to be registered here. Since you've arrived here some considerable time after your 15th birthday, you can apply to purchase the period of time that you weren't registered at the Sociale Verzekeringsbank at http://www.svb.nl/int/en/index.jsp That will ensure you receive a full state pension when you retire. Retirement age in the Netherlands is currently 65, but will be raised shortly to 67 years old. The state pension is currently 1054 Euros a month tax free.

Hope this helps.

welshfella

hi Xircal,

thank you for very informative post. There is a lot I can take from it.

Matematik

Most Dutch employers won't expect you to be fluent in Dutch, but they'll certainly expect you to speak a bit.