Forums » Netherlands » Australians in the Netherlands

• JayKossen

  

  • 2 posts
   

  September 21, 2012 3:35:17 PM CEST

  Hi my name is Jay, I am a 22yr old Australian living in Amsterdam. I moved here on a working holiday visa

  and have spent the past month trying to get through all of the immigration requirements. Finaly i get my BSN number next week. I have Applied for many customer service jobs on the expat job sites but the English speaking jobs are very few. Does anyone know whether you have better chances of finding work if you approach these agents personally? 

• osita

  

  • 2279 posts
   

  September 21, 2012 8:36:49 PM CEST

  Agents work for the client, never forget that. If there is no 'English only' client with jobs, they aren't going to seek them out for your, or other English speakers, sakes. You are (don't take this personally) not very marketable in this market (recession) without conversational Dutch, and we're all feeling that. These agents don't work on commission or sales targets - they aren't going to go the extra mile for you, because you aren't paying them to do so (like the other thousand expats with various non-dutch native languages on their books)
  
  It's hard, but not impossible. Try the main agencies - Creyfs, Randstad, or even PostNL as they are probably going to be recruiting for the Christmas rush very, very, soon.
  
  If you are fussy and want plum jobs, or work only with 'expat job sites', you'll be going home (broke) really soon. If you are happy to sort mail, or work warehouses or commercial greenhouses (where English is the norm), then you will earn just enough to live on while enjoying the culture (or whatever drew you to Holland).
  
  There is one agency who gets desparate for English speakers every October - add me as a friend and I'll give you her contact/job details.
• JayKossen

  

  • 2 posts
   

  September 22, 2012 1:10:51 PM CEST

  Hi Osita,
  
  Thank you for the reply, I have sent through the friend request. Also thanks for the list of agencies I will work through them in the coming week. The only reason I have been looking at customer service is that most of these expat job sites are for qaulified professionals and those customer focused jobs are the only ones I can relate to. I would be prepared to work in any of your suggested low income jobs but have had no luck finding agencies who provide this type of work. If you could forward me the agency that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your help.
• chikkoroll

  

  • 5 posts
   

  December 19, 2012 4:06:44 PM CET

  This is fairly late, considering you posted in September> Hopefully you found some work??
  
  For anyone living in Amsterdam, do a walk around the shops, cafes, and bars. They've had signs in the windows the last couple of months. My friend, who turned up six weeks ago, had been getting the thumbs up until she announced she was staying outside the city (some employers have to pay travel costs after a certain distance... weird but true). English-only didn't seem to be a problem there.