Job Hunting Hell in a Foreign Country

I  recently mentioned how hard it has been for me to find work here in Amsterdam. Most expats probably line up work before they head to their new country. But if you're part of a couple you probably found it's not that easy... As in our case, one of you probably found a job and the other made the move hoping to find a job once you got there.

This is more difficult than it sounds. Back home, I used internet job boards to find work, but in my experience as far as the Netherlands goes, searching for jobs online doesn't do you much good. My first steps after arriving here were to contact geological, engineering and environmental recruiters and after signing up with them, or never hearing from them I then contacted companies in these fields directly, even if they weren't hiring. This didn't work for me, but I felt it got my name out there at least.

Of course my job search would have been much easier if I knew Dutch, there is an abundance of jobs related to my field here, all posted in Dutch, none ever got back to me.

But I guess at the end of the day nothing beats word of mouth for getting yourself a new job. And so, 6 months and 1 day later I am gainfully employed and it's in exactly what I want to build experience in. Life was so good yesterday and now it's even better.