Expatica and Together Abroad are presenting the International Job Fair this weekend at the World Trade Centre Amsterdam. Tickets to the Job Fair are free, however you need to pre-register which you can do via the website jobfair.expatica.com
As Australians in The Netherlands will be aware, not being a native Dutch speaker can affect your job search and career and the purpose of this Fair is to assist Internationals connect with employers. When I first came here in 2002, I fully expected to be able to continue building my career, which I began in the travel industry in Australia and then had worked for a few months in the UK. However without a degree or a command of the Dutch language, I was competing against thousands of highly-educated candidates who were often fluent not only English but several other languages! Further to this, to comply with my initial visa requirements then (when I entered on an Australian passport) I was expected to attend full time Dutch language courses for the first year, making employment rather difficult!
The way that I tackled this was to attend Dutch language classes, start studying towards a Bachelor of Business (through Open Universities Australia), undertake volunteer work with organisations such as ACCESS and Toastmasters and register with the employment agencies in The Netherlands who specialised in finding work for native english speakers. If you’d like to see how my career progressed (which has led me to start my own business, Zestee) you can find my profile on LinkedIn
The majority of these recruitment agencies specialising in employing “Internationals” (i.e. usually native english speakers) will be at the Expatica International Job Fair this weekend. You can visit the list of Exhibitors and Sponsors for an overview.
Take a look at the Programme as well – I’m presenting on Using Social Media to Further Your Career at 2.30pm along with a talented friend, Colleen Reichrath-Smith, career consultant and co-author of Career in Your Suitcase 4th edition.
Another good friend, Emmy McCarthy of Amsterdam MaMas is also speaking on Mothers Returning to Work – a topic close to me, particularly though my work with Professional Parents, so I’ll be attending that for sure!
Lots of other interesting presentations and stand-holders, hope to see you there!
Renée
Dutch Australian is a community of those with connections to both Australian and The Netherlands. This blog follows the adventures of our Dutch Australian family as well as highlighting information and articles of interest to dual nationals. You might like to read more about me, get to know other Dutch Australian people and explore other articles on the blog. Come and chat to others over in the Dutch Australian Facebook community, we’d love to meet you! If you’ve enjoyed this post, I’d really appreciate you taking the time to comment below or share. You can also contact me directly and sign up for our e-newsletter to keep up to date.
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