What is it like working in the Netherlands?

you can see where you want to be and aim for it the biggest difference is the work life balance from the positive side like the taxes they were like probably like three times more than what the taxes were in Peru hey it's David and welcome back to my channel so what is it like working in the Netherlands I have my own perspectives coming from the US but I'm also curious what do people from other countries think it's like working in this country let's find out thank you so much for joining me today first question is where are you from I come from Greece from Greece and how long have you been in this country eight good years eight good years what brought you to this country I just came for criminals holidays to visit my brother and I ended up living here eight years later and what is your occupation at the moment I still work in media this is what I used to do also in Greece in different roles very different not corporate environment in Greece here is quite corporate it's more technology oriented but still with media so Service delivery Management in particular and you've been doing this for around seven eight years now yes more or less this is part of what you can do in the Netherlands I didn't start from this role um so I'm curious to hear what is it like working in the Netherlands if I could summarize few things I would say that to my experience you have opportunities to grow your career you can see where you want to be and aim for it in Greece it's not exactly so easy I found it quite easy for me here to see where I want to go show my skills claim be interviewed get the position and get moving so end up where I wanted to be which is basically where I am now other things that you need to take into consideration is the culture is very different the the way people communicate the way people want to conduct business is very different for some might be very direct going even to Rude but once you get to know and to observe the people around you and how they communicate to each other you understand it's part of the culture it's not personal so you need to be able to disassociate and don't take it take everything very personally and just be honest open and discuss this is something that you can do here like even if something doesn't go as you would like you have space to communicate it to my experience in Greece people don't really they more hide because they're a bit afraid of their role or their job might be in scarinity rather than here even if it's a salary topic you can discuss it it doesn't mean that you will lose your job because you claimed something better for yourself increase it's a little bit risky to do that they might consider you not satisfied so you know there's someone else to take over the place here you can look after yourself better I must say yeah it's a more egalitarian society here and they value honesty yes overall yes and that that goes to overall opportunities salary and the the culture of you know companies here talk about values they know it's something they need to talk about not all of them apply as they should but in Greece is more good to have at the moment apart from the very big corporations of course one last thing that I would mention is that even if whatever you want to achieve is a lot easier to find the way and you have far less people around you to tell you why you wouldn't or you couldn't here is a different mindset people are looking for opportunities and growth of course there are people who are very satisfied with um you know entry-level jobs for the rest of their lives but the mindset is not restricting mindset uh you can dream and you can go after your dreams in a normal Pace as they say here do normal so but this is normal in Greece you might have a lot of people that they would be scared about you failing trying to predict your failure rather than your Victory so I think that's um something that can help you accomplish a lot of things here if you're a productive person yeah if you are productive yes you have the opportunities uh the freedom to go after what you want yes okay well thank you so much for sharing thank you so much for joining me today uh first question is where are you from uh Istanbul Turkey actually Istanbul Turkey and how long have you been in this country now almost almost two years two years yep what brought you to this country uh actually it's totally coincidental I would say uh my uh wife got a great job offer from one of the biggest companies here before that we were living together in Dubai for the last four years and then we said okay enough for uh the hot weather in Dubai and let's try something new in in this part of the world okay enough of the hot weather uh so you're in Dubai and also turkey before uh what's your profession I work as a as an engineering program manager uh coming from an engineering background and then after a few after a few years I said to myself okay being a pure Tech guy is not my cup of tea and I switched to the project management discipline and since then I I work as a project manager leader of the delivery teams and so on and so forth okay so project program management so the question I have for you today because you've worked in both Dubai and turkey and now in the Netherlands what is it like working in this country compared to where you previously worked okay uh maybe maybe the the very first thing I would do I would prefer to say is the or the biggest difference is the work-life balance from the positive side I think the individuals and the companies or most of the companies that I have seen in the last two years in in the Netherlands are much more respectful for the individuals lives that gives you the chance to balance your your personal life and the work life I think that's that also one of the reasons why we moved from Dubai to to the Netherlands in in this part of the world it's a little bit more more competitive and it's hard to uh to balance this time it's work work instead of work work and personal uh work and personal life I would say that is the uh the the the biggest uh uh difference uh I can I can comment on maybe another another aspect might be the cultural cultural one it's also a significantly significantly different uh here uh I think as as being a Western European country uh the uh the culture the work life in is more egalitarian I would say it's more a flat organizations uh direct feedback uh direct communication that's I think also uh Dutch haldash people are famous famous about it is the opposite in in in both in turkey and in Dubai I would say uh it's more like a traditional hierarchical uh organizations more implicit communication as they as they call it you need to read the air to understand the implicit meaning of of sometimes of of the expressions uh some people might prefer the the other way some people might prefer the the openness I think I prefer more being on the open side and to have this direct communication I feel it more more easy for me yeah that's that's another thing that I can I can say maybe one thing also worth mentioning is of course the compensation in general people usually go to Dubai or any expat country for uh for a little while to save some money and then they can then uplift their live standard their family's life standard but it's not easy to say home because you can't leave there there are people living there more than 20 30 years but most of the audience like live a few years to save some some money and then come back to the original uh country uh here obviously you earn enough but it's not like you save save a lot and that that's also okay because you you earn other aspects of the life compared to uh to the financial aspect yeah I was curious because people go to to buy to make money and then from Dubai you come here maybe how is that adjustment maybe you made enough money right how is that adjustment for you to go from say Dubai making a lot of money and then coming here you mentioned there are other things besides money here yeah true uh weather for sure is one of the one of the reasons in Dubai there are two seasons uh one is Summer and the other one is hell as they as they call it it's much more uh natural here in this part of the world although most people might not like the weather in in the Netherlands I prefer again the weather here over a very hot six or seven months uh that is that is one of the reasons again everything is more more natural I would say here the life is simpler in terms of like maybe you don't have luxury cars or you don't have a a very a lifestyle like a celebrity in in Dubai but it's again uh simple and uh again it's a personal choice I would prefer being on more on this natural cultural lifestyle over uh at least after four years maybe it's easy to say after four years in Dubai and and you're right first you need to change your mentality when you move from Dubai to here a month ago you might have earned maybe a triple or double whatever you're earning in in in Europe if you change that mindset like uh change the mindset about saving money and instead of getting the the extras that we that we discussed I think that's uh that's quite easy to to fit in because this country is also very welcoming and has a lot of expats uh or from from all over the world yeah that's a good perspective that when you think about success it's not just money but other things such as the environment you also mentioned work-life balance true and also being in Europe as well yeah sure well thank you so much for sharing my pleasure David thank you well thank you so much for joining me today first question is where are you from I'm from Peru Peru and how many years have you been in this country uh two years two years what brought you to this country I came to do my MBA in RSM and then I got a job here okay so now you're working uh what's your profession what do you do I studied marketing um right now I'm a social media gun specialist and previously I've worked in marketing in the hydrocarbon industry and on an advertising agency and previously were you working in Peru yes in Peru okay so the question that I have for you is what is it like working in the Netherlands as compared to Peru I think it's it's it's different in the sense of uh there are like several things but I think one of the most important for me it's like the work life balance um I do believe that that here I do have a much better work life balance than in Peru um I think it's because also um they do care a lot about mental health and like um you know you being okay as an as a person and like being happy in your workplace and and really that's that's something very important for me I do believe that back in Peru I I worked a lot I worked even on weekends there was not like um you I didn't have normal hours or anything so it's it was basically very chaotic and like lead to very like to several burnouts and and stuff that like you know that it was not healthy for me and here you're better able to maintain that balance um you're working less they care about mental health here yeah so that's a big thing for you yeah I do I do believe and I find very important the fact that I can um you know I can I can disconnect from certain times and I and I and have that feeling you know that the world's not gonna end if I'm not like attached to my laptop thanks for sharing that what else comes to mind when you think about working in this country um I do believe uh like in terms of hierarchy it's it's different here here it's a little bit more flat in Peru there is like a lot of um I guess not not in all the companies but in some of them there's still that like fear for some people if they're like starting uh that fear of approaching uh like a director a top manager even the CEO to kind of like um uh like you know just be themselves or ask a question or anything because it's a little bit more like I guess a closer policy towards here it's just like um I can like you know have lunch next to the CEO or like you know interact with like one of the managing directors of of a business unit and like talk to him or her like in a way that you know it's it's very natural and I don't feel like that pressure of like you know oh like they don't not have time for me or whatever you know uh so here it's more egalitarian you can talk to the CEO what else comes to mind when you think about work culture working in the Netherlands first of all like one of the first things also I was like that I was like a shock like the taxes of course they were like probably like three times more than what the taxes were in Peru I think it was 15 to 18 in Peru and here it's like 40 something almost 50 I think without that's without the 30 ruling with which is really also attracting a lot of people like from outside of the country because uh it's like a benefit of the 30 um of the taxes so like from your salary so that's also something that um that's something positive about it well where do you think the taxes go I do see like the like the government works well like um like there's a lot of green around like the whole country like there's like everything like there's not a lot of trash laying around like there's like a lot of things that I do see like uh the Texas goal and that's why I'm not like you know super like upset or anything like if I will tell you like back home like that doesn't happen like probably you know corruption you know a lot of that so high taxes but you do see where the taxes go yeah okay well thank you so much for sharing thank you for having me well there you have it work life balance that seems to be one of the biggest positives when working in this country actually according to studies Netherlands is one of the best countries when it comes to work-life balance as well well I'm also curious to hear from you what do you think it's like working in this country put them in the comments below and I hope you take care bye-bye

Channel: David Wen

Views: 42,406

Keywords: living in the netherlands, life in the netherlands, moving to the netherlands, expat life, expats in the netherlands, expat society, work culture netherlands, dutch directness, working in holland, working in europe, moving to europe, moving to amsterdam, living in amsterdam

Id: m5w7eDDmIKA

Length: 16min 57sec (1017 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 13 2022