Advice for American Relocating to Netherlands? - Finding Job

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

You've discovered what is, in fact, the norm in Holland; that unless you have the desired shortage skill, it is difficult to get a job from outside the country.

Going to Holland as a tourist under the 90-day limit is a potential way to try and see what work is available, but won't get around the work permit issue you described, simply because you would need to return to the USA (or at least leave Holland) to apply for your work-permit; you can't apply from within Holland.  At the top of this page is our Handy Tools section; if you select that, you'll get access to our Expat Guides; these contain articles written to help you plan your journey.

I've written this elsewhere, but my experience of getting a decent job anywhere is that you need 4 things:

Relevant qualifications
Relevant experience
Speak the local language
Luck

The more of these you tick-off, the better your chance of getting a job.  Luck is always the great unknown.

For any customer-facing job, you will need to speak Dutch at a professional level.  The fact you don't speak it is limiting your marketplace to the multi-nationals who work in English, so perhaps you should try there first.

To be honest, I haven't heard of a shortage of people with your qualifications and experience, so you'll be up against the local candidate who perhaps ticks at least 3 of those boxes.

If you have any further specific questions once you've read our guides, please come back to us.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team