It might happen, like me, that you decide to go to Amsterdam thanks to a job opportunity or, like my roommates, that you decide to come to Amsterdam to look for a job. One option is not better than the other. Everything depends on timing or envy.
Anyway, in both cases, the company won't be the one looking for you (that'd be amazing, wouldn't it?), you then have to do your research because believe me, Amsterdam is a city which has the chance to have a plethora of job or internship offers.
Why in hell would I want to work in Amsterdam?
Well, first thing first: Dutch people are almost all (English) bilingual. Therefore, you don't need to learn the Dutch language and that is a really great news (it's not that difficult to understand but there are some sounds I still can't pronounce).
Forget the classic, boring, constraining 8am-6pm work hours, in the Netherlands, work hours are flexible. That's a game changer for me!
I don't think you need me to find a job in one of the myriad of multinationals (but we never know, so here or here and that's why I'll only talk about places where you can find a cool job in a start-up.
I'll obviously start with AngelList because that's thanks to them I found my internship in a start-up from Amsterdam.
The principle is close to a dating website: you, job seeker, post your résumé online while the companies post a small presentation of themselves and their possible job offers. Each one wander through candidates or companies and once one appeals the job seeker or the company, a mail is sent to the person concerned to know if the appeal is reciprocal.If that's the case, mail addresses are automatically exchanged and people can continue conversing outside of the website. Here is the shortcut to Amsterdam job offers.
Dutch Startup Jobs seems to work on the same principle. Same as before, here is the link for Amsterdam.
You can also look on eu-startup for news on start-ups everywhere in Europe. It's an excellent way to find promising start-ups or the one which did a fund raising (thus, more likely to be looking for someone).
On this website, you'll also be able to find a fair number of start-ups in the Netherlands.
Also, don't forget some start-ups do not have a website or a postal address! Here (and surely like in some other cities and countries), the start-ups are often overseen by accelerators (such as Rockstart in Amsterdam for example). Look for those "hidden" start-ups! You can find a list of Dutch accelerators here.
That sounds useless but actually, it's not for anyone willing to settle in the Netherlands.
Well, it could be seen as optional if you plan on paying cash most of the time (remember, not all shops accept VISA credit card !), if you don't want to have any Dutch bank account, which, by extension, prevents public transport subscription (among others) and might prevent your employer to pay you.
I'll only describe "basic", most affordable phone subscriptions. A sine qua non condition is the possibility to terminate the contract whenever I like (well, not everyone wants to stay at least a year). That leaves us with prepaid (or rechargeable) SIM cards since phone subscriptions need the subscriber to have a Dutch account... which in turn needs a Dutch phone number.
Here are two phone providers present in the Netherlands:
Lebara
It's a well-known phone provider available world-wide and which allows to call or send messages to foreign countries at low cost. They're also famous for their 10=20 (or 20=40 or even 50=110) offer which means for a 10€ reload, you get 20€ in credit (isn't it amazing?). Moreover, calls between Lebara users are free!
Their SIM card is available almost everywhere and is free (but always bundled with credit, so actually not free).
You can find all rates here: http://www.lebara.nl/prepaid/Tarieven.
For your information, calls to France costs 15cts/min to fixed lines and 39cts/min to mobiles.
*bliep
*bliep is a new contender and I present it because it's the one I've chosen. This phone provider works as daily subscription. Thus, you pay a subscription which allows you to do different things between midnights. You've three different subscriptions and one option:
0€ subscription: you can freely receive phone calls and messages. You can use your free minutes offered with a reload or pay 25cts/min.
0.50€ subscription: you have unlimited (2GB) access to Internet but with limited speed, you can send unlimited messages to Dutch numbers and phone with free minutes offered with a reload or unlimited calls with *bliep users
1€ subscription: same as 0.50€ subscription but with unlimited calls to all Dutch numbers
0.50€ option to get unlimited (max 3.6Mb/s) Internet speed
When reloading your SIM card, let say with 10€, *bliep offers you 10min call credit (in addition to what your subscription offers).
The biggest drawbacks are the documentation and official papers only delivered in Dutch and the struggle to get one *bliep SIM card (ThePhoneHouse sells it). The SIM card costs 10€ and can be found in shops for 20€ with 10€ worth of credits.
You can change between subscriptions via their app or by sending a message to a (free) special phone number.
Don't forget most of French phone providers offer the ability to use your French phone subscription from anywhere in Europe 35 days in a year. Check if your phone provider offers it before subscribing anything.
I voluntarily did not include LycaMobile because of bad reviews (here, here and here).
After having found a job or while seeking one, it is always a good idea not to be homeless. There exists two different options, one being more temporary than the other:
youth hostels,
room/apartment rental.
Youth hostels
This solution is only of interest if you're staying for few days or to avoid being homeless, the price per night is pretty expensive. Count on 100-150€ per night in the center of Amsterdam during summer or holidays.
However, if you're a bike fanatic, you could go to "Hello, I'm local" which is an hour and half away from Amsterdam center. Situated in Haarlem, the night costs around 30-40€ in a 14-beds dormitory and the owners are lovely. If you're coming by car, you could have a chance to park it in one of those few free parkings nearby.
Anyway, even if you don't chose to stay in Haarlem, definitely take some time to visit the city, it's worth a look :)
Appartement/room rental
As I said, you don't want to stay too long in a youth hostel. It's expensive and you need a bit of privacy, don't you think?
So, now you're looking for a room or an apartment to rent or to share. Again, you've two possibilities: illegaly renting an apartment/room (only for the government, I'm not suggesting you to squat an apartment !) or register yourself at the Town Hall.
However, you can only register if the landlord gives you a rental contract (which is quiet uncommon for cheap places).
Why is it so important? you ask. You have to know that most employers, all banks and some organisms can ask you your BSN (or ex-SOFI number) which is given to you after you've been registered at the Town Hall. Without this BSN, no bank account, which means no public transport abonnement, no mobile subscription, no appartement insurance, etc. I will explain all that in a next article.
How would you know the apartment you're interested in is registrable? Appartement hunting websites and landlords often mention "registration" (kijkavond in Dutch) in their ads. The apartments or rooms that are registrable are often more expensive, due to taxes (on wastewater, wastes, ...) being applied on the number of tenants. You cost them money so I guess it's fair to charge you more.
However, it is rare to find landlors which accept you register for a period of less than a year. The reason is simple: once registered, the landlord cannot unregister you until the one-year anniversary date of your registration. If you forget to unregister, the landlord will pay the taxes for a person which is not renting the room or apartment anymore.
Do not spit on "illegal" rentals, it can save you from homelessness at a way lower cost than youth hostels.
Where to find apartment to rent
Some (paid) websites do their business on it. I passed most of my time on Kamernet and Kamertje which ask you a 30 to 40€/month fee to contact landlords. I (shamefully) paid a two-weeks abonnement to Kamernet and sent around ten mails. 7 were replied to but all turned out to be scams :(
The second possibility is to ask agencies to find you an apartment or take an apartment managed by an agency. Most of them have many apartment to rent and allow you to register. However, be careful, like in France, some agencies sell lists of available apartments which are, of course, for 80% of them, already rented. It is an almost mandatory to deal with agencies if you want an apartment in the center.
The last option is to use social networks, Facebook being the most popular for rentals. There exists a big number of pages linking hunters and landlords and that is how I found my room. Those are the two pages I consulted: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Amsterdamapartmentrentals/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/amsterdam.apartments/. Don't be fooled, there are a lot of demands and few offers which offers a beautiful playground to scammers.
How much?
For a small room in a big shared apartment, count on 600-800€ per month outside of the center, more than 1000€ per month in the center. Are you looking for an apartment for yourself only? Be rich and lucky or you'll find nothing.
How not to be fooled by scammers
Multiple indicators:
quick and long answers (often received 30 minutes after my mail),
unclear and generic answers,
attractive prices (400€ for a 150m² shared apartment in the very center, come on!),
unability to visit the appartement,
landlord is not in the country at this moment (last minute moving due to his work, mostly in English-speaking countries like the US or in UK),
a VERY basic English (utterly weird for a country in which 95% of the population can speak fluently English),
asking you to send money by postal way before receiving the keys (by postal way too), but don't worry, you'll have a copy of a contract signed by a lawyer (yeah, right),
pictures (or ad) already used for other ads,
almost perfect pictures (shot by a professional), it's not AirBnB,
the mail address has already been used to scam.
How to prevent being scammed? Demand to visit the apartment, do not send money. Check the mail address on Google or on scammer hunters websites. Check pictures with Google:
Quentin Schulz
