In 2017-2018, I was looking for a job in Europe and found it in the Netherlands (you can read about it ). In the summer of 2018, my wife and I gradually moved from the Moscow region to the suburbs of Eindhoven and more or less settled down there (this is described ).
A year has passed since then. On the one hand - a little, and on the other - enough to share their experiences and observations. I share under the cut.
Bondarchuk's shotgun I still have a mortgage, but I won't tell you anything about it 🙂
Work
I would not call the Netherlands a leader in high or information technology. There are no development offices of world giants such as Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft. There are local offices with a smaller rank and ... the low popularity of the developer profession. Perhaps that is why the law allows you to easily import the right specialist.
From the couch to me - because already being in the Netherlands I was not looking for a job, I only lazily scrolled through the vacancies when I was bored - and so, it seems to me from the couch that most IT jobs are in Amsterdam. Moreover, the work there is more related to the web and SaaS (Uber, Booking - all in Amsterdam). The second place with an increased concentration of vacancies is Eindhoven, a city in the south of the Netherlands, here basically any Embedded and Automotive. There is work in other cities, large and not very large, but already noticeably less. There are not many IT vacancies even in Rotterdam.
Types of labor relations
I have seen the following ways of hiring IT specialists in the Netherlands:
- Permanent, it is also an indefinite contract. More than others, it looks like a standard way of finding a job in Russia. Pros: the migration service issues a residence permit for 5 years at once, banks issue mortgages, it is difficult to dismiss an employee. Cons: not the highest salary.
- Temporary contract, from 3 to 12 months. Cons: a residence permit seems to be issued only for the duration of the contract, the contract may not be extended, the bank most likely will not give a mortgage if the contract is shorter than 1 year. Plus: the risk of losing a job pays more.
- A combination of the previous two. The intermediary office concludes a permanent contract with the employee and leases the specialist to the employer itself. Contracts between offices are concluded for short periods - for 3 months. Plus for the employee: even if the final employer does not go well, and he does not renew the next contract, the employee will continue to receive a full salary. The downside is like in any bodyshop: they sell you as an expert, but pay you as a trainee.
By the way, I have heard that a person was fired without waiting for the end of the contract. With a notice for 2 months, but still.
Methodology
Scrum is very much loved here, well, just very much. It happens that local job descriptions mention Lean and / or Kanban, but the vast majority - Scrum. Some companies are just starting to implement it at home (yes, in 2018-2019). Some use it so violently that it takes the form of a cargo cult.
The last one is my office. We have daily planning meetings, retrospectives, sprint planning, large iteration planning (for 3-4 months), detailed team-wide breakdowns of upcoming tasks, separate rallies for Scrum Masters, separate rallies for tech leads, tech committee meetings, rallies of competency owners, etc. P. I also played Scrum in Russia, but there was no such senseless observance of all the rituals.
From time to time, people complain about the dominance of rallies, but they are not getting smaller. Another example of meaninglessness is the Team Happiness Index compiled at every retrospective. The team itself treats him rather frivolously, many easily say with smiles that they are unhappy, they can even arrange a flash mob (who said "collusion"?). I once asked a Scrum Master why this is necessary at all? He replied that the management is looking closely at this index and is trying to keep the teams in high spirits. How exactly he does it - I did not ask.
International team
This is my case. In my environment, 3 main groups can be distinguished: the Dutch, Russians (more precisely, Russian speakers, for local Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians - these are all Russians) and Indians (for everyone else they are just Indians, they distinguish themselves by many criteria). The next largest national “groups” are: Indonesians (Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands, its inhabitants often come to study, integrate easily and remain), Romanians and Turks. There are also British, Belgians, Spaniards, Chinese, Colombians.
The common language is English. Although the Dutch do not hesitate to discuss among themselves both working and non-working topics in the Dutch language (in open space, that is, in front of everyone). At first it surprised me, but now I can ask something in Russian myself. All others are not far behind in this regard.
Understanding English with some accents requires effort on my part. These are, for example, some Hindu accents and Spanish. There are no French in my unit, but sometimes I have to listen to our remote French employee on Skype. It's still very difficult for me to understand the French accent.
Dutch team
This is for my wife at work. 90% are local. They speak English with non-natives, and Dutch with each other. The average age is higher than in a Russian IT company, relationships are much more business-like.
Work style
I would say the same as in Moscow. I have heard that the Dutch, they say, like robots, work inside and out, without being distracted by anything. No, they are chasing teas, and sticking on the phone, and watching Facebook with YouTube, and posting all sorts of pictures in a general chat.
But the work schedule is different from Moscow. I remember that in Moscow I came to one of my works at 12 and was one of the first. Here I am usually at my workplace at 8:15 and many of my Dutch colleagues have been in the office for an hour already. But they go home at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
Recycling happens, but very rarely. A normal Dutchman spends exactly 8 hours in the office plus a break for lunch (no more than an hour, but it can be less). There is no strict time control, but if you stupidly skip a day, they will notice and remember it (one of the locals did this and did not receive a contract extension).
Another difference from Russia is that a 36- or 32-hour work week is normal here. The salary decreases proportionally, but for young parents, for example, it still turns out to be more profitable than paying for day care for children for the whole week. This is in IT, and so there are jobs with one working day a week. I think these are echoes of the old order. Working women have become the norm here quite recently - in the 80s. Previously, a girl, having married, stopped working and was engaged exclusively in housework.
Life
I must say right away that neither I nor my wife had any culture shock here. Yes, a lot of things are arranged differently here, but there are no grandiose differences. Either way, don't be afraid to make a mistake. More than once I behaved stupidly and / or incorrectly (tried to remove the scanner from the stand in the supermarket without pressing the right button, tried to take a picture of the controller on the bus, etc.), and I was simply politely corrected.
Language
The official language, of course, is Dutch. The vast majority of the inhabitants know English quite well and can easily express themselves in it. In a whole year, I met only two who spoke poor English. This is the owner of my rented apartment and the repairman who came to fix the roof damaged by the hurricane.
The Dutch may have a slight accent in English, a tendency to lisp (for example, "first" can be pronounced like "first"). But this is absolutely not a problem. It's funny that they can speak English using Dutch grammar. For example, in order to find out the name of the person being discussed, one of my colleagues once asked “How is he called?”. But firstly, this rarely happens, and secondly, whose cow would moo.
The Dutch language, although simple (similar to both English and German), has some sounds that a Russian person, not only cannot reproduce, but cannot hear correctly. My colleague tried for a long time to teach us, Russian speakers, how to pronounce correctly sweater, but we didn't succeed. On the other hand, for them there is not much difference between ф и в, с и з, and our cathedral, fence и constipation sound about the same.
Another feature that makes learning a language difficult is that everyday pronunciation differs from writing. Consonants are reduced and voiced, extra vowels may or may not appear. Plus a bunch of local accents in a very small country.
Bureaucracy and documents
If in oral communication you can always switch to English, then all official letters and documents have to be read in Dutch. Notice of registration at the place of residence, lease agreement, referral to a doctor, tax reminder, etc. and so on. - all in Dutch. I can't imagine what I would do without google translator.
Transport
I'll start with a stereotype. Yes, there are a lot of cyclists here. But if in the center of Amsterdam you have to constantly dodge them, then in Eindhoven and the surrounding area there are fewer of them than motorists.
A lot of people have a car. They go to work by car (sometimes even 100 km away), go shopping, take children to schools and circles. Everything is found on the roads - from twenty-year-old small cars to huge American pickups, from vintage Beetles to brand new Teslas (by the way, they are made here - in Tilburg). I asked colleagues: the car costs about €200 per month, 100 for petrol, 100 for insurance.
The only public transport in my area is buses. On popular routes, the usual interval is 10-15 minutes, the schedule is respected. My own bus runs every half an hour and is always late by 3-10 minutes. The most convenient way is to get a personalized transport card (OV-chipkaart) and link it to a bank account. You can also get different discounts on it. For example, in the morning my commute to work costs about €2.5, and in the evening it costs €1.5 to go home. In total, my monthly travel costs are approximately € 85-90, and my wife's is the same.
For traveling around the country, there are electric trains (expensive, they run often and punctually) and FlixBus buses (cheap, but several times a day at best). The latter go all over Europe, but shaking on the bus for more than 2 hours is a dubious pleasure, in my opinion.
Medicine
Have you ever heard that in the Netherlands everyone is treated with long walks and paracetamol? This is not far from the truth. The locals themselves are not averse to joking about this topic.
The choice of drugs that can be bought without a prescription is very, very limited compared to that in Russia. To get to a specialist doctor, you have to go to the family doctor (aka huisarts, aka GP - general practitioner) several times to no avail. So he can send to drink paracetamol from all diseases.
Hausarts receives money from the insurance company simply for the fact that a person is assigned to him. But you can change your family doctor at any time. There are even family doctors specifically for expats. This is what my wife and I go to. All communication in English, of course, the doctor himself is quite adequate, he never offered us paracetamol. But from the first complaint to a visit to a specialist, 1-2 months pass, which are spent on testing and selection of drugs (“Use such and such an ointment, if it doesn’t help, come back in a couple of weeks”).
Recipe from our expats: if you suspect something bad in yourself, and local doctors don’t even want to conduct an examination, fly to your homeland (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk, etc.), get a diagnosis there, translate, show here. They say it works. My wife brought a bunch of her medical papers with translation, thanks to which she quickly got to the right doctors here and received prescriptions for the right medicines.
I can't say enough about dentistry. Before moving, we went to our Russian dentists, treated our teeth. And when we are in Russia, we go at least for a preventive examination. One colleague, a Pakistani, out of the simplicity of his soul, went to a Dutch dentist, treated either 3 or 4 teeth. For € 700.
Insurance
On the good side, all visits to the family doctor and some medications are fully covered by health insurance. And if you pay extra, then part of the cost of dentistry.
The health insurance itself is mandatory, costing an average of €115 per person, depending on the options chosen. One of the most important options is the amount of the franchise (eigen risico). Some things are not covered by insurance, you have to pay yourself. But only until the amount of such expenses for the year exceeds this deductible. All further expenses are fully covered by insurance. Accordingly, the higher the deductible, the cheaper the insurance. For those who have health problems and are forced to closely monitor their own carcass, it is more profitable to have a small franchise.
I have already talked about liability insurance - the only insurance (besides medical) that I have. If I damage someone else's property, insurance will cover it. In general, there are a lot of insurances: for a car, for housing, for a lawyer in case of a sudden lawsuit, for damage to one's own property, etc. By the way, the Dutch try not to abuse the latter, otherwise the insurance company will simply refuse the insurance itself.
Entertainment and leisure
I am not a theatergoer and not a fan of museums, so I don’t suffer from the absence of the former, and I don’t go to the latter. That's why I won't say anything about it.
The most important of the arts for us is cinema. With this, there is complete order. Most films are shown in English with Dutch subtitles. A ticket costs an average of € 15. But for regular customers (like my wife, for example), cinemas offer subscriptions. € 20-30 per month (depending on the "level of clearance") - and watch as many films as you want (but only once).
Bars with mostly beer, but there are also cocktails. The price of a cocktail is from €7 to €15, about 3 times more expensive than in Moscow.
There are also all sorts of themed fairs (for example, a pumpkin fair in autumn) and educational exhibitions for children where you can feel the robot. My co-workers with children love these activities very much. But here you already need a car, because. you will have to go to some village 30 kilometers from the city.
Food and Products
The local cuisine is not distinguished by sophistication. Actually, apart from (mashed potatoes with herbs and/or vegetables) and barely salted herring, I can’t remember anything purely Dutch.
But local vegetables are the highest grade! Tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, carrots and so on and so forth - everything is local and very tasty. And expensive, very good tomatoes - about € 5 per kilo. Fruits are mostly imported, as in Russia. Berries - and so, and so, there are local, there are Spanish, for example.
Fresh meat is sold in every supermarket. Mostly pork, chicken and beef. Pork is the cheapest, from €8 per kilo.
Very few sausages. Raw-smoked German sausages are good, smoked-boiled sausages are bad. In general, for my taste, everything that is made from minced meat here turns out badly. I will eat local sausages only if I am in a hurry and there is no other food. Jamon, probably, is, but I was not interested.
There are no problems with cheese (I was interested :). Gouda, camembert, brie, parmesan, dor blue - for every taste, € 10-25 per kilogram.
Buckwheat, by the way, is in ordinary supermarkets. True, uncooked. Milk with a fat content of 1.5% and 3%. Instead of sour cream and cottage cheese - many local options .
Supermarkets always have discounts on certain products. Thrift is a national trait of the Dutch, so there is nothing shameful in actively buying promotional goods. Even if they are not really needed 🙂
Income and expenses
Our family of 2 spends at least €3000 a month on living. This includes rent (€ 1100), all utilities (€ 250), insurance (€ 250), travel (€ 200), food (€ 400), clothes and inexpensive entertainment (cinema, cafes, trips to neighboring cities ). The total income of two working people allows you to pay for all this, sometimes make larger purchases (I bought 2 monitors, a TV, 2 lenses here) and save money.
Salaries are different, in IT they are higher than the national average. The main thing to remember is that all the discussed amounts are before tax and most likely taking into account vacation pay. One of my colleagues from Asia was unpleasantly surprised when it turned out that taxes were taken from his salary. Vacation pay is 8% of the annual salary and is always paid in May. Therefore, in order to get a monthly salary from an annual salary, it is necessary to divide not by 12, but by 12.96.
Taxes in the Netherlands, compared to Russia, are high. The scale is progressive. The rules for calculating net income are non-trivial. In addition to the income tax itself, there are also pension contributions and a tax credit (how right?) - this thing reduces the tax. tax calculator gives a true picture of the net salary.
I will repeat the common truth: before moving, it is important to imagine the level of expenses and salaries in a new place. It turns out that not all of my colleagues knew about it. Someone got lucky and the company offered more money than they asked for. To whom - no, and after a couple of months they had to look for another job, because the salary was too small.
Climate
When I left for the Netherlands, I really hoped to get rid of the long and gloomy Moscow winter. Last summer it was +35, in October +20 - beauty! But in November came almost the same gray and cold gloom. In February there were 2 spring weeks: +15 and the sun. Then again gloomy until April. In general, although the winter here is much warmer than in Moscow, it is just as dull.
But it's clean, very clean. Despite the fact that lawns and parks are everywhere, i.e. there is enough soil, even after heavy rain there is no mud.
Garbage and its sorting
In the previous part, I mentioned that I did not have to sort the garbage in a temporary apartment. And now it has to. I divide it into: paper, glass, food waste, plastic and metal, old clothes and shoes, batteries and chemical waste, everything else. There is a site for a local garbage disposal company where you can find out what kind of garbage belongs to which type.
Each type of garbage is taken out separately according to the schedule. Food waste - every week, paper and other - once a month, chemical waste - twice a year.
In general, everything related to household waste depends on the municipality. Somewhere garbage is not sorted at all, everything is dumped into underground containers (as in the centers of large cities), somewhere there are only 4 types of garbage, and somewhere around 7, like mine.
Moreover, the Dutch themselves do not really believe in all this sorting of waste. My colleagues have repeatedly suggested that all the garbage is simply taken out to China, India, Africa (underline as appropriate) and stupidly dumped into huge heaps there.
Law and order
I did not have to communicate with the police either in Russia or in the Netherlands. Therefore, I can’t compare, and everything described below is from the words of colleagues.
The police here are not omnipotent and are quite dormant. Something was stolen from a colleague from a car parked near the house three times, but appealing to the police never gave any result. Bicycles are stolen too. Therefore, many go to junk, which is not a pity.
On the other hand, it is quite safe here. In a year of my life, I met only one person who behaved indecently (not even aggressively).
And then there is the concept of gedogen. This one is like a light version of our “if you can’t, but really want to, then you can.” Gedogen allows contradictions between laws and turns a blind eye to some violations.
For example, marijuana can be bought but not sold. But they do sell. Well, okay, gedogen. Or someone owes the state taxes, but less than € 50. Then figs with him, gedogen. Or a local holiday in the city, contrary to traffic rules, a bunch of children are being transported in a simple cart, not fastened, under the supervision of only a tractor driver. Well, the holiday gedogen.
Conclusion
Here you have to pay for a lot, and a lot of it is not cheap. But any job here pays well enough. There is no tenfold difference between the salary of a programmer and a cleaner (and, accordingly, a programmer will not receive a salary of 5-6 times the median).
The developer's income, although not bad even by Dutch standards, is far behind that in the United States. And there are almost no prestigious IT employers here.
But in the Netherlands it is easy to invite a foreign specialist to work, so there are a lot of us here. Many use this job as a springboard to move to the States or richer parts of Europe (London, Zurich).
For a comfortable life, knowledge of English alone is enough. At least in the first few years. The climate, although milder than in central Russia, is also capable of causing winter depression.
In general, the Netherlands is neither heaven nor hell. This is a country with its own style of life, calm and unhurried. Here it is clean on the streets, there is no everyday Russophobia and there is moderate gouging. Life here is not the ultimate dream, but quite comfortable.
Source: habr.com