On Habré, and indeed on the Russian-language Internet, there are quite a few instructions on how to move to the Netherlands. I myself learned a lot of useful things from one article on Habré (now, apparently, there is no longer hidden in the draft, ). But I will still tell you about my experience of finding a job and moving to this European country. I remember that when I was just about to send out a resume, and when I was already interviewing, it was very interesting for me to read about the similar experience of other colleagues in the shop.
In general, if you are interested in the story of how a C ++ programmer from the Moscow region was looking for a job in Europe, preferably in the UK, but he did find it in the Netherlands, moved there himself and brought his wife, all this with an outstanding mortgage in Russia and with a little adventure - welcome under cat.
prehistory
A small overview of my career to make it roughly clear what I was trying to sell to potential foreign employers.
In 2005, I graduated from the university in my native Saratov and went to graduate school in Dubna, near Moscow. In parallel with my studies, I worked part-time, wrote something in C ++ (it’s embarrassing to even remember). For three years he managed to become disillusioned with his scientific career and in 2008 he moved to Moscow. I got lucky with my first normal job (C++, Windows, Linux, well established development process), but in 2011 I found a new one. Also C++, only Linux and a more interesting technology stack.
In 2013, I finally defended my Ph.D. and for the first time decided to somehow move in the direction of a foreign country. Samsung held a certain fair in Moscow, I sent them a resume. In response, they even talked to me on the phone. In English! The Koreans made an impression of complete gouging - they did not have my resume or the presentation sent to them in advance. But they giggled, naturally giggled. This offended me greatly, and I was not upset when they refused me. A little later, I learned that such laughter among Koreans is an expression of nervousness. Now I prefer to think that the Korean was also nervous.
Then I discarded the idea of going abroad and changed jobs. C++, Linux, Windows, I even peed in C for a microcontroller. In 2014, I took out a mortgage and moved to the nearest suburbs. In 2015 I was fired (many were fired then), I hurriedly found a job. I realized that I was mistaken, I searched again, and in the same 2015 I ended up in one of the best places in Moscow, and indeed in Russia. The best job of my career, a lot of new technologies for me, annual salary increases and a great team.
It would be nice to calm down, right? But it didn't work out. There is no one reason that made me decide to move (I still avoid the word "emigration"). There is a bit of everything: the desire to test myself (can I communicate in English all the time?), and the boredom of a quiet life (get out of the comfort zone), and uncertainty about the Russian future (economic and social). One way or another, since 2017, in addition to wanting, I began to take active actions.
Work searches
I started with the fact that I decided to find out in detail about the vacancy, which for 4 years, if not all 6, has been an eyesore to me - "a C ++ programmer is required for a Russian-Vietnamese company in Hanoi." I overcame my introversion and talked on social networks with people I didn’t know - Russian employees of that company. It quickly became clear that such conversations were very useful, but there was nothing to do in Vietnam. OK, let's keep looking.
From foreign languages I have only English. I read, obviously. I also try to watch movies and series in the original (with subtitles, it's uncomfortable without them). Therefore, to begin with, I decided to limit myself to the English-speaking countries of Europe. Because I’m not ready to leave farther than Europe, neither then nor now (and my parents are not getting younger, and sometimes you need to look after the apartment). There are exactly 3 English-speaking countries in Europe - Great Britain, Ireland and Malta. What to choose? Of course, London!
Bloomberg LP
I updated/created my profiles on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Monster and StackOverflow, re-composed my resume, translated it into English. I started looking through vacancies and came across Bloomberg. I remembered that a year or two earlier, someone sent me a booklet from Bloomberg, and everything was so wonderfully written there, including help with the move, that I decided I would try to get there.
Before I could send anything anywhere, in May 2017, a recruiter from London contacted me. He offered a vacancy in some near-financial startup, offered to talk on the phone. On the appointed day and hour, he called me on the Russian number and, word for word, said that now, let's try Bloomberg, they need pluses there. What about a near-financial startup? Well, there they no longer need it, or something like that. Well, okay, I actually need to Bloomberg.
The very fact that I was able to talk to a real Englishman (yes, he was a real Englishman), and I understood him, and he understood me, was inspiring. I registered where necessary, sent a resume for a specific vacancy, indicating that this recruiter had found me and brought me by the hand. I was scheduled for my first video interview in a couple of weeks. The recruiter provided me with materials for preparation, I went through the reviews on Glassdoor myself.
An Indian interviewed me for about an hour. The questions were in many ways similar (or even just the same) to those that I had already studied. There was a theory, and the actual writing of the code. What pleased me the most at the end was that I was able to conduct a dialogue, I understood the Indian. The second session of video communication was scheduled to take place in a week and a half. This time there were two interlocutors, one of them clearly speaking Russian. I not only solved problems for them, but also asked prepared questions, asked about projects. After an hour of conversation, I was told that now I will have a break of 5 minutes, and then the next pair of interviewers will come. I did not expect this, but, of course, I did not mind. And again: they are problems for me, I give them questions. A total of two hours of interview.
But on the other hand, I was invited to the final (as the recruiter explained to me) interview in London! They gave me an invitation letter, with which I went to the visa center and for my money issued a visa to the UK. The inviting party paid for the tickets and the hotel. In the middle of July I went to London.
The recruiter met me 20 minutes before the interview, gave me final instructions and advice. I expected to be interviewed for 6 hours (this was written on Glassdoor), but there was only an hour-long conversation with two techies. I solved only one problem with them, the rest of the time I was asked about my experience, and I asked about their project. Then half an hour with HR, she was already interested in motivation, and I had some answers prepared. In parting, they told me that because. there is no manager now, he will contact me later - in a week or two. The rest of the day I wandered around London at my pleasure.
I was sure that I had not screwed up, and in general everything went well. Therefore, upon returning to Moscow, I immediately signed up for the next IELTS exam (required for a British work visa). I practiced writing essays for two weeks and passed by 7.5 points. This would not be enough for a study visa, but for me - without language practice, after only two weeks of preparation - it was just great. However, a London recruiter soon called and said that Bloomberg was not taking me. “We didn’t see enough motivation.” OK, let's keep looking.
Amazon
Even when I was just going to London, recruiters from Amazon wrote to me and offered to participate in their hiring event in Oslo. This is how they recruit people to work in Vancouver, but this time they are interviewing in Oslo. I don’t need to go to Canada, Amazon, judging by the reviews, is not the most pleasant place, but I agreed. Decided to gain experience if the opportunity arose.
First, an online test - two simple tasks. Then the actual invitation to Oslo. A Norwegian visa is several times cheaper than a British one and is done 2 times faster. This time I paid for everything myself, Amazon promised to reimburse everything after the fact. Oslo surprised with the high cost, the abundance of electric vehicles and the general impression of a large village. The interview itself consisted of 4 stages of 1 hour each. At each stage - one or a couple of interviewees, a conversation about my experience, a task from them, questions from me. I didn’t shine and after a few days I received a natural refusal.
From my trip to Norway, I made a couple of new conclusions:
- don't try to solve a problem using static polymorphism if you're being interviewed by an engineer who writes in Java (and, it seems, only Java).
- if compensation for expenses in dollars is expected, indicate the dollar account. My bank simply did not accept a dollar transfer to a ruble account.
UK and Ireland
I registered on a couple more UK tech job sites. Oh, what salaries were indicated there! But no one answered my responses on these sites, and no one looked at my resume. But British recruiters somehow found me, talked to me, showed me some vacancies and even sent my resume to employers. In the process, they convinced me that 60 thousand pounds a year is a lot, no one will take me with such a wishlist. It also turned out that according to my resume, I am a job hopper, because changed 4 jobs in 6 years, but you need to spend at least 2 years on each.
I did not regret 50 pounds and sent my resume for revision to seemingly professionals. The professional gave me some result, I made a couple of comments, he corrected it. For another 25 pounds, I was offered to write a cover letter, but I, unimpressed with their previous result, refused. I used the summary itself in the future, but its effectiveness has not changed. So I tend to consider such services a scam of gullible and insecure job seekers.
By the way, British and Irish recruiters have a bad habit of calling unannounced. The call can overtake anywhere - in the subway, at lunch in a noisy canteen, in the toilet, after all. Only if you reset their call, they write a letter with the question "When is it convenient to talk?".
Yes, I started sending resumes to Ireland as well. The reaction was very weak - 2 unsuccessful calls and a polite letter of refusal in response to a dozen and a half or two resumes sent. I got the impression that there are 8-10 recruitment agencies in all of Ireland, and I have already written to each at least once.
Sweden
Then I decided that it was time to expand the geography of searches. Where else do they speak good English? In Sweden and the Netherlands. I had never been to the Netherlands before, but I had to in Sweden. The country did not cause delight, but you can try. But there were even fewer vacancies in Sweden according to my profile than in Ireland. As a result, I received one video interview with HR from Spotify, which I didn’t get past, and a short correspondence with Flightradar24. These guys quietly merged when it became clear that I was not going to work for them remotely with the prospect of someday relocating to Stockholm.
Netherlands
It's time to take on the Netherlands. To begin with, my wife and I went to Amsterdam for a few days to see how it was there. The entire historical center is densely smoky with weed, but in general we decided that the country is decent and you can live. So I started to look for vacancies in the Netherlands, not forgetting, however, about London.
There were not many vacancies compared to Moscow or London, but more than in Sweden. Somewhere I was rejected right away, somewhere after the first online test, somewhere after the first interview with HR (Booking.com, for example, it was one of the strangest interviews, I still don’t understand what they specifically wanted from me and in general), somewhere after two video interviews, and in one place after the completed test task.
The structure of the interviews of the Dutch offices is different from that of Bloomberg or Amazon. Usually it all starts with an online test, where you need to solve several (from 2 to 5) technical problems in a couple of hours. Then the first introductory interview (by phone or Skype) with technical specialists, a conversation about experience, projects, questions like “What would you do in such and such a case?”. This is followed by either a second video interview with someone of a higher rank (architect, team leader or manager) or the same thing, but already in the office, face to face.
It was these stages that I went through with the companies from which I eventually received an offer. In December 2017, I solved 3 problems with them on codility.com. And by that time, I almost remembered the solutions to such problems by heart, so they did not cause problems. This is me to the fact that the technical part is approximately the same everywhere (except for Facebook, Google and perhaps Bloomberg - see below). A week later, a telephone interview took place, it lasted an hour instead of the promised 15 minutes. And all this hour I stood in some corner of my open space, trying not to look suspicious (yep, speaking in English). A week later, I had to knock out at least some answer from HR, which turned out to be positive, and I was invited to an on-site interview in Eindhoven (the flight and accommodation were paid for).
I arrived in Eindhoven the day before the interview itself and managed to walk around the city. It struck me with its cleanliness and warm weather: in January it was about the same as in warm October in Moscow and the Moscow region. The interview itself consisted of three hour-long stages, with 2 interviewers each. Topics for discussion - experience, interests, motivation, answers to my questions. The purely technical part ended with an online test. One of the interviewees, apparently, decided to try out a fashionable technique - a joint lunch. My advice, if there is an opportunity to avoid this - use it, and if you are interviewing yourself - do not do this, please. Noise, din, ringing of instruments, in the end I could barely hear a person a meter away from me. But in general, I liked the office and the people.
A couple of weeks later I had to kick HR again to get feedback. He was again positive, and only now we began to discuss the actual money. I was asked how much I want, and offered a fixed salary and an annual bonus, depending on my personal success, the success of my department and the company as a whole. In total, it turned out a little less than I requested. Remembering all sorts of articles about how to get a big salary for myself, I decided to bargain, despite the fact that the articles described mainly American realities. I got myself another couple of thousand grosses and at the end of January 2018, not without hesitation (see below), I accepted the offer.
Yelp
Somewhere in October 2017, I did get some positive feedback from London. It was the American company Yelp, recruiting engineers for its London office. First of all, they sent me a link to a short (15 minutes, not 2 hours!) test on . After the test, 3 Skype interviews followed with a difference of a week and a half. And although I did not go further, these were some of the best interviews for me. The conversations themselves were relaxed, including theory with practice, and conversations about life and experience. All 3 interviewees were Americans, I understood them without any problems. They not only answered my questions in detail, they really talked about what and how they do there. I could not even resist and asked if they were somehow specially prepared for such interviews. They said no, they were just recruiting volunteers. In general, now I have a standard video / skype interview.
Facebook and Google
I will describe my experience with these notorious offices in one section, not only because their processes are very similar, but also because I interviewed them almost at the same time.
Sometime in mid-November, a recruiter from the London office of Facebook wrote to me. It was unexpected, but understandable - I sent them my resume in July. A week after the first letter, I spoke with the recruiter on the phone, he advised me to properly prepare for the first Skype interview. I took 3 weeks to prepare, scheduling an interview for mid-December.
Suddenly, a couple of days later, a recruiter from Google wrote to me! And I didn't send anything to Google. The fact that such a company found me on its own raised my heart rate tremendously. However, it passed quickly. I understand that this giant can afford to vacuum the whole world in search of suitable employees. In general, with Google, the scheme is the same: first, an evaluation conversation with HR (she suddenly asked me the complexity of some kind of sorting algorithm in the average and worst cases), then HR issues recommendations on preparing for an interview with technical specialists, the interview itself takes place in a few weeks.
So, I had lists of links to articles / videos / other resources from Facebook and Google, and they overlapped in many ways. These are, for example, the book "Cracking the Coding Interview", sites , , и . I have known the book for a long time, and it seems to me that it is not very relevant. Now the interview questions are harder and more interesting. I've been solving problems on hackerrank since I was preparing for Bloomberg. And here became a very useful discovery for me - a lot of the things listed there came across to me in real interviews.
In the first half of December 2017, a week apart, I had video interviews with Facebook and Google. Each for 45 minutes, each had a simple technical task, both interviewers (one British, the other Swiss) were polite, cheerful and easy to talk to. It's funny that for Facebook I wrote the code on , and for Google - in Google Docs. And before each of these interviews, I thought: “Just an hour of shame and I will work on other, more promising options.”
But it turned out that I successfully passed this stage in both cases, and both offices invite me to London for on-site interviews. I received 2 invitation letters for the visa center and at first I even thought to combine all this in one trip. But I decided not to bother, especially since the UK issues a multivisa immediately for six months. As a result, at the beginning of February 2018, with a difference of a week, I flew to London twice. Facebook paid for the flight and one night at the hotel, so I flew back at night. Google - flight and two nights in a hotel. In general, Google solves organizational issues at the highest level - quickly and clearly. By that time, I already had something to compare with.
Interviews in the offices followed the same scenario (the offices themselves are also located close to each other). 5 rounds of 45 minutes, one interviewer per round. An hour or so for lunch. Lunch is provided free of charge, for the entire lunch break they provide a "guide" - one of the junior engineers, who actually shows how to use the dining room, leads around the office and generally keeps up the conversation. I casually asked my guide at Google what their average working time as a programmer is. And then, they say, we have 2 years in Russia - this is normal, but here you can pass for a job hopper. He replied that in Google for the first 2 years they only understand how and what to do, and the employee begins to bring real benefits after 5 years. Not quite an answer to my question, but it is clear that the numbers are different there (and do not fit ).
By the way, more than one and, it seems, not even two engineers said that they transferred to the London office from California. To my question "Why?" they explained that in the Valley life outside of work is boring and monotonous, and in London - theaters, art galleries and civilization in general.
The questions themselves at all rounds - everything is as described on and hundreds of other sites/videos/blogs. They give you the choice of where to write the code - on a whiteboard or on a laptop. I tried this and that, and I chose a board. Somehow the board is more conducive to voicing your thoughts.
I did noticeably better on Facebook than on Google. Perhaps it was the general fatigue and indifference that had piled on - even before these trips, I received and accepted an offer from the Netherlands, pessimistically assessing my chances. I don't regret it. Plus, on Google, one of the interviewees had a powerful French accent. It was terrible. I did not understand almost a single word, constantly asking again and certainly gave the impression of a complete idiot.
As a result, Google quickly turned me down, and Facebook wanted to conduct another interview (via Skype) three weeks later, citing the fact that they could not figure out how I fit exactly for the role of Senior Engineer. This is where I got a little carried away, to be honest. For the past 4 months, all I've been doing is going through interviews and preparing for interviews, and here it is again?! I politely thanked and declined.
Conclusion
I accepted an offer from a not very well-known office from the Netherlands like a bird in my hand. I repeat, I have no regrets. Russia's relations with the United Kingdom have deteriorated noticeably since then, and in the Netherlands, not only did I get a work permit, but also my wife. However, more on that later.
The story suddenly gets long, so I'll stop here. If it is interesting, in the following parts I will describe the collection of documents and the move, as well as my wife’s search for work in the Netherlands itself. Well, I can tell you a little about everyday aspects.
Source: habr.com