Peripheries in the Netherlands - employed by agency

For many Romanians, the Netherlands has become a country where they earn a substantial income as employees of employment agencies. Working either in warehouses or factories, or in greenhouses, Romanians come into contact with a varied and diversified labour market, but also with obstacles and novelties they would not have thought of when they boarded the minibus to the land of tulips.

Every compatriot I've met has their own story of their adventures since arriving, how they've settled in to work, accommodation, and Dutch society, and not infrequently I've been surprised to hear how unprepared they really are for what this experience means. In the following I want to share my own experiences with you, which I hope will be helpful to those who are starting on the same path.

The first step for my husband and I was to follow up on an advertisement we found on the internet for a job in the warehouse, we had an interview and within a week we were ready to leave. Each agency has its own procedures, but they often offer accommodation for a fee and take care of all the paperwork, such as obtaining a BSN (the Dutch equivalent of a personal number code) or taking out health insurance. Find information on everything you need to know about BSN  in an article by our colleague Dana on the Rompro website.

At this stage the emotions and uncertainty were high, as it was the first attempt of its kind for us. We looked for information about the agency beforehand, we tried to communicate with other Romanians who were already in the Netherlands, while keeping our objectivity.

• A useful tip is not to trust advertisements that suggest the idea of paying a commission, or agencies that ask for such payment disguised as fees or other gimmicks; it is an illegal practice that should alert you from the start. It was suggested that we take bed linen, household items with us and have some amount of money with us. All of this helps to accommodate us immediately to the accommodation offered by the agency. Search the internet for the most ingenious ways to pack and my advice is to take all your household items ( I mean crockery, dishes, pots, pans, detergent etc), canned food and a sum of money to spread over a minimum of 2 weeks as many agencies make the first payment after at least a week ( sometimes 2).
• It is advisable to be reasonable in terms of accommodation conditions. In the Netherlands the demand for accommodation is much higher than the capacity to be filled, and agencies face many problems in this respect. You will most likely be sharing your house/apartment with other people and this will involve a lot of communication and cooperation. My husband and I have had some pleasant and not so pleasant experiences, but we chose the conciliatory route, opting to move into private accommodation only after almost 3 years of living in agency accommodation. This is another adventure that I will tell you about on another occasion.
• It helps enormously to know English, which is why I suggest any small step to learn English or, better still, Dutch through apps or courses. Find here a handy online course suggestion. For me, knowing English was both an advantage and a disadvantage. The upside was that I was able to gradually advance in the workplace, I "navigated" Dutch society quite easily and solved my pressing problems quite quickly with its help, but the downside was that I was not motivated to learn Dutch, looking for all sorts of excuses and thus I turned away from some opportunities just by not speaking the language. If you are planning a career or advancing a career, studying and especially if you want to settle in the Netherlands, I suggest you don't put off learning the language.
• Agencies have different projects and different ways of ... job placement. Sometimes you work in one place, sometimes you go in one week to 5 different places. Patience and flexibility. Here you meet all kinds of people, with more or less experience, but you have to be prepared to work. Sometimes you come dirty from head to toe (the second job I had and haven't changed in 3 years was and is at the tomato greenhouse - that green doesn't come out of your clothes), sometimes you meet supervisors who only speak Polish, sometimes you don't work long hours. Sometimes it's very hot, sometimes cold. Patience and flexibility 🙂 .
• When we encountered problems, we were sometimes confused because we didn't really understand the situation and didn't find answers quickly. The solution was to look for alternatives, communicate and not give up.

Having a job in the Netherlands can be an exciting experience, with many rewards and also some inconveniences, depending on how you choose to look at it. Employment agencies are very common in this country, Romanians being among many of their employees, each living in his own way the "Dutch dream" and contributing to new and new stories about life in the Netherlands.