Work
We don't wanna brag, but we've got the best work-life balance in the world. Not only do people work way fewer hours on average than in other countries (30,6 hours per week), workers are well-protected by labor laws and you cannot easily be fired. That said, getting a permanent contract these days isn't something to take for granted: unless you're in a high-demand field such as IT, health or energy, temporary contracts (up to 2 years) are very common.

At many companies, Friday afternoon drinks (or vrijmibo's in Dutch - short for vrijdagmiddag borrel), are a staple social gathering. Not just with your colleagues but also with your manager! You'll find Dutch working culture is generally not at all hierarchical: you can just walk into your boss's office or give them a call, no sweat.

Life
Because the Netherlands is not just super compact, but also smack-bang in the center of Europe, you can easily make the most of your gallons of free time. It's very safe to travel around, and Dutch public transport reaches most places. There are endless museums (Groninger Museum, Drents Museum, Fries Museum, to name a very few), grand architecture - modern and over 600-1000 years old - and we've got beautiful nature reserves.

But with whom will you go? Your egalitarian colleagues? Ah, therein lies the rub. Dutchies on average have 3,5 super close friends in a range of 3km. While Dutch people are generally super friendly, becoming friends isn't so easy.

Thankfully, Dutch Review is here to help you enter the typical Dutch birthday circle of death! Once you're in the circle, you'll know you've made it. 💪 Until then, the North has a great international community, and plenty of activities to help you make local friends.

In the last 15 years, the North has become much more international, the cities in particular. Of course, the Dutch are the world’s #1 people that speak English as a 2nd language, but there’s more! The North has an excellent welcome center (IWCN - International Welcome Center North), which arranges formalities for over 2.500 non-EU internationals annually, and helps out over 5.000 internationals with settling into the Northern Dutch region.

The North also has a news site in English, and an overview of all English-language events, it becomes easy to find out what’s happening and where to go to meet people. For newly arrived internationals, IWCN also has excellent social events and activities that help you connect with other internationals and locals. 

As the Make it in the North website and events show, there are more and more Dutch companies that want to hire internationals: for all of the jobs you can find on our platform, you don’t have to be able to speak Dutch to apply. Speaking Dutch does of course increase your job opportunities, but you don’t have to wait to look for work until you know what “lekker, hoor!” means! You can start right now.

Over 60% of all traffic in Groningen happens by bicycle, and the city intends to be CO2-neutral by 2035. Climate adaptation is an actively pursued topic in Groningen, sustainability is a major theme at Campus Fryslân’s study programs, and Drenthe is doing experiments with energy-neutral housing in 2040. Much of public transport in the North is electric or running on local gas, and more and more vehicles run on hydrogen. The North has seen a major increase in vegetarian and vegan restaurants, and Dutch supermarkets have an abundance of meat alternatives. Altogether, living in the North makes it easy to maintain a low-impact lifestyle and local government and organizations strive for sustainability.

While there are jobs in all sectors in the North, we have a few sectors which are especially strongly represented because of the amount of companies and organizations, as well as the amount of research and innovation happening. If you’re interested to work in the North, it’s a great idea to have a look at the sector page to which your field belongs. It will show relevant companies and organizations, which may give you a good start to know what names to look out for, and what organizations to contact. Find an overview with articles about all sectors here.