Expat life and entrepreneurship here in the Netherlands. So today I’m talking about some side jobs that you can do that doesn’t necessarily require a degree, because I know some of you are either students or maybe you recently moved here, and you’re currently unable to find a job that you’re truly looking for.
Job Alternatives Overview
But obviously bills still have to be paid. You still have to do your groceries, so what are some job alternatives here that you can do with minimum effort that doesn’t necessarily require such a complicated degree or a complicated background from you. So let’s start with the first one, and that is customer care. And you might be asking but how can I find a job here in customer care without speaking Dutch. Well actually a lot of internationals here are in need of customer care, so a lot of companies are looking for people who speak English, but also speak other languages to hire into their customer care team. And this is a great way for you to start earning some money because it’s flexible most of the time, and the best thing is actually the companies train you.
Customer Care Training
So you know exactly what you need to do in this position. This is a really great way to make some side income, especially if you’re a student and you have quite a busy studying schedule, but you have couple of hours per week available to earn some extra money. And you know what I think this is also a really good way to meet other people, internationals and Dutch alike. Give this job a shot if you’re interested. Some of the companies you might want to look into are like Bull.com or Cool Blue that are the Amazon equivalents here in the Netherlands. They sell a lot of tech products as well as books and among many other things, and most of the time they will need international people who speak English in their customer service team.
Customer Care Options
So I definitely would recommend to check those out if you’re interested in getting started with a customer care job. And the second thing that you can do that doesn’t require a degree or a lot of mental power is working in retail, especially if you’re the kind of person that you like to socialize a little bit and genuinely help people out. Retail might be a very very good option. Given the current situation it might be a little bit more risky or maybe dangerous even to actually work in retail, but hopefully these times will pass, and nevertheless this is a wonderful option to make some great side income while you’re a student or you’re looking for some other job.
Retail Opportunities
So you might want to check out simple stores that are readily available in the local shopping street. For example in Rotterdam you have the Line Bun, and there you can find most of these very popular brands. So I would definitely say go ask them are they looking for some help, and sometimes you will even see that they post these posters on the window that they have vacancies available. So it never really hurts to go and ask exactly who they’re looking for and for how long. If you’re in Amsterdam as well, especially if you’re in Amsterdam, you will definitely have access to a lot more of these kind of unique boutiques and different types of stores.
Working in Retail
So make sure to check those out, and you know it never really hurts to work for a brand that you’re also passionate about and you believe in the mission of while you’re studying or you’re doing other things while you know earning some extra cash. The third one is not so glamorous I know, but bear with me. If you want to earn some extra cash you might want to work at a fast food joint. I mean there are plenty of Burger Kings, McDonald’s, and KFC’s here among with other fast food joints. This is not really going to be a glamorous job. Again you might love them or you might hate them, but at the end of the day these kind of restaurants do get a lot of customers.
Fast Food Work
Therefore there is a demand for workers to serve these customers, and you know when you start out in this kind of position again they give you training so you know what you need to do. And in most cases you also get some added benefits, like some joints might cover fully for your insurance, and you know some companies don’t do that so that’s definitely a bonus. They might give you allowances for different types of trainings, but most of the time students really love these kind of jobs because they’re again very flexible. They don’t require a lot of bandwidth, so you don’t need to do a lot of thinking going into this job.
Fast Food Pay
And they pay you by the hour depending on the kind of age group you’re in. Make sure to check out where I’m talking about money and how much you earn minimum wage per age group, so you know a little bit what to expect. But especially if you’re going to be working part time the salaries are not going to be extremely high, but it’s going to be some extra pocket money for you while you’re studying or you’re looking for another job. The fourth one that I want to mention is working for employment agencies like Young Capital. There’s also a Deco but that is maybe a little bit more on the highly skilled scale.
Employment Agencies
But basically these employment agencies what they do is they match people with the kind of suitable jobs based on their background and resumes. And most of the time they do need people that work at the front desk to guide people to where they need to go. And again this ties in really well with the customer care jobs because now with a lot of these things being done online give a phone call to the employment agency, and they will have to redirect you. So that might also be a nice way for you to tap into that, but again this can be very very flexible, but on the flip side of the coin if you’re already working part time.
Agency Benefits
In an employment agency and especially if you’re a student or if you’re looking for a job for yourself this is a wonderful way to see some of the jobs before other people find out about them, because you’re very much in the industry and you’re dealing with these kind of vacancies day in and day out. And if you’re a really really good employee you might stay in that employment company long term, or you might catch another company that you discover aligns with what you want to do, and then you might apply to that as well. So this is a little bit of a sneaky tip.
Driving Jobs
But again if you’re a student especially I think this would come in very very handy. The fifth one is driving. This is again not so common here in the Netherlands because we don’t have Ubers in all of the cities, and even if we have them in a big city like Amsterdam it’s a bit more difficult to drive around because these cities the way they’re structured is basically more walking friendly or bike path friendly. So most of the time getting from one place to another is actually more cumbersome when you take a taxi or Uber, but if you want to drive you can definitely look into this option.
Food Delivery
But here I want to mention on this note you don’t necessarily have to drive an Uber. You can actually drive for Fudora, Deliveroo, or Taos Resort which is the Dutch equivalent of Takeaway.com, and basically what this means is that you have your bike. And I believe you probably have to upfront purchase the gear a little bit so you have the jacket and the food container that you load up on the back. But the moment you put down that initial investment with everybody staying at home these days especially there is a really big demand for food delivery.
Delivery Work
So you can definitely work for one of these three companies. I’m sure there are many other out there that are being born these days as well, so check out those if you’re interested in this. Again you’re not going to get rich by doing this, but it’s a really good side hustle to bring some extra income. And you know it’s also really great to be able to bike around and deliver people food, make them happy while you’re also biking around which means you’re also getting physical exercise at the same time, especially these days with gyms maybe not being the best place to go to work out.
Tutoring
At least I’m trying to stay away because I’m a little bit paranoid. And then last but not least you can become a tutor. You could be teaching something that you’re an expert in, something you’re learning in school, or something that you’re already very much qualified for but at the moment cannot find a job around. So most of the time this could be like language exchanges. You can teach somebody else your language while you’re learning their language, but have some sort of monetary exchange involved in that as well. With that said I think you can definitely see something that you’re an expert in doesn’t really matter how old you are.
Tutor Options
We’re all experts in one thing, and it just really takes you to step back and think about what have I accomplished up until this point and what can I give to people and what is in demand for me that I can tutor on right. So this is something to keep in mind. You can post about your services on various expat Facebook groups. You can even run some small ads, maybe find some threads on Reddit to post about. So those are six things that you can easily do here without having this crazy next level like space rocket scientist degree or an extensive work background.
Final Thoughts
Again they’re not gonna make you rich, but they will really help you get started to integrate into the workforce and hopefully open better doors and opportunities for you.