Hello

As Poland was opened to the work-market in Netherlands I was considering looking for a summer work (july - august) there.

What I'm thinking of is:

1. moving to NL with my friend and our girlfriends (4 people),
2. renting a small, possibly cheap, flat (the best would be 2 small rooms w/ bathroom & kitchen),
3. getting a seasonal job (for 1-2 months) for us.

As most of you live in Netherlands I'm hoping to get some useful information from you, like:

- where and how should I look for a flat (or rooms) and if should I do it earlier (before coming to NL),
- where's the best area to get a well paid seasonal work (and what kind of work is possible for us),
- what are our chances to find a job (we don't know dutch, only english - quite well thought),
- what will we need to apply there (what are required documents for a seasonal job?).

Hope you can help me somehow, thanks in advance.

ik moest tog weer even lachen, nog meer poolse goedkope arbijders om de nederlanders te vervangen, egt wat we nodig hebben!

about the flat, i got no idea where u should start.. but i would do it before you go to the netherlands because you may have some trouble finding the right one thats closest to your work
what work is possible for you depends on education but else there are also jobs that dont need education and can be done by normal people like working in ikea or supermarkets and stuffs like that
you chance to get a job is not so big since you dont speak dutch.. if u know english it shouldent be that hard though.. imo.. you should be able to get a job with just english.. but it will be something with minimal communication like putting stuff in boxes and sending them by mail logistics that kinda stuff i think..
you are searching for a temporarly summerjob? hmm here is a link to how the things work. u gota make a cv print that out and then mail it to the solicitator for a solicitationsconversation and then you will talk with them why they should give you the job and if ur lucky theyl give it to you
http://www.joho.nl/index.php?/services/sollicitatie_curriculum.php
just copy paste everything thru this translator to see the english version
http://babelfish.altavista.com/

toen ik net ging pissen piste ik met 2 PISSTRALEN OMG! ik heb maar de grootste in de plee laten gaan en die anderen ernaast khad nog een semi stijven volges mij van het slapen..

This post was edited by edujackass on May 20 2007 05:50am

You should definitely check out 'Noord Holland' as most of the bulb (flowers, tulips and such) industry is located there.


I myself work at a rather mediocre bulb firm (it's on the island, Texel) in the summer where the busiest months are June till August. The work is pretty diverse; harvesting, weeding, sorting, cleaning (the bulbs), packing. Though chances are that when you apply to a somewhat larger firm you'll be appointed to one particular task.

Can't really tell you anything about wages, age is a decisive factor for sure, but where I live it's mostly dependent on how much effort you put into whatever you're doing. But then again, an island has a different atmosphere than the mainland.

Not being able to speak dutch is no problem at all; I spent some time with a few Polish people during the cauliflower season who barely spoke English haha

I think your chances at finding a job are pretty good, the farmers always complain about not having enough employees.

As far as I know all you need in order to apply for a seasonal job is a valid ID, especially now with the EU. You can either sign up with an employment agency here in Holland or go straight to a farmer. I recommend an agency though, some guys have the tendency to exploit foreigners and with an agency your rights are recorded.

Thanks for your answers guys.

I have a few more questions about the 'flowers job' to you Xepo

- it seems to be somewhere in the country so what are the possibilities of finding a place to sleep
- what are ~ at least minimal ~ wages,
- how does the working day look like (how many hours a day, what are the working conditions, etc),
- and why age is so 'decisive factor'? (we're 20,19,22,22).

Thanks

This post was edited by jaccus on May 20 2007 08:46am

hahaha
inderdaad invasie van de pooltjes

Hum, I can't really answer all those questions with 100% certainty because I haven't worked on mainland ever. Also, every agency can have different policies. I'll tell you what I've experienced so far;

The polish people I worked with where registered at 'AB'. Dunno exactly how or why, but whoever hired them had to provide a place to sleep or at least pay for an accommodation. Anyway, I don't think a temporary place to sleep is hard to find, I'm sure either the agency or the farmer can point you in the right direction. Here's the link to the polish part of "AB Noord Holland" (the region in the map I posted earlier); http://www.abnoordholland.nl/index.php?folder_id=110001

I've got no idea what it says ^^. AB has agencies throughout the whole country and do not only provide work in the bulb-business but in all sorts of sectors; http://www.abnederland.nl/ ; this site is dutch but when you've clicked anywhere on that map you'll be re-directed to the site of that region. Those 'sub-sites' have a polish flag located on the upper right part of the screen. Perhaps every polish page is the same.

I've checked the minimum wages in NL, I assume they are the same for foreigners.
19: 146 a week.
20: 167 "
21: 193 "
22: 223 "

Officially I work from 7.30 till 17.30, but it's more like; 'oh, its 17.35... but let's finish this row' or 'hum, 17.20, we just finished a row.. a bit late to start a new one.. let's go home'. ^^
My brakes are a bit loose, sometimes we have an hour, sometimes we go back after 15 minutes. Depends on how busy it is, what kind of weather etc. Mind that where I work is more of a family business.

Working conditions are generally very good. The labor-inspection ( or w/e it's called) has frequent random inspections on farms and they whine about just everything. The penalties are pretty high, so most employers are rather safe than sorry.

Heh, I hope it's clear. Please say if it ain't.

This post was edited by Xepo on May 20 2007 09:29am

there is always a bridge to sleep under ^^
it will always rain while u are working

just adjust to the dutch culture. then you can get a nice job. and dont go to amsterdam caus u have a big chance to get a junk over there. (coffeshops and dealers everywhere).. And don't buy heineken caus it sucks. the best beer is hertog jan

werke slaaf! xD

En van die Marokkanen en van die Surinamers en van die Turken.

Nouja, bovengenoemde etnische groepen zijn meer aanwezig dan de Polen.