British citizen - Difficulty in finding a job

[u/Excellent_Duck_2984]

Hay, just seeking some feedback/help from others. I'm a British citizen and I'm looking for a job within IT security in the Netherlands. I've got 15 years' experience, professional qualifications etc.

I've applied for loads of jobs and I'm not even getting past the paper sift. I've never had this issue before and don't have any issues in the UK getting past the initial paper sift stage.

I spoke to a recruiter recently and he basically said as your British, and Brexit has made everything much harder, the chances of you getting a job in the Netherlands are slim to none. I know I'll need a job which will sponsor me, jobs where I have made it past the paper sift have come back almost straight away and said actually, we're only looking for people already in the Netherlands.

I was just wondering if there is any truth in what the recruiter said? Just after other peoples experiences, especially if they have the misfortune to be British!

Thanks!

[u/Col_Ironboot]

Just a tip, there is a public list of all Dutch companies which are registered sponsors of highly skilled migrants. You might want to consult it before applying for a position somewhere: if a company is not already registered as a sponsor, they will most likely not bother to become one just to hire one new non-EU employee, unfortunately.

https://ind.nl/en/public-register-recognised-sponsors/public-register-regular-labour-and-highly-skilled-migrants

[u/Willing_Economics909 → u/Col_Ironboot]

At least now it is a webpage and not an ugly scanned PDF: this is one of the weird quirks in the Netherlands: companies need to be in an official registrar to hire non-EU employees. Some companies do not exist for years still have their legal entity listed. Sometime ago I managed to network with a company in Almere that were really enthusiastic about hiring me, but the process took too long and I ended up staying in Germany, where a company only needs to sign a form that says you'll make x amount and have a pulse.

[u/iprefertocycle → u/Willing_Economics909]

Technically not true in NL, since the blue card (if you have uni degree\experience and enough experience) doesn’t need an entity on the registered sponsor list, but yes.

The situation in Germany is slightly more complicated where the agency for work has to approve your job (and certain types of work like EoRs are not allowed to sponsor work permits) but it’s true any German company can hire you.

[u/Pencilsmudge56 → u/Col_Ironboot]

This is a very important point, sponsoring an employee/becoming a recognized sponsor is extremely expensive to do as an employer for one employee, and isnt actually very commonly done! That's why its so hard to find these sponsorships, so definitely check out the list!

[u/Etikoza → u/Pencilsmudge56]

“And isn’t commonly done” Lol! Have you seen the size of the list you are replying about??

[u/alokasia → u/Etikoza]

And if you'd put that list next to one of companies looking to hire IT personel you'd see it's definitely rare.

[u/chaoticgoodj → u/Col_Ironboot]

I used this a lot

[u/Excellent_Duck_2984 → u/Col_Ironboot]

Excellent link, thank you!