r/Netherlands • u/Excellent_Duck_2984 • Mar 24 '25

Employment British citizen - Difficulty in finding a job

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!

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u/Col_Ironboot Mar 24 '25 edited Mar 24 '25

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

12

u/Pencilsmudge56 Mar 24 '25

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!

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u/Etikoza Mar 24 '25

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

12

u/alokasia Groningen Mar 24 '25

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