The work visa isn't a problem since I'm the partner of a knowledge worker which qualifies me to work here. I'm still waiting for my residence permit to come through, but I already have my Dutch social security number, bank account and cell phone contract, so I'm well on my way to becoming a real Dutch resident!
The main obstacle at this point in terms of finding a job is location. We're living in Den Bosch which is over an hour from Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and even farther from Den Haag. I've known since the beginning that I may need to revise my commute expectations to include these three major cities, but I thought I'd at least try to find something closer to me before committing to the longer commute and higher transport costs, given that there are a couple big cities (Utrecht and Eindhoven) closer to me.
Contacting the US embassy to ask for a directory of American companies is a really good idea that I wouldn't have thought of myself. Thanks for that idea. Do you think the UK embassy would give me similar information? I'm just thinking that that would possibly be another English-speaking lead I could pursue.
Translation is also another really good idea as I actually have experience with that. Spanish-English is obviously easier for me, but I have done the reverse as well.
I'm already part of the International Women's Club here in Den Bosch (the city is a bit too small to have an American women's club), and so far I've made two close friends and found two job leads, one more promising than the other. The one I'm actually excited about is teaching English at a very highly regarded and actually world renowned language institute for adults who want to learn English (and Dutcht, German, French, Italian and Spanish). The clients come for 1, 2 or 3 weeks at a time and they do fly in from all over the world. Terry is learning Dutch there right now, and it's pretty rigorous. His company is paying for it, otherwise it would be way out of our price range. The wonderful thing about Regina Coeli is that they don't require any teaching credentials because they want you to learn their method of teaching. They also want people from all backgrounds so that when a client registers to learn a language, they can pair that person with someone they can relate to. Being a native English speaker, having a degree in Spanish, being willing to learn Dutch, and having been a preschool teacher make me a pretty ideal candidate in my humble opinion, though they're not hiring at the moment, so we'll see what comes of it.
The other opportunity is to cold call companies and try to sell them a forklift...in Spanish...Excellent! :( I actually don't even know the word for forklift in Spanish. In my 12 years of studying the language, it simply hasn't come up.
The main obstacle at this point in terms of finding a job is location. We're living in Den Bosch which is over an hour from Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and even farther from Den Haag. I've known since the beginning that I may need to revise my commute expectations to include these three major cities, but I thought I'd at least try to find something closer to me before committing to the longer commute and higher transport costs, given that there are a couple big cities (Utrecht and Eindhoven) closer to me.
Contacting the US embassy to ask for a directory of American companies is a really good idea that I wouldn't have thought of myself. Thanks for that idea. Do you think the UK embassy would give me similar information? I'm just thinking that that would possibly be another English-speaking lead I could pursue.
Translation is also another really good idea as I actually have experience with that. Spanish-English is obviously easier for me, but I have done the reverse as well.
I'm already part of the International Women's Club here in Den Bosch (the city is a bit too small to have an American women's club), and so far I've made two close friends and found two job leads, one more promising than the other. The one I'm actually excited about is teaching English at a very highly regarded and actually world renowned language institute for adults who want to learn English (and Dutcht, German, French, Italian and Spanish). The clients come for 1, 2 or 3 weeks at a time and they do fly in from all over the world. Terry is learning Dutch there right now, and it's pretty rigorous. His company is paying for it, otherwise it would be way out of our price range. The wonderful thing about Regina Coeli is that they don't require any teaching credentials because they want you to learn their method of teaching. They also want people from all backgrounds so that when a client registers to learn a language, they can pair that person with someone they can relate to. Being a native English speaker, having a degree in Spanish, being willing to learn Dutch, and having been a preschool teacher make me a pretty ideal candidate in my humble opinion, though they're not hiring at the moment, so we'll see what comes of it.
The other opportunity is to cold call companies and try to sell them a forklift...in Spanish...Excellent! :( I actually don't even know the word for forklift in Spanish. In my 12 years of studying the language, it simply hasn't come up.
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