Hiring in the Netherlands is direct, fairly fast and mostly run through the employer’s own applicant system. If you have applied for jobs in the United Kingdom, Germany or the United States, most of the process will look familiar. The differences are in the details: what goes into the CV, how contracts and pay are described, and how much the employer expects you to say about your right to work and your plans to stay. This guide walks through the process from the first search to the signed contract.
Where the jobs are
Most vacancies at companies that hire in English are published on the company’s own careers page, which usually runs on an applicant tracking system (Greenhouse, Lever, Workable, SmartRecruiters, Workday and others). The same job description is then copied to job boards, LinkedIn and aggregators, often with a delay and sometimes long after the position has closed. Applying through the employer’s own page is the shortest path: your application lands directly in the system the recruiter works in.
CareerCraft lists English-speaking jobs in the Netherlands that are still open and do not require Dutch, so you do not spend an evening on a job description that quietly asks for it. The apply link on every job goes to the employer’s own website.
Agencies and recruiters (uitzendbureaus for temporary staffing, werving en selectie for permanent search) are common, especially in finance, engineering and IT. They are paid by the employer; a candidate never pays an agency to be placed.
What you send
A CV and, for most roles, a short motivation letter. The CV carries the weight; the letter explains why this job and why now. Both are read on screen, often in under a minute at the first pass, so the first half page has to do the work. See the guides on CV format for the Dutch market and motivation letters for what goes in and what stays out.
Two things Dutch employers look for early that applicants from abroad often leave out:
- Your right to work. If you are an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen, say so in one line. If you need a work permit, say that too; many employers are recognised sponsors and will not mind, but they want to know before the first call. The guide on visa sponsorship explains the routes.
- Where you are and when you can start. “Based in Utrecht, available from 1 March” answers a question every recruiter has. If you are still abroad, say when you plan to move and whether you need relocation support.
The usual sequence
- Screening call with a recruiter, 20 to 30 minutes, usually by phone or video within one or two weeks of applying. Expect questions about your motivation, availability, salary expectation and, if relevant, your permit situation.
- Interview with the hiring manager, often together with a future colleague. This is where the content of your CV is tested: specific projects, decisions you made, results you can describe.
- A second round: a case, a presentation, a technical test or a conversation with the team. Larger organisations and government bodies sometimes add an online assessment (reasoning tests and a personality questionnaire).
- Offer and terms, sometimes in a separate conversation called the arbeidsvoorwaardengesprek, followed by references and the contract.
Three to five weeks from application to offer is normal for a company that is organised; twice that is not unusual. A rejection after the first interview usually arrives as a short e-mail. It is acceptable, and sometimes useful, to ask for a reason. The guide on Dutch job interviews covers the conversations themselves.
How pay and contracts are described
Salaries are discussed as a gross monthly amount, not an annual package. On top of the monthly salary, employees receive a statutory holiday allowance (vakantiegeld) of at least 8% of gross annual salary, paid once a year, usually in May. Some sectors add a thirteenth month or an end-of-year bonus. When a job description or a recruiter names a figure, ask whether it is per month, whether it includes the holiday allowance, and whether it is based on a 36, 38 or 40-hour week: all three are common, and a part-time contract of four days is ordinary even in senior roles.
Many employers are bound by a collective labour agreement (CAO) that fixes salary scales, leave and working hours for a whole sector or company. If the job description mentions a scale (schaal), the room to negotiate is the position within that scale, not the scale itself.
A first contract is usually temporary, for seven months or a year, with the option of a permanent one afterwards. Dutch law limits how many temporary contracts an employer can chain before one becomes permanent. A probation period (proeftijd) is allowed only if it is written into the contract; its maximum length depends on the contract’s duration, and it is not allowed at all in contracts of six months or less. The exact rules are on the Dutch government’s site, business.gov.nl, which is written for employers but is the clearest public source in English.
Before the first day
To be paid you need a citizen service number (BSN), which you get by registering at the municipality where you live, and a Dutch bank account for most employers. You do not need either to apply or to be interviewed. Employers hiring from abroad usually point to a relocation service or an expat centre for the practicalities; the larger cities have one.
If you come from outside the EU on a highly skilled migrant permit, the employer applies for the permit; your part is to supply documents on time. The IND, the Dutch immigration service, is the authority on what is required and how long it takes.
A short checklist
- Apply on the employer’s own site; confirm the position is still open before you spend time on it.
- Send a CV written for the job and, unless the form says otherwise, a short motivation letter.
- State your right to work, your location and your availability in the first lines.
- Prepare a gross monthly salary expectation and know the hours it is based on.
- Expect two to three rounds, direct questions and quick, plain feedback.
When you have found a job in the list, CareerCraft writes the CV and cover letter for it from your own documents, so that each application is specific without starting from a blank page.