Being a student abroad comes with a mix of some wonderful experiences and hardships. One of the most feared things is making your ends meet by getting a part-time job. In this post, we will talk about everything related to part-time jobs. If you want to know all about it, then keep on reading.
When we first moved out of India, we used to get very worried thinking about our monthly expenses here. The education loan that we had taken only covered our tuition expenses and we were very determined to make it here on our own. Even before coming here, we started looking for paid internships and part-time jobs. Saurabh was successful in securing a paid internship and Harshil got a part-time job as a chef in a supermarket named Jumbo. Here we are telling you all about our experiences and, to share some tips on how to get a part-time job in a country where English is not the first language.
But before moving on, let us tell you about an interesting device that you will surely need as soon as you land here. A new country means no reliable and immediate data connection. You can use public wifis but then you will be compromising your security. With Pocket WiFi Amsterdam you can rent a device that acts as pocket wifi that gives you unlimited data 4G coverage everywhere. You can order it in advance and it will be delivered to you anywhere in the Netherlands or you can pick it up from the Schipol airport as soon as you land here. You can return the device once you have your own stable connection. To check out their prices, follow the link, and get a 15% discount use the code SPARKLETOGETHER during checkout.
Right off the bat, the first thing that you should know is that as an international student if you want to work in the Netherlands, then you need the TWV work permit. Check out our blog where we describe each work permit in detail.
The second thing to remember is that an internship is not a part-time job. If you manage to secure an internship, doesn't matter if it is paid or unpaid, you do not need a work permit to do your internship. Please check out our previous blog where we talk about different ways in which you can grab a good internship. If you are hired without a proper work permit then there will be consequences like you or your employer might have to pay a huge fine or even worst, you might get deported. So please ensure that if you do get a part-time job then all your paperwork is complete and legal.
Another thing to remember is that as a full-time student, you are only allowed to work 16 hours a week. However, during your holiday period or orientation year, you are allowed to work full-time. So yes people, summer break is not a time to rest. It is time to work hard and earn a lot of money!
This is something very easy to miss. Often times when you are applying for a part-time job that is not related to your field of study and if you are asked to upload a resume, you might upload your professional resume. So for example, if you are a computer science student and you are applying for the job of a cashier, it will be irrelevant if your resume says that you have 4 years of experience working with the Python language. Thus, always have a slightly modified version of your resume handy which focuses more on your people skills rather than your academic skills.
The minimum hourly pay for a part-time job in the Netherlands is a little above 11 euros. When Harshil was a chef in Jumbo, she used to earn around 11.07 euros per hour. According to her work permit, she was allowed to work 12 hours a week. So if you calculate her monthly salary, she used to earn approximately 500 euros a month. Is this enough to take care of the monthly expenses? The answer is both yes and no. A detailed answer will be present in the upcoming blog. However, if you want to know about the monthly costs then you can check out our monthly expenses playlist.
Once you find any paid job before going out to celebrate, make sure you change your insurance to Dutch basic health coverage. It is a mandatory step, and if you fail to change your insurance then you might have to pay a huge fine. When you stop earning then you will have to switch back to private insurance because then you won't be eligible for the Dutch basic health insurance. We have talked about the Dutch health insurance in our previous blog.
There are many requirements everywhere where you can apply without knowing the Dutch language. For example, people working in retail shops to refill the clothes rack or supermarkets where you keep refilling the food section. With these kinds of roles, you are not interacting directly with the customers, and hence these are the jobs that you can easily apply for without knowing the Dutch language.
Now let's move on to the burning question in your mind. How do I find a part-time job? Well, in the past whenever we asked this question, we got a lot of negative answers from people. They used to say that it is difficult to find a part-time job here or you need to learn the Dutch language. In the end, it is up to you. You can either listen to these negative comments, sit on your couch and do nothing or you can go out, hustle, and find a job for yourself. That is exactly what we did. You can find a job using one of the three ways:
Job Portals: There are various job portals like Indeed or LinkedIn where you can find openings for a part-time job. Apply aggressively everywhere. Do not get picky. If you apply for 20 jobs, hardly 3 or 4 will respond. Do not get disheartened by this. Just keep on trying, and one day you will get a job. Another approach is to make a profile on the company's website and apply for every available job.
"We are hiring" signboard: Keep an eye out for flyers or boards that say that the company or restaurant or cafe or the supermarket is hiring. This is exactly what happened to me. We used to regularly shop at Jumbo and one day Saurabh saw that this board. Harshil immediately created a profile on their website and applied for jobs. Within a week she was called in for an interview and then she started working for them as a chef.
College Portals: You can even do a part-time in your college! You can either apply for roles of student assistants where you will get paid monthly or you can volunteer to assist a college committee for where you will get paid hourly. Colleges are very accepting of international students, and here you do not have to worry about getting rejected because the University will have to file for your work permit. They will do so willingly. Check out our previous video, where we tell you how to get a TA role in your college.
Please write to us in case you have any queries regarding this topic. We are happy to engage with all of you. We hope that this video was helpful. Let us know if we missed something and share the appreciation if we didn't. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel!