It's not so easy to find a job

The beginning was promising. As some of you might remember, back in 2009 I did my Erasmus internship in WYSE Travel Confederation here in Amsterdam. The remuneration or scholarship was good, the people in the organisation were great, the job was not hard and the social life was wonderful.

I thought it will be the same also now. How wrong I was! Still after several months of looking for a job I am unemployed.

At first, I discovered that English language skills are not enough. Seems that there are three possibilities:
1) You need to speak Dutch well enough to be able to work in it;
2) You need be a native English speaker (they will simply check your nationality);
3) You need to be fluent in several major languages (such as German, French, Spanish etc.).
I am none of them. I have just my English and Latvian, but seems that nobody needs the second one here. My Russian is not good enough to work, and my German and Dutch skills are hardly enough for even a basic conversation.

At second, I discovered that most of them times I am either under-qualified or over-qualified. Seems that only students are eligible to apply for internships, where most of the time they get ridiculously low remuneration (around 200-400 euro per months for 4-5 full working days per week). As I am not a student anymore, they even do not consider me for them. And when they do, I mostly get a negative reply about being over-qualified...
Trying the next level seems more logicial solution, even when they ask you a couple of years working experience and a university degree in the relevant field. I have both of them, however, it seems not to be enough as only once I got till the job interview. Most of the time it's just rejection e-mails again.

For those wondering what kind of job I am looking for, now I shall reply - anything. I have background in communications, youth work and a bit of tourism. I started with PR, communications and youth work and now I am sending applications even to hotels, different kind of assistants and anything like that.

I guess that there are hundreds of people like me in Dutch labour market, but I didn't think that it will be so hard... Even after replying to endless amount of job ads and sending open applications I haven't got further than several job interviews with negative results in the end.

Would it mean that the Netherlands doesn't want me? Or that I do not belong here?

Lai top!

Pat nezinu, ar ko sākt šo blogu un kā rakstīt pirmos ievadvārdus, kas es esmu un ko es daru. Bet tomēr mēģināšu.

Es esmu Anita. 23 gadus veca. Latviete pēc pases, Eiropas pilsone pēc pārliecības. Tieši pirms nedēļas sakravājusi savas somas un pārcēlusies uz Briseli, kur līdz decembra beigām skaitīšos Erasmus apmaiņas programmas maģistrantūras studente Erasmushogeschool Brussel, patiecoties savai jaukajai un lieliskajai Vidzemes augstskolai Latvijā, kur es studēju tūrisma stratēģisko menedžmentu.

Šī ir mana ceturtā mītnes zeme - gandrīz visu mūžu esmu nodzīvojusi Latvijā, bet pirms dažiem gadiem, mainoties man pašai, mainījās arī mans dzīves ritms. Par savām mājām esmu saukusi arī Maltu (Vidusjūras salu), Amsterdamu un tagad - arī Briseli, bet vienmēr sirdī man otrās mājas ir arī Londonā. Jā, starptautiska personība. :)

Par ko es blogošu? Par Briseli. Par saviem iespaidiem Eiropas galvaspilsētā, kura pagaidām man vēl ir sveša un nebūt ne mīļākā uz pasaules. Par to, kā tas ir - studēt Erasmus maģistrantūrā, kad vienīgais, kas atlicis, ir maģistra darba rakstīšana, nevis lekciju apmeklēšana. Par centieniem saprast, kas ir kas un ko darīt, ja es nerunāju franciski, bet manas nīderlandiešu valodas zināšanas ir ļoti, ļoti minimālas. Un par to, vai pēc Erasmus beigām es būšu iemīlējusi Briseli. Par to, kā es centos izdomāt, vai man blogot latviski vai angliski.

Jau drīzumā - mana pirmā tikšanās augstskolā ar starptautiskās daļas puisi un cenšanās iegūt savā rīcībā sabiedriskā transporta studenta karti.