In this post, I am going to suggest you 5 different ways to find a student job in the Netherlands.
These are the same strategies that some of my friends from TU Delft and other colleagues who studied at Erasmus University, Rotterdam and TU Eindhoven used to find a part-time job while studying.
We won’t talk about obvious part-time jobs like serving drinks at a bar, working in a restaurant or becoming a newspaper delivery person. These are indeed some obvious options in every city or town you visit.
We also won’t discuss Internships. Internships can be considered as part-time jobs, where you work in a company for 3 to 6 months and get paid. Mean while you also earn extra credits(10 to 15) in your university for your internship.
We are mostly going to discuss English speaking part-time job opportunities in the university campus. The kind of opportunities that are not very obvious and you don’t learn about them unless you are told directly. Once you learn about them, you can look for such positions and the added advantage is that you don’t have to move to a different city to earn a few extra bucks.
Let’s dive right in!
International Students in the Netherlands
There is no doubt that there has been a huge influx of students from all around the world in the last few years. According to Study in Holland, the country was the home to 122,000 international students in 2017–18. A lot of factors contribute to this migration of students.
Dutch universities have been recognized globally in the field of research and quality of education.
Along with the quality of education, the presence of a good economy that provides ample opportunities in various job sectors also contributes to students wanting to stay here after their studies. The average salary for 25 to 45 year old adults is 36.000 euros. If you want to check the average starting salaries by industry, check out this blog by Gemiddeld Inkomen.
Netherlands is also considered as one of the safest countries in the world. According to Safearound.com, Netherlands is ranked 16th among the safest countries of the world, with a safety index of 74%.
Now if you are a student from the European Union, your tuition fees are going to be considerably low compared to Non European students. However, the cost of living is still not cheap. So unless your folks are loaded, having a student job could be really beneficial during your studies.
Advantages of having a Student Job
Apart from the extra cash that gets added to your bank account every month, there are some other advantages of having a student job.
Learning the art of time management
Managing your part time job along with your university’s schedule is going to be difficult. But if you are really motivated, this could be a blessing in disguise. You would learn to manage your time effectively. You will get more organized and proactive in your daily life.
Think of all the hours in a day you spend procrastinating. You could utilize those hours earning a few bucks — and therefore, a few additional beers this weekend or may be save up for the rent next month.
Getting familiar with the dutch working culture
Whether you work as a bartender or at a company, you are going to interact with people beyond your academic circles. This will give you an understanding of the way dutch people work.
So even before you are looking for jobs after your studies, you get to understand the working culture over here in the Netherlands. This could be a real advantage during your job interviews after you finish your studies.
Your employer could be your future recruiter
Yes, It is true. I have seen such examples a lot. Many students who work part-time or as an intern or during their thesis, are hired by the same companies.
Can you imagine, being able to skip the exhaustive process of job application in the Netherlands? Wouldn’t that be just wonderful?
Can you afford to have a Student Job?
Irrespective of all the advantages mentioned above, you should still ask yourself if you can afford to spend those extra hours for your student job. University should still be your first priority. The longer you take to finish your studies, the more tuition fees you have to pay.
So it really comes down to this question.
Do you have time to spare for a part-time job?
Especially if you are Non-EU (Non European), the stakes are much higher. In the whim of making a few extra bucks, you could end up paying way more tuition fees than you can afford. So don’t be impulsive while making this decision.
Do you need a work permit for a part-time job?
If you are from the EU union (except Bulgaria and Romania), you don’t need a work permit to work in the Netherlands. Also there are no time restrictions imposed on your part-time job as a student.
However, if you are a Non-EU student, you do need a work permit. The work permit is generally arranged by the company hiring you to work part-time. You are only allowed to work a certain number of hours per week. You can work a maximum of 16 hours (2 business days) per week through out the year and full time during the months of June, July and August.
If you decide to work between the months of June, July and August, I would highly recommend you to do an Internship instead of a part-time job. The advantage is that apart from getting paid, you could get additional credits(up to 15 credits) in your university from your internship.
So keep the above points in mind before you get involved in finding a student job for yourself.
Now if you still want a part-time job, here are some job profiles that could be interesting to you.
Job #1 — Working as a Video Editor
Most of the universities have online courses on platforms like EdX and Coursera. Check out the below links.
Who do you think edits the videos and curates the contents that go into these courses?
It is highly unlikely that the university hires professional editors and designers to edit their videos and curate their content. It is usually done by a bunch of students that work part-time.
In fact, my university flat mate was the video editor for one of the courses from the Aerospace Faculty in TU Delft.
This is a great opportunity for you to work as a student. You don’t have to leave your university premises and travel to a different city for your part-time job. You are also in constant touch with the Professor-in-charge. That is going to earn you some brownie points over the course of your education. The best part is, you don’t need to learn any Dutch.
In terms of salary, you are paid between 10–15 euros per hour. Do the math (10 euros per hour, 16 hours a week, 4 weeks a month), you could easily cover rent.
Skills Required — You need to have some video editing and content curation skills in order to apply for jobs like this. If you have a Windows laptop, try to learn some video editing using DaVinci Resolve. Its a free editing tool for videos and is actually giving Adobe Premiere pro a run for its money. If you have a Macbook, then learn to use iMovie. It doesn’t matter what software you know, as long as you can show some prior editing work.
But more importantly, what matters the most is eagerness. My flatmate didn’t learn about this opportunity through a poster or some website. He learnt about it accidentally from the Professor while having a discussion about his project. His eagerness and proactive attitude is what got him this job.
So check for courses on EdX and Coursera that are being organized by Professors of your department and approach them.
Or even better, if you have a good rapport with a Professor, convince them to start an online course on one of these platforms and offer them your services. Don’t ask for an opportunity, create one for yourself.
Job #2 — Student Assistants to Faculties
A lot of Professors in every university campus employ Student Assistants (also known as Research Assistants) under their purview. The responsibility of a student assistant can range for preparing course materials and presentations for the lectures under the guidance of the professor, being a volunteer during lab experiments and other clerical and administrative jobs(mostly for the Professor-in-charge). Usually, Professors directly approach the students from their lectures who they think are qualified to perform the above tasks. So it could pay off to be a diligent student!
Sometimes student assistants are also picked specifically for a project that the Professor is working on, in collaboration with some private/public company or an institution.
One of my ex-colleagues who also did her Masters in TU Delft from the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, was involved in a similar project. Read how she describes her role as a Student Assistant.
I was a professor assistant for some months, it was a temporary job only.
It was more for a project, because the TU Delft has a lot of projects sponsored by the European Union. In this case we were helping with a project called I-track, a group of people from different countries gathered to work on solutions for “Areas of conflict”. For example, a place where there is a war and you need to send provisions such as food, clothing, medical aid etc. and you need to make sure everything arrives well. Because it’s an area of conflict, you can’t really use technology that requires internet so they developed a program to do that and they hired student assistants for helping to test the product. We ran scenarios in which we were part of the convoys or at different places and we needed to test the software, we were assigned roles and we helped in this process.
In her case, she heard about this from a friend and directly approached the Professor. She got paid 13 euros per hour. She pointed out that a lot of her colleagues involved in the project came through the Vacancy page of TU Delft.
She also mentioned about Chat Groups on Whatsapp and Telegram, where students post about such similar job opportunities. Check out the below image of a job posting on a Whatsapp group for the Sustainability Product Design track in TU Delft.
Certain information in the image has been blanked out for anonymity.
So make sure to constantly check your university’s job vacancy page and look out for chat groups for your specific tracks. You could get lucky!
Job #3 — Working as a Coach during the Introduction program
With the huge amount of international students coming to the Netherlands for their higher studies, universities have 2 to 3 weeks of Introduction Program for the international students. Depending on when the students arrive, some universities in the Netherlands also organize it twice.
The entire introduction week in any university is a great way to make some new friends and learn about the culture of the new university and city.
If you are an extrovert, have a good fluency in English and would like to spend time helping out new international students, becoming a Coach during the introduction program is a great choice for earning a few extra bucks.
You would be responsible for organizing sessions for the group of international students who have been assigned to you and explaining them the student life at your university. You would be showing them around the city in which your university is located, answer questions about concerns that the new students have and help them get comfortable with the new life that they are going to lead.
A few of my friends who signed up for being a coach during the Introduction program were paid 12 euros per hour with other facilities like free food and drinks during the course of the Introduction program.
Job #4 — Administrative Assistants
Every university requires a ton of administrative tasks that need to be handled. Matters like registration of students, organizing examinations and tests and handling all sorts of matters related to students and professors are done by the responsible administrative department of the university.
A lot of the jobs there do need experts with relevant experience in fields of management and Finance. However, there are certain positions that can be (and are) handled by students.
Receptionist
Every building in your university campus is bound to have receptionists. If the building is usually frequented by international students (e.g. International Student Affairs), usually English speaking candidates are preferred. A lot of times, students are chosen to work in such positions.
Quality Control Assistants for Instruments
All the electronics equipment in your university like Computers, Lights, Air Conditioning, Heating, Projectors and Audio instruments need constant maintenance so that lectures and lab sessions happen without any disturbance. Along with technical supervisors, there are certain number of student assistants chosen for monitoring the status of each equipment in the building.
Classroom Scheduling Assistant
All sessions in a university like lectures, lab sessions, guest lectures or other formal or informal meetup requires booking a classroom or a theatre premise. This is usually done through a scheduling software. For the monitoring of software, usually assistants are used to keep track of conflicting sessions, deciding the importance of one session over the other, rearranging sessions from one premise to another etc. This is also a possible job profile that you might be interested in as a student.
Member of the International Student Society
A lot of the universities have an International Student Society, where certain members (5 to 7) are chosen to work in the interest of the international students. They arrange job fairs, organize international festivals, schedule the plan for the Introduction program and other necessary things. You could definitely apply for becoming one of the members of the International Student Society.
Now each of the above jobs have different salary structure. For example, if you are a member of the International Student Society, you get a certain deduction in your tuition fees(conditions applied). For students, who are unable to finish their education within the stipulated time, this opportunity could be highly beneficial.
Job #5 — Working as a Library Attendant
A library is essential to every university in the world. This is the place where students gather to study, finish their projects with their team mates, work on assignments and sometimes, also on their personal tasks. Therefore, maintaining the decorum of the library is highly crucial.
A library in a university is open between 12 to 16 hours a day. Since the library is always busy, there are various tasks that need attended. These include arranging the books in relevant rooms, issuing books to students and retrieving them , issuing rooms to the students based on requirement and sitting at the reception desks. There are also some clerical jobs involved like cleaning the library and picking up trash. So there is definitely a need for assistants to take care of the above mentioned tasks.
Working part-time as a Library Attendant could be very advantageous for some of you. Not only are you in the university premises, but it is mostly a desk-job type situation. You could easily take your books and laptop with you, work on your assignments and tasks, while attending to the others who need your help in the library. Compared to other jobs, this offers you a lot of free time to catch up on your own studies.
You get paid in this position based on your experience the time you decide to spend. It could range between 8 to 13 euros per hour.
Now it is up to you !!
At the end of the day, it depends a lot on what you are capable of and are interested to do. However like I have mentioned before, do not neglect your studies for your part-time job. Measure the pros and cons of working part-time and take it up only if you absolutely need it.
