Highly appealing cities like Amsterdam, Paris, or Berlin constantly serve a lot of attractive options for tech talents like data analysts, software engineers, back-end or front-end developers. So if you’re an IT professional, you know that you are highly in demand in Europe’s job market. However, in such a paradise with various job opportunities in cool cities, you still need to consider many pros and cons in order to decide where you want to take the next step in your career. Among all these beautiful spots, today we’re here to tell you why the Netherlands and especially the Dutch capital Amsterdam might be a perfect fit for your new job in IT by means of 3 benefits it provides specifically to tech talents.
1. The Netherlands is the new Silicon Valley of Europe
From its High Tech Campus in Eindhoven to many European headquarters for recognizable brands like Nike, Adidas, or Netflix, the Netherlands is becoming a real hub for high-tech companies and job seekers as a consequence. Besides being the hometown where companies like Philips and ASML were born, it also hosts many outstanding start-ups, scale-ups, and unicorns such as Mollie, Bunq, and Adyen. Thanks to its open and entrepreneurial work culture, the Netherlands is pedaling to the top of the European startup leadership tables. According to recent research by NRC and Dealroom, the Netherlands has more than twelve unicorns (2020’s data). This vibrant and rapidly growing tech culture allows software engineers to work on their individual projects besides their full-time jobs and be involved in extremely valuable networks as well.
2. Endless incentives from the government to develop, attract, and retain talent in tech
The Dutch government is constantly investing huge amounts of money, especially in AI (artificial intelligence), health-tech, and fin-tech industries. Furthermore, the incentives that are specifically designed for international IT professionals are also contributing to the attractiveness of the country in the competitive job market. By the reimbursement ruling for tax, you can expect to get a tax-free allowance equal to 30% if you’re working in IT. This implication lowers the living costs for expats and encourages tech specialists to consider taking up residence in the Netherlands. This is also one of the major reasons why startups and larger companies tend to base here. Also compared to other European countries, the administrative and legal barriers are much more flexible for hiring non-EU talents. There is almost no language barrier (especially for tech positions) and companies are mostly eager to sponsor their employees to get a highly skilled immigrant visa and have a valid residence permit.
3. Remote working is becoming a legal right in the Netherlands
On top of these conveniences, very recent legislation in the Netherlands came at a time when companies worldwide struggle to bring workers back to the office. According to Eurostat, 14% of the workforce in the Netherlands was already working remotely two years before the pandemic. Recently, the Dutch parliament approved legislation to establish working from home as a legal right as long as the job allows. This new legislation set the Netherlands up to be one of the first countries to provide such flexibility in the law. Although this new law is still waiting for approval from the Senate, once it enters into force, employers must consider all working from home requests from their employers and give adequate reasons for refusing them.
Are you a software engineer or an IT professional who would like to benefit from all of these fantastic opportunities listed above? Apply for our vacancies in the Netherlands (and Europe) to move onto the next step in your career smoothly with the help of our expert consultants.
