How to find a job in Europe

There are times that you might have thought about moving to Europe and looking for the possibilities to make your dream a reality. I had a similar wish and made it possible. This article will explain how to find a job in Europe and how you should prepare for it and what should be expected. Also, this will be useful if you are someone outside Europe trying to make your move. 

Before you start applying to Europe, you should have an answer to the question of why are you moving to Europe. You would have already heard about better work-life balance, a good salary, and better opportunities. The application process itself could take from 2 months up to 6 months so to not lose hope, you may ask that question again and again during the process. Also, you have a better chance if you are applying for a skilled job such as IT or Medicine and this article is focusing on IT. Each country has different rules and regulations hiring skilled employees outside the EU. During your job analysis stage, you should check the company’s and the applying country’s policy. Also, apply more than 5 – 10 companies to get a better chance.

Prepare the CV for the job

The first step towards applying to a job anywhere is to have a better CV which is personalized to each job that you are applying for. I found this Udemy tutorial to prepare a better CV. Also, remember to include a personalized and targeted Cover Letter. The CV should give a compact overview of your experience and qualifications while the cover letter should reflect on how your experience could help the company you are applying for. The rest of the details can be added to LinkedIn. 

Also, most probably your CV will be going through an Applicant tracking system. So make sure to read the key points in the description and if you have those experiences, remember to highlight them. You can get some help from JobScan to find out what percentage of chance that your CV has against the job description. 

Job boards

There are a number of sources where you could find jobs in Europe. Everyone knows about the LinkedIn Jobs. When you are serious about applying, I recommend for the monthly $29 premium subscription, to get the direct access to the recruiter. Then the Stackoverflow Jobs. Also, you can register at Talent.io as well as Honeypot.io. Create your profile and add enough information to the profile. You have the option to choose what are the countries and cities that you wish to apply. The registered companies with these websites will contact you directly if they find out that you could be a prospective. You can either accept or reject an interview invitation. Also, they will assign you a recruiter who will help you with the process. These services are free and if you get hired through one of them, the company will pay to their service. 

Interview process

Usually, there will be around 4 – 5 interviews you may face depending on the company. The first one will be with an HR/Company internal recruiter. They will explain about the company and their business as well as some brief idea about the team. This is where you have to prepare yourself for the behavioral, social, and language skills related questions. Most of the companies expect you to speak fluent English, but remember to talk about language requirements. Sometimes they may expect you to speak the native language of the country. Also, ask questions such as what will be the next steps in the interviews if they haven’t mentioned it already.

The second interview will be a take-home assignment or an online coding challenge. Do not spend more than 20 hours max for a take-home assignment. If it’s an online coding challenge, you may expect to complete the challenge within 90 – 120 minutes. Try some challenges on Hackerrank.com  or Codility.com as some companies use them for remote coding challenges. 

The third will be a technical interview. You may have to explain your solution or part of it and the general technical questions. If the job description highlights the testing, then you may write tests for your assignment. In the fourth interview, you may meet the team. This could happen over Skype or an onsite visit (depend on the company). It will mostly casual and to understand each other’s culture fit.

There could be another technical interview with a top tier level employer (CTO, Architect, etc). It may be covering mostly System Design, Software Architecture, Patterns related topics. Finally, the HR interview with the offer. Before you reach this stage, get to know the salary range for your position. You can check with going through the job portals such as Indeed. It is recommended to suggest a range rather than a fixed value. Also, find more about the minimum salary requirement of the country you apply. If a company offers a lower salary than the required minimum, the embassy may reject your visa. If your expectation is too high for your position, the company may reject the offer. 

Europe is a vast area where you have the possibility of applying to multiple countries. But you have to understand each country’s tax system before the salary discussion. If you will be moving with your family, you may discuss it with HR to prepare the family visa.  Scandinavian countries are famous for high taxes and better work-life balance. Southern European countries are famous for low tax and a good climate for the most part of the year. You must have a clear understanding of the living cost, tax system, housing cost, and the rules and regulations. I used the numbeo for a cost of living overview. My daily expenses tracking habit gave an opportunity to understand our expenses before we move to Denmark. 

Resources

I wrote an article about how to plan your expenses in Denmark and finding a house in Denmark.  You can use this calculator to know how much tax will you be paying out of your salary. My pay limit scheme visa process article will explain the complete process of pay limit visa. 

If you are applying to Germany, you can use this calculator to know more about your gross and net salary. You can find an unfurnished house or an apartment from Immobilienscout24 or wg-gesucht. If you are more interested in furnished apartments check out Spotahome or hc24. 

If the Netherlands is your choice, thetax.nl will give you an overview of your tax information. You can use the pararius to find a house or an apartment. 

The ex-pats have a 30% tax ruling. You will be taxed only on 70% of your salary the other 30% you will get as-is.

Good luck and be patient as the process may take some time. If you have any questions, you may type in the comment box or send a message.

Thank you Dilusha Gonagala and Mohamed Rasool for helping me out with information regarding Germany and The Netherlands