Another story about the move, this time to the Netherlands

A brief introduction. h5> All my 25 years I have lived in Kiev, graduated from the CPI. On the 3rd course began studying web development - sawed sites in Joomla - WordPress, painted designs and quietly studied the wisdom of PHP and JS. After 1.5 years sat in the Kiev branch of Anzer IT Healthcare and after a year there, the first time to seriously think about finding a job abroad with the move. Then I saw it as a successful continuation of a career, from school-institute times, you see, ingrained parental guidance.

So ...

The first approach h5> This was the beginning of 2013th, decided to start with Europe, that far from home. Shoveled job:

• Czech Republic ( http://www.jobs.cz/ )
• Slovakia (< a href = "http://www.profesia.sk/"> http://www.profesia.sk/ )
• Germany ( http://www.monster.de/ )
  In May, the company entered the Ukrainian DAXX , which offered job tested on PHP Drupal developer in the Dutch start-up. Under the leadership of HR'ov slightly trimmed resume and the customer agreed to an interview. With Drupal, the experience was small, but for a week, which remained until the interview, had more or less sorted out. The interview was conducted a startup CEO and one of the developers. Asked about the previous experience, why find a job in another country (it is not all love to ask), the task of writing the code was not. In the end, as usual, given the opportunity to ask questions. I asked why they chose as the basis of Drupal, but not my favorite Yii (startup was in the planning stage, that nothing is written were not). Answered description CMS advantages to plus framework referred to the fact that Drupal is very popular with them in Europe. A little to debate about what is still the best fit. An important argument in favor of Yii turned out that it will be faster. As a result, they decided to think a week to contact me again. This week they naguglit an article about the benefits of Yii and eventually agreed to Yii me as a developer. I had the feeling that somehow suspiciously good, waited offera - CP was higher of Czech-Slovak companies in the Netherlands, plus the standard of living higher, and work in a startup from scratch - it's cool. I decided to accept. Retired from Anzer, an intermediary company took documents, I had to wait again.
  
  Meanwhile, in a telephone interview took place on booking.com position Perl developer. This vacancy is open continuously from them and knowledge of Perl to it necessarily, the overall experience is more important algorithms, optimization under high loads. First calling HR, asks general questions, talks about the company assigns the following interview, which is carried out 2 developer. Ask questions mainly on the understanding of algorithms. This is an interview I was - answered half of the questions at a stretch.
  
  After a week and a half of Dax they called and asked to drive to the office. Well, I thought, some other necessary signatures or something on the documents. But the girl, who was engaged in mine clearance, said that, unfortunately, the customer decided to abandon the project altogether. I was a bit shocked. I was offered $ 500 and took on two days in Amsterdam due to the company as compensation. He said that he thought about it and left. My heart was a sense of relief - I was free from work and could the whole summer to rest. A few days later took $ 500 and decided that my country I have not fate and went to the sea.
  
  A month later, they took me to Front-end developer'om the company close to home, an interesting project with a CP higher than expected, in short, I have worked for almost a year and enjoy life. Then re-awakened the desire to look for happiness in another country.
  
  

  The second approach h5> again successfully blocked the interview in the Booking.
  Under vacancies on stackoverflow found a position of Front-end dev'a in Leaseweb , to which I sent a resume. The first interview was conducted and HR Front-end dev. They asked general questions, past experience, some technical issues. Then send an email with a link to the test in codility. The test consisted of 3 tasks on JS. Tasks are 2 simple and 1 medium difficulty. Accumulated, in my opinion 198/300 and I have appointed another interview, this time with the system architect and technical director of the company. Ask questions to work with the technologies used in the company, was asked whether looked at the source code of their website (no, not looked). A few days later he sent a recruiter «thank you for your time ...», but the interesting thing was at the end of the letter - the reason why I did not accept, was that at the last interview, none of sobesedovavshih never saw my interest, though Technical skills I come. Written in response to "I am surprised and confused ... Why do not you see? I'm asked a lot of questions ».
  
  As a result, HR has appointed another interview - her and the architect of the previous interview. I asked basically it, questions about the move, what problems I think I can face this fact. Then he asked if I had any questions - I asked three things in response, those that can be discussed (for details about the office and work schedule, for example). Just asked what the RFP would like Net - to this issue, I was not really ready, because most reasonable call, HR said that it very much, and that the usual RFP - that's my number, but gross.
  
  The next day reported that they were ready to give me offer. It should be noted that offere a lot of small amenities:
  

  • compensation instead of transportation costs, if you live within 10 km from work (office is located on the western outskirts of Amsterdam)
  • bonuses at the end of the year
  • 1500 Euros on arrival
  • The 13th salary
  • free lunches, fruit, tea, coffee
  • 25 Euro / month for Internet
  • help with registration of all documents and finding accommodation
    

    Preparation and moving h5> Document preparation is simple, the fact that it took me to do in Kiev:
    

    • a certificate of good conduct with the translation and notarization
    • to go to the embassy, ​​bring passport photos for visa
    • to go to the embassy to pick up a passport and visa
    • buy a plane ticket
      Separately, talk about the rent. They offer to fill the form with the desired parameters (apartment or room, in what city, what range of prices, etc.). Here 2 nuances: firstly, they offer rooms from 700 euros / month, 800 apartments - a little expensive, secondly, they offer all the housing is removed under contract for at least 6 months. Since I was not sure what city (or district if in Amsterdam) I would like to live and do not want to if I come back in a month, then this service has decided to give up and began to look for housing in the last month alone.
      
      Search in airbnb - very convenient service, especially the display of all the available options on the same card, you can immediately figure out how to get closer to work. By the way, in search of transport in the country perfectly helps 9292.nl . Trains and buses are sometimes delayed, but rarely with the cancellation of the flight train encountered only 1 time in 4 weeks that I'm here.
      
      I found a room in Utrecht, in the end the trip takes 3 minutes to the bus, 15 minutes by bus to the train / railway station, 17 minutes train and 15 min walk to the office. If you go by bike while to train + train - work = 15 min. Normal adult large can be transported on the train is not in a rush hour (7.30 - 9.00 and 16.30 - 18.00) but requires a separate ticket (6 euro per day). Folding can also be transported in the folded state for free, because it takes up no more than the usual baggage.
      
      A few days after his arrival came employee dealing with documents and dumped in city hall for registration, hospital for x-rays, to the bank to open an account, and immigration service for residence card, which replaces a visa.
      
      The first day was very much new office is very pleased - clean, bright, spacious. Represents a openspeys dock as jobs, give each employee a laptop that you can take with you. The work is based on Scrum, the schedule is not very hard - can come from 8 to 10, to leave after 17.30. And at 18:00 the office, as a rule, is already empty.
      
      The company can meet people from almost every corner of the world.
      
      

      A little about the country itself h5> Nature is wonderful, a great number of parks around Utrecht fields with strips of forest in which hares running and ponds with ducks. Air Getting seemed unusually clean, but a couple of weeks was used, it would be interesting to breathe Now our Kiev.
      House of the low, mostly 3 floors, near each door flowers grow. The streets are clean much can not be called as garbage bags stacked on the sidewalks in front of houses where they take scavengers, plus not all the dogs brought to the park ... Once I even saw a group of boys, celebrating small need in the channel near the main street.
      
      Ссылка on Gdrive with photos.
      
      Prices of basic foods (myso, fish, cheese, bread, cereals) is 2-3 times higher Kiev. In some, such as canned vegetables, milk, juices Kiev almost equal.
      
      Travel is very expensive. You can buy tickets, which act a certain time or on a specific area - it comes out wasteful because all enjoy Chipcard, which pay only for the distance that is traveled. It is worth 7.50, updated in special machines with a credit card or cash at the box office. It works like this: at the entrance / exit to the station you need to attach the card to the device near the turnstile machine and the system will debit the required amount from the account. If you forget to apply the output of the maximum possible amount debited - for bus and subway is 4 euros for the train 20. For example, travel from Utrecht from Amsterdam costs about 6 euros. On trains often run controllers. The buses to control the camera hanging around each door.
      
      Cyclists here expanse - track almost everywhere, and they have priority over the rest of the transport. / Used bike costs 40 euros with a guarantee of 1 month, did not look new. Also, bike paths are designed for mopeds, which are sometimes inconvenienced. Parking for cars is mainly paid from 2 euros / hour, so I think, free parking near the office is another bun. Gasoline costs around 1.6 euros per liter.
      
      People are friendly, if kneaded with someone you meet on the street and look with a high probability you say hello and smile. 95% speak English. I never noticed the rudeness or open expressions of discontent.
      
      Now coming to the end of the trial last month, but they say, for 4 years, none of the foreigners did not leave the company after him. Also, I wonder how many will be the RFP Net, as neither HR'y nor the company that makes the documents could not give an exact answer to this question. Out of trouble it is worth noting that out of the RFP also deducted pension of 1.5%. It is also necessary to have medical insurance, which cost starts from 70 euros / month and this amount is not compensated by the company.
      
      Certainly a lot I did not tell, so I will be happy to answer questions in the comments, or drugs.
      
      Source: habrahabr.ru/post/230599/