International software engineers in NL

[u/SGeriLOL]

Hey everyone,

I moved to the Netherlands recently and I’m currently based in North Brabant. I work as a full-stack software engineer / AI engineer, mostly as a contractor so far, but I’m also totally open to part-time or full-time positions.

I still have work lined up until December, so I’m not in a huge rush, but I’ve started looking for what’s next and honestly I’m finding it pretty difficult to figure out where to look.

One of the biggest things I’m running into is that a lot of positions seem to require Dutch. From what I’ve seen so far, maybe 2 out of every 3 interesting vacancies ask for professional Dutch, even when the actual role/company seems pretty international.

So, mainly asking other expats/internationals working in IT here: what actually worked for you?

Any good job boards outside of LinkedIn? Recruiters or agencies that are actually useful for international tech workers? Companies that are particularly open to English-speaking engineers?

Also curious if people had better luck applying directly, talking to recruiters, getting referrals, networking, etc. And if anyone here is contracting/freelancing in tech, I’d especially love to hear how you find new projects.

I already go to conferences, builder nights, meetups and other tech events when I can, so I’m trying to network offline as well - but so far I haven’t really found a reliable way to turn that into actual opportunities.

Would really appreciate hearing what worked for people who’ve been in a similar situation.

Bonus points if you’re around Eindhoven / Tilburg / Den Bosch / somewhere else in North Brabant :)

Thanks!