Netherlands: Wageningen to other cities

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Hi all I am sorry to have a non-swiss question, but a dutch one.

The reason I post here is that

- I don't know any body/forum for english speakers in the Netherlands

- I guess that some of you in this forum are Dutch or have Dutch experience.

My situation is following:

- My spouse will work for the University of Wageningen for at least 4 years. Wageningen is a Food Valley where there are alot of Food Tech institutes/companies

- I work in IT, and best IT jobs (professionalism, salary) are in Eindhoven (Philips), Amsterdam and probably biggest cities in the Netherlands (I don't know much yet).

Therefore, we need to find a house in between Wageningen and a IT city. I post here the distance from University of Wageningen to other big cities, and the time needed to travel there by car.

• Arnhem, Gelderland, 19.8km, 28mins

• Nijmejen, Gelderland, 30.9km, 28mins

• Utrecht, Utrecht, 45.3km, 46mins

• Amsterdam, Noord-Holland (North-Holland) 88.6km, 1hour11mins

• Eindhoven, North Brabant, 80.4km, 56mins

• Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, 96.9km, 1hou9mins

The problem is that

1. I don't know which cities are best for programmers ?

2. What are big IT companies in the Netherlands, other than Philips ?

3. Is travelling by public means (train/bus) for 3 hours per day in the Netherlands feasible ? (Currently in Switzerland I spent 3-3.5 days on these public means).

Other answers like finding a house or finding some websites for job, I can handle myself, by Google.nl or Google.com Thanks for your time

2
Oops, sorry

Text format in this vBulletin code is bad, do I miss some option to format it somewhere ?

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Er zijn geen Nederlandse reiseadviseur analysten beschikbare op het moment. Geileive te wachten ein ogenblik.

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Yes, line breaks. Paragraphs. Noone will read your post because they'll get hypnotised about halfway trough.

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Bedankt!

6
I don't know about the rest but since you mentioned your familiarity with job search engines, surely you'll be able to notice on which cities the jobs are clustered?

7
Hello

1. Major IT-related companies:

These are what I found so far, on Wikipedia, google

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASML_Holding: world’s primary supplier of lithography systems for the semiconductor industry, Veldhoven (southeast of Eindhoven)

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getronics: IT, Amsterdam

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPN: Dutch fixed-line and mobile telecommunications company, The Hague (1h12mins from Wageningen)

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LogicaCMG: UK-based global IT and management consultancy, unknown location

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NXP_Semiconductors: Eindhoven,

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCE , prining, Venlo, 56mins

- Philips, around 1 hour by car from Wageningen

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telfort

2. Location of big IT companies:

It really depends on the search engine, job advertisement engine we have. On www.monsterboard.nl , jobs are nearly everywhere in the Netherlands, some locations are just 20 mins away from the work location of my spouse.

Here are the biggest clusters, ranked by the number of jobs available on monsterboard.nl

- Noord-brabant: 1000

- Noord-Holland: 1000

- Zuid-Holland: 1000

- Utrecht: 1000

- Gelderland: 539

- Limburg: 280

- Overijssel: 239

- Flevoland: 220

- Groningen: 151

- Drenthe: 98

- Friesland: 89

- Zeeland: 52

So, an appartment in Utrecht might be the best location for two of us.

8
Sorry for the text formatting, line breaks don't apply.

Still, is there anyone out there who know Dutch transport system ? A dutch guy told me that from Ede Wageningen to Eindhoven, it takes 90 mins by train, more than one our by car (due to traffic jams), although Google Map tells me that it is 80km which can be reached in 55mins

http://maps.google.com/

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The Dutch road system is a perpetual construction site and should be avoided when possible. By train ( NS website ) the trip Ede-Wageningnen to Eindhoven takes indeed 1.5hrs. A good site that covers all public transport in NL is http://www.9292ov.nl/ (in Dutch only)

As for English-language forums in the Netherlands, the only one I could find when I used to live there was Expatica , but it's not all that good, nowhere near as good as EF.

While Philips HQ is in Eindhoven, there is also a large Philips division (semiconductors) in Nijmegen, which is only 30min away from Wageningen by direct train. Maybe something to consider. Don't forget to look at some of the chemical/pharma places in that part of the country (eg. Akzo Nobel, Organon)

Finding a house in the Netherlands is not easy. One very small country + a lot of people = a lot of waiting.

Veel succes!

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Have a look at

http://www.jobserve.com

and put "netherlands" into the location.

I currently see this:

867 jobs found for the following criteria:

Location : netherlands

Also see this:

Formatting text in vBulletin

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Make the distance as short as possible. Driving in the Netherlands in your proposed areas of living is nothing short of disaster. Traffic jams last for hours and hours, twice a day.

Trains are regularly so full, people are left behind on platforms. So find something close, best advice I can give.

For homes check www.funda.nl

For IT jobs, check Cap Gemini, it is one of the big ones; they used to be in Utrecht which is already a bit far

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I am Dutch and can confirm that commuting in Holland is a nightmare, you can forget about driving to work, it's a frustrating and lengthy procedure. Holland (I believe) is the 3rd most densely populated country on the planet after Bangladesh and South Korea. Whatever job you find, try to move as close as possible, or find some place that has a direct train connection to the place where you work. There are a lot of IT firms in the new Amsterdam business district, plus I believe Cisco has their European headquarters there too.

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Dear Dutch-related people

Your answers are great.

- Netherlands is the number 4 of most densed "big" countries, after Bangladesh, Taiwan and South Korea

- Given this density and a perpetual construction site on Dutch road system. Now I understand why people mostly use bike for short distance and train for long distance.

- For home: http://www.pararius.com/english/clie...?lvl1=1&lvl2=1 can help me with appartments of less than 900Euro easily, while www.funda.nl often gives me more expensive flats

- www.Expatica.com doens't use vBulletin, and both quality and quantity of information there is much less than our English Forum, again thanks to our moderators.

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Dear English forum

- We would want to spend <= 1000 Euro for our apartment.

- Both of use don't want to spend more than 120 mintes per day for commuting.

1. If I work in Utrecht !!!

Then, can I

- live somewhere 5km near Ede Wageningen Train Station, ride a bike to Ede Wageningen, then take a train of 20-30 mins, and ride another bike from Utrecht Transtation to my office (in probably less than 20 mins)

or

- live somewhere near Arnhem (much less expensive apartments than Ede Wageningen), take a train of 30-40 mins from Arnhem to Utrecht, and ride a <20mins of bike ?

2. If I work in Eindhoven !!!

What should be best location of our appartment ?

15
Dalton,

Depending on what you do in IT, you may be able to find a good job closer to your wife's work location and avoid some of the commute - even by train. I'd suggest spending time on finding a job first, and try what's close by in Arnhem.

Also, remember it rains a lot in NL - you probably don't want to spend too much time on the bike in that type of weather - as previously stated look for really direct, good connections.

Last I knew Cisco did have their Euro HQ in A'dam - but I think that's way too far for you to travel and unles you're in European level management in the technology sector - not worth the trouble. If you're in the IT department, I would think you can find something closer to Arnhem etc...

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There are many big companies in Holland, dutch and foreigner, and at the moment there are lots of IT jobs around even for foreigners. It seems at the moment most dutch banks (ING, Postbank, ABN Amro, Rabobank, Fortis) are contracting big time. Someone told me Shell will be soon looking for lots of IT personel as well.

A few years ago I would say your future was bleak living here and not speaking dutch but now things are picking up again.

Have you searched for jobs at www.monsterboard.nl ? Although this is a OK site, most of my friends found jobs through www.jobserve.com even tho the site is not dutch there are lots of dutch jobs in there for IT people.

Commuting can be a problem as you're basically not near the big cities and I think your best bet is Utrecht so you can easily commute by public transport. Someone already said, but driving to work can be a real nightmare which will tip you over the edge (maybe!)

I'm quite tired now but I could go on and on if I wasn't nearly falling asleep. If you need more info, just ask!

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Dear Forum

Your info is really narrowing my job/house search. Thanks

From jobserv.com, I find that all serious IT jobs are in Amsterdam and Eindhoven, so I would choose an appartment in Utrecht, and travel to Utrecht/Amsterdam/Rotterdam. My wife will commute longer than me but her PhD timetable is much more flexible than mine.

The picture is more and more clear now.

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Thanks for the feedback, and good luck!

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Thankyou

Now I am reading on Dutch Taxing system, it seems that it is not simple:

" The Dutch tax system, especially for an expat, is anything but simple. It is therefore strongly advised that you speak with a financial adviser or accountant "

http://www.expatica.com/actual/artic...2&story_id=785

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Dalton, if you need additional information with regard to the Netherlands, don't hesitate to ask (I'm Dutch, Swiss wife, just moved from Amsterdam to Switzerland).