# Amsterdam Expat guide 101



## DutchyDutch

I'm Dutch, here a guide for those who want to move to Amsterdam. 


* Salary for unskilled work, like waiter, cleaner, receptionist is around 1200-1300 net. It's not a very good salary, but you still can live comfortable especially if your single. If you have a partner and both work full time and take around 2400 euro than it's pretty descent.

* Salary for grad entry level work is around 1700- 2200 net. Pretty good salary.

* You do not to speak Dutch in Amsterdam. Everybody speaks English and it's very multi cultural, especially in the city centre. About 50% of the population in Amsterdam are foreign born or have atleast one parent that is foreign born. 40% Ethnic Dutch and about 10% expats/ exchange students/ EU nationals. The Dutch national football team is a good reflection of the population of Amsterdam

* Rent for a room or a 1 bedroom apartment in the city centre is expensive. Room will cost you about 300-500 euro and a 1 bedroom apartment will cost around 500-900.

* If you live outside the city centre it will be significant cheaper about half. You can also live in cities near Amsterdam, like Almere, Zaandam, Purmerend, Haarlem. By train/ bus it takes about 20 minutes to Amsterdam Central.

* Food. Groceries cost about 300- 400 euro per month, if you shop at Albert Heijn. There are cheaper supermarkets like Aldi, Dirk van den Broek, but most of them re outside the city centre. Eating out at McDonalds cost around 7 euro for a meal. Restaurants, Chinese, Italian cost around 15 euro. Cigarettes pack 5.5 euro. Beer @ the bar 2.5 euro.

* Weather is terrible, but not as bad as England or Norway. We have 4 seasons. It's cold from October to March. Lots of rain in November. Dec/ Jan frost and snow. It gets dark around 6pm. April and May very good weather. Summer usually around 15-25. Usually it's very sunny and warm for one week in Aug and can even get to 30C. Summer usually gets dark around 10-11pm


* Life in general is pretty good. Amsterdam is small, but it's still a lively city. You don't need to travel hours to get someone. Everything is in the city centre; clubs, restaurants, shops, bars, cinema etc. Not much racism, very tolerant and liberal. Like I mentioned everybody speaks english, and many speak german, french or spanish. Public transport is good, but most Dutch people bike to work/ school. 

* Nightlife, good. You can go out everyday. Plenty of bars, clubs, coffeeshops. It's a bit expensive, but you can have a good night with a budget of 50 euro.

* Education. For EU nationals, education is good. It's cheap. about 1500 euro per semester. Lots of english programs and their are a lot of exchane and international students from EU.

* Jobs, for EU nationals best to work in HORECA. Hotel, Restaurant, Cafe (bars/ Clubs. It's not glamourous but a good place to start. Salary about 1300 net based on a 40 hour week. If you speak french, spanish or german, you can work in hotels or use your bilingual skills in customer service. Google multillangual jobs in the Netherlands.


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## tcrocco

Very good post!

Thanks for the tips!


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## Gioppino

I totally disagree, you're giving a misleading, simplistic and optimistic outlook of the job and accommodation market in the Netherlands:



DutchyDutch said:


> * Salary for unskilled work, like waiter, cleaner, receptionist is around 1200-1300 net. It's not a very good salary, but you still can live comfortable especially if your single. If you have a partner and both work full time and take around 2400 euro than it's pretty descent.


Rubbish. I've seen legally entitled EU foreigners working in bars for less than 800 euro cash in hand.


DutchyDutch said:


> * Salary for grad entry level work is around 1700- 2200 net. Pretty good salary.


Rubbish again. I have worked in a international call centre in Maastrich with Dutch graduates and they were earning same as me, about 1280 net.


DutchyDutch said:


> * You do not to speak Dutch in Amsterdam. Everybody speaks English and it's very multi cultural, especially in the city centre. About 50% of the population in Amsterdam are foreign born or have atleast one parent that is foreign born.


True but misleading. Yes you can survive without Dutch but only if your parents send you money from abroad or you're willing to work for 800 Euro a month in bars or hotels. the amount of cash in hand and slave work in Amsterdam is shocking!


DutchyDutch said:


> * Education. For EU nationals, education is good. It's cheap. about 1500 Euro per semester.


Again true but misleading. These rates only apply if you're resident. To be considered resident you have to have a rental contract and register with the Gemeente within 7 days. Most of the foreigners I know don't even know about this and don't even bother registering, so they have to pay more (source: Univ of Maastricht)


DutchyDutch said:


> * Jobs, for EU nationals best to work in HORECA. Hotel, Restaurant, Cafe (bars/ Clubs. It's not glamourous but a good place to start. Salary about 1300 net based on a 40 hour week. If you speak french, spanish or german, you can work in hotels or use your bilingual skills in customer service. Google multillangual jobs in the Netherlands.


Rubbish as above.


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## cschrd2

I think the salary depends a lot on skills and opportunity. Honestly at this moment the lower end of the market is flooded with staff so you'll get minimum wage (about gross 1300€/month) but its difficult to say what you get nett as local governments chip in substantially. Unfortunately iT almost impossible to get social housing so it's either free market or just a room. 
Tuition is cheap for any EU resident (I am using this myself for my daughter(NL passport) in Uk while she used to be Chinese resident until she moved), non EU can rely on a Dutch scholarship. Best is to look at Ib-group.nl
Enjoy life!


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## carrionshine211

Sounds exactly like the Pacific Northwest (Portland, Seattle) United States. Same Weather, rent rates, food prices and everything


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