Jobseeker’s Diary

Moving to The Netherlands was a culture shock in itself. However, successfully searching for a job here was an even bigger culture shock. For some time I did not even have to try. Jobs seemed to fall into my lap. I had not even been searching for a week when I was offered a job at Lush Cosmetics in November of last year. Once that contract ended, I was swiftly hired at a call centre in Rotterdam. From my perspective, my interview and trial shift skills were enough to get me a job.

I decided to leave the call centre job and search for something better. One month had passed and I still had no luck, much to my surprise. Then finally one employer responded. The excitement and relief was uncontainable. I was invited for a trial shift as a Barista. Having been a barista for 4 years previously in London, I felt more than qualified for the role. However, from the moment I walked through the door I felt weirdly intimidated. My gut told me to just go home but I refused. Do not get me wrong, they were very nice people, but it was not hard to see that they had very different expectations. Expectations that I was not sure I could see myself meeting. Being thrown in the deep end is one thing, but this felt like being thrown into a deep end made from custard instead of water. I felt inadequate.

What you have to understand is every establishment works differently. I like to take my time to adapt. I had never worked in a Dutch restaurant or cafe before, and already I could see differences to working in London. All I needed was a run down of the service system in place. This meant knowing each and every kink within the environment, quite frankly the basic information. Yet, the information I was given was barely minimal. It was not as if I needed a 'how to' book. I simply wanted a little background, so that I could feel comfortable and get on with things. Instead I was playing a guessing game that resulted in my being in a constant panic mode, unsure and just plain confused. Within 30 minutes I had lost all hope. All positivity had left my body.

All in all, it was an uncomfortable experience. Though it did give me a reality check. After all, nothing is easy and to think I could get by on being able to sell myself was too naive. Adapting to this culture was, and still is, a lot harder than I previously thought.

If you are ever in a similar position do not do what I did. Pushing the boundaries was indeed a good idea, since it became an experience that I can share with you. Still, it is important to listen to your gut. Had I listened to mine, I probably would have asked more questions or simply called it a day before embarrassing myself. You do not have to accept every single interview. The way I see it, there is one of two options to take; attend an interview only to leave feeling worse about yourself and thoroughly confused, or politely decline in the hopes that something better will come along. To this day I wish I had gone for the second option.

Lucine Bassa