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Hi and welcome to the Forum.

I can relate to your story; I found myself in a similar position, although my Dutch was probably a bit better than OK; in that I mean I could attend interviews in Dutch.  My experience was that I didn't have recognised Dutch qualifications, although I had considerable relevant experience.  It was the experience that let me down; almost all the people that interviewed me said they thought I'd get bored very quickly.  I ended up taking a middle management position in the UK and commuting.

Thanks for the reply.

Did you feel that not having Belgian qualifications had any impact on your ability to get interviews or was your experience enough to get you an interview?

That's my main concern, that even when I become fluent that I'll be held back by not having their recognised qualifications.

Many countries are very big in qualifications; if you want a management position, then they expect an appropriate education level to go with it; to the extent that they have enough people applying for jobs who have the qualifications so that they don't need to consider us lesser mortals.  In the end, I went to Uni to get that important degree.

I always look at job hunting in this way; to get a decent job anywhere and because of the way that recruitment works nowadays, you need 4 things:

Relevant qualifications
Relevant experience
Speak the local language
Luck

The more of those you have, the better your chance of getting that decent job.  Now apply that to yourself, you probably have one of them.  You say your spoken Dutch is OK; how about written; could you write an e-mail or a Memo in Dutch?  Belgium is a dual language country, French is also important.

My daughter moved back to Holland a few years ago; she got a job within days, no problem (she ticked all the boxes), within a month, she realised that although she was absolutely fluent in Dutch, her written Dutch was at the level of a 10-year old and it became a source of embarrassment; she decided she needed to go back to school to improve it.  Having done it, her boss was so impressed that he's paid for her to go to Uni; so it can be done, you just need to do a bit of work to get those boxes ticked off; and of course, that bit of luck.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team