I cannot for the life of mine find a job in Ireland and I may get a job offer in Belgium. I cannot find any information on Belgium which doesn't read AI generated. Is it a real country? Pls halp.
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I cannot for the life of mine find a job in Ireland and I may get a job offer in Belgium. I cannot find any information on Belgium which doesn't read AI generated. Is it a real country? Pls halp.
How plausible is it I'll get a solo mini apartment as a foreigner without French or Dutch or German?
How does the healthcare work? I don't understand the articles.
Could I be openly GNC in the middle of big cities such as Brussel?
How queer friendly is everyday life?
How accessible is veganism?
Will we be friends?
Is Belgium not too anti commie?
i’m sorry i copy-pasted chatgpt trying to be funny
i live in amsterdam, i’ve only been in belgium as a tourist so i don’t know most of these things either, but i can help looking things up in dutch if it helps.
from what i’ve read it seems that the housing market is better there than it is here, but that doesn’t say much unfortunately.
from what i understand you register for social security and then join a ziekenfonds/mutuelle/health insurance fund, which partially covers your medical expenses. for example, the vlaamse sociale bescherming costs 31 or 62 euros per year. it’s also possible to sign up for private insurance which covers the remainder. then there’s also a limit (maximumfactuur) which is income-dependent, but above that limit everything should be fully covered.
from what i know belgium and especially most big cities rank among the most lgbtq-friendly places. but if the situation is anything comparable to the netherlands, there are growing reactionary transphobic movements.
i can’t really say anything about everyday life in belgium as a queer person, afaik most people are respectful and queerphobia isn’t seen as an acceptable position, but gnc and non-binary identities are probably not widely understood.
from what i can find dutch supermarkets operating in belgium (like albert heijn) have the largest assortment of vegan products, and veganism seems to be growing. as for clothing and stuff i’m not sure.
of course , but i don’t live in belgium :(
they seem to be doing better than us at least, but i don’t know much about the general public attitude or any state repression.
sorry for having to prefix pretty much all of my answers with an afaik, but i hope it helps at least somewhat!!!
Thank you! I hope the job offer gets back to me with positive news. >/////<
happy to help!! lmk if you need any help translating or looking up stuff in dutch
Hey, lived in Belgium all my live so I'll give it a try.
As far as everybody I know, apart from maybe gen X and older, are pretty good with the English language, when in Flanders i'd expect people to be more than able to help you. I'm renting myself, but I have to say I'm lucky my landlords haven't raised my rent in the years I've been living in my current appartement. When living in a city, a studio goes for around 450 - 600 euros a month (might even be more depending on location). As for the housing market, I work fulltime but let's say I won't be buying a house anytime soon. Still better than the Netherlands tho!
You'll have to check in with your employer about health insurance. They should guide you through that process. For nationals part of the bill gets covered by the state, the other part is privatized.
3+4. I'm a cis male, so my experience isn't all that helpfull. Depends on which part of which place. Most of my social circles are pretty left leaning (not enough tho), so my view is even more skewed now I think about it. Radical acceptance is a standard in the local punk scene. Won rights however are never secured, and reactionary movements are on the rise. Hell, the fascists are set to win the votes here with about 25% this year. That said, our ML party (PVDA - PTB) is also on the rise (getting around 12%).
In cities, quite a lot. I sometimes go out eating with a friend who is vegan, he isn't complaining about his options here. There are also vegan products available in supermarkets as well as specialized stores and restaurants / coffeebars. Shopping for food isn't all that cheap in my expierence.
Depends on your choice of football club
That's Europe for you
I hope I get the job. I'm scared my spirit will get crushed when I don't. .__.
What kind of job have you applied for?
Anything with English. I specialize in software testing, but I applied to anything.
I'd imagine Brussels has the most opportunities in that field, being 'the capital of Europe' and all. I'm not too familiar with that city myself, living in a different province.
Best of luck to you. Hope you get the job, there's never enough comrades here.
I wouldn't go to any smaller city because I know how queerphobia increases the smaller the city, but Brussels doesn't respond. I'm waiting on the only job offer which responded, but with how slowly it's going, I worry it won't work out. I am not the most qualified candidate. They said they could expand my qualifications, but it entirely depends on whether the client agrees (they outsource), and I worry they're silent because the answer is no. And even if I proceed, there will be more interviews which I may bomb. I just want the job. FML. :((((
Why do you feel like you've bombed your interview?
I didn't say so, I just said I may. I have experience of interviews asking questions unrelated to the actual work which I assume is done to sabotage the candidate.
Eh, I wouldn't look too much into it. To my great shame, I've been on that side of the table before I switched to my current job. Questions like that were pretty common. Either to ease a candidat a bit, or get an idea of who a candidate is, what they like, ...
I get no job offers at all apart from that. I get maybe a job offer once a year. I am happy for you if you have highly sought after skills, but I am a filthy immigrant and no one wants me unless they wish to underpay someone and treat them like shit, then one company may wish once a year, but that's that. I have experience with such questions from interviews where it clearly looked like they didn't want to interview me at all.