KFC
Part of the Louisville-based YUM! Brands, this mega fried chicken brand stretches from Kentucky to China. In the Netherlands, there’s a KFC just about anywhere you live, and they stay packed, with among the highest sales per square meter of any fast-food chain in Europe.
Like all fast-food emporiums, people tend not to spend their entire careers there, at least in the stores, and they need kids all the time. We looked up their job portal and they hire kids who speak Dutch and/or English.
McDonald’s
In some of the more international cities such as Amsterdam, McDonald’s hires non-Dutch speakers. And this definitive American fast-food chain always needs new employees. Unlike in the U.S. where this is something of a last resort, a stint working at McDonald’s in the Netherlands is considered a great way to enter the workforce, and wages are reasonable.
You can apply here or in each store.
Picnic
During the pandemic, some companies saw sales go through the roof and that includes Picnic, the Amsterdam-based online supermarket/delivery business. This startup has raised at least 250 million euros and is building a huge automated delivery facility. Picnic’s online business recently matched Dutch supermarket giant Albert Heijn.
This might also be a good place to get in the door because they hire a lot of young expat techies.
PostNL
Several expats told us they worked for the Dutch national mail system making deliveries. And on the PostNL website, it states they’re still hiring and doing digital interviews.
Primark
This ubiquitous Dublin-based fast-fashion chain has stores everywhere and usually big stories that hire lots of sales associates and stock people. We’ve talked with employees, and most of the management is from Ireland or the United Kingdom.
We don’t see any jobs in the Netherlands listed at any of their locations, but that could be a glitch. There are jobs listed for Ireland and the UK.
You can try your luck here at their jobs portal.
The Student Hotel
Like Holland2stay, Amsterdam-based The Student Hotel is built on a business plan of providing housing to the international students who pour into the Netherlands and the rest of Europe from around the world. (Founder Charlie MacGregor is an Irish expat.)
But as with a lot of housing companies and hotels, business has changed in the pandemic.
Still, TSH has jobs (mostly internships) posted on its website. And this could be on your list for next year.
TK Maxx
This is the European brand of the Framingham, Mass.-based TJ Maxx chain of discount department stores. (We don’t get the whole “let’s change one letter” thing either.)
When we plugged in “Eindhoven” on the jobs portal, it showed us jobs in Mesquite, Texas. So that didn’t go as planned. When we talk with people who work there, most are expat students at the international school, or Americans married to Dutch spouses. So just go into your local store and apply.
TK Maxx has stores in almost every major Dutch city including Amsterdam, Groningen, Rotterdam, Den Haag and Eindhoven.
Vapiano
An 20-year-old global chain, Vapiano has nine restaurants across the Netherlands. The Eindhoven location is “our” Vapiano and is always crowded. The system, with different types of food prepared at various stations, is fairly labor-intensive, so they hire a lot of people.
Here’s the job page on their website.
Miscellaneous sources
Randstad: Randstad is a temporary employment firm with a page dedicated to English-only jobs in the Netherlands. Check it out here. These are mostly customer-service, restaurant work at places such as La Place and retail jobs.
Young Capital: Young Capital is a temp employment agency focused on part-time and full-time jobs for students and first-time jobs seekers in the larger cities as well in university towns such as Maastricht, Utrecht and Groningen. A lot of warehouse jobs, bicycle courier work and customer-service jobs. Jobs start at about 10 euros per hour and go up to 20 euros per hour.
Notes
The best place to start looking for summer jobs is often at your university job center. And we had a lot of recommendations we couldn’t confirm hire non-Dutch speakers such as Starbucks.
Many people on expat Facebook communitesa also recommend working for postal delivery, stating it pays better than other summer jobs. DHL and others hire students for internships.
High-end restaurants with international clienteles hire non-Dutch speakers. In 2019, we ate at Brasserie FLO in Maastricht. Our waiter, Modesta, was from Latvia. You might also try big corporations with internal food service operations including Bayer and ASML.
The official office language is English.
Finally, almost every large apparel retailer with locations in major cities will hire English-only students.
I’m sure we left opportunities off the list, so please ping us at: [email protected] if we omitted a company. And all corrections/clarifications are much appreciated.
You can see our archive for all expat jobs here.
Co-CEO of Dispatches Europe. A former military reporter, I'm a serial expat who has lived in France, Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands.
