Career Expo

Today there was a Caree Expo at TU/e main building and Auditorium. More than 100 companies presented. It was amazing. I could compare it with our Skola expo in Kipsala but the scale of the companies is impressive. Such names as Shell, BP, Unilever, AkzoNobel, Toyota, ExxonMobil, Heineken, Siemens, Schering-Plough etc, etc. willing to hire all different kinds of engineers.
When you come from the small country all this seems incredible. You can simply come and talk with the people from all these companies and see what they offer and what they are looking for. That is why i came to the Netherlands. I could only dream about this in Latvia. Of course it does not mean the same as work for that companies but even the thought about it inspires. :)

I got accepted to TU/e. My way was through Riga and Amsterdam airport. My ex-course mate and ex-colleague was seeing out her sister for Eramus in Slovenia. Good sign. Arrived in Amsterdam I was lucky to have a picture with me to get a reduction card. Still I was staying there for half an hour trying to find out my full staying address. The solution was very simple in the end: my laptop with all the information was with me (which is unusual situation in my travels). At the station I met a Dutch girl who was going home after meeting her Portugal boyfriend in Norway (sounds familiar, huh?) and we talked all the way to den Bosch where she lives.
Eindhoven met me with invincible stairs for me with my 45 kg of luggage. There the story with helping out Dutch people starts. Dutch men can be also gentlemen sometimes. And as I heard from my friend later they can be also sometimes romantic.
In fact I had to review my seeing of Dutch people. They are really very different and not always what I heard about them was true or applicable. However I do not know many originally Dutch people good yet.

Why Netherlands?

It started about a year ago when I was checking international companies employing Chemical Engineers. Some big companies were based in the Netherlands. I thought why not to try to go to the Netherlands and not to get to know this country and try to work in one of this companies because the level would be definitely higher than in Latvia. So I had to get to the Netherlands and the university who wanted to accept me for my Erasmus year was TU/e. I was almost sure I am going even before applying. I had a lot of time to prepare, to meet Dutch people and to know some language. First thing I learned will help me a lot in my further life: neuken in de keuken is what every Dutch person does. ;)
So if I would have to answer the question why Netherlands, it would be the good level of Chemical Engineering, cooperative and nice people and studies can be hold in English. Very simple.