My personal journey – through the years
Forty years ago, at the age of 18, I boarded a plane to Houston with only a suitcase filled with clothes and Dutch licorice. My dream to go to the US as an exchange student came true. I felt brave and adventurous and yet at the same time it was pretty scary to start at a new school with a new family on the other side of the Atlantic.
This was the beginning of countless trips to the U.S. as a student, expat and tourist:
- In Honolulu, I studied English and Marketing and lived in a student dorm in Waikiki Beach.
- In Colorado, I spent a summer with my second host family (since Hurricane Andrew in Houston had other plans for me).
- 2000 was the year of Boeing. My husband was deployed to the Boeing factory in Seattle as a KLM representative, and our son and I accompanied him as an expat family.
- This was followed by countless visits to the US, just as a tourist or to visit my adoptive family in Seattle, a friend in Las Vegas and my former manager at Intel in Portland.
At Intel, my story really begins, and that brings me back to my passion: Helping Expats get settled in the Netherlands.
The Admin job at Intel, in which I was able to focus mainly on support, was by far my most fun and challenging job ever. It also has given me the most satisfaction.
What I missed most in my jobs after Intel had been essential within Intel NL: I was an “expat in my own country”. Surrounded by expats from all parts of the world, I was the only one from the Netherlands in the newly established Distribution Center.
Now that I am at a turning point in my career, I look back with a sense of happiness on where it all started for me back then: (a job in) an international, English-speaking work environment with “personal growth” as a core value. It was a working environment in which I could flourish with the combination of personal freedom and the independence and responsibility associated with my Admin position. And – last but not least – it was a position in which I had the opportunity to connect with colleagues in the Netherlands and abroad.
How wonderful for any expat (by themself or with their partner/family) to be as brave and adventurous to get in a car or an airplane. Their suitcases are filled with clothes, personal treasures and reminders from home. Their journey forward to live and work here in the Netherlands.
