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 or 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.
