Explore every episode of the podcast Resettl - Career and Life in The Netherlands

You understand Dutch, but the moment you have to speak, you freeze. This one is for you.

Mirjam and Corine sit down with Jacky van Der Starre, founder of Speak Professional Dutch and Taalstar and creator of the Spreekwafel app & Spreekwafel Circle eco-system , for a warm, practical conversation about the gap between knowing Dutch and daring to use it.

Her philosophy is refreshingly simple: speak first, perfect later. Confidence does not come before speaking, it comes from it.

We get into what even a few sentences of Dutch actually open up in your career, why Dutch colleagues switch to English on you and how to gently take the floor back, and Jacky sets a live challenge you can try yourself (see further down)

Find Jacky and her work at Speak Professional Dutch:

Download the 'Spreekwafel' app

More info on the Spreekwafel Circle community

The Dutch sentence for you to practice:

"Ik begrijp je punt, maar ik denk dat we het ook van een andere kant kunnen bekijken."

(I understand your point, but I think we could also look at it from a different perspective.)

Or, the short version if that feels more comfortable:

"Hoe bedoel je?" (What do you mean?)

Resettl:

Building a life and career in the Netherlands? Here's where to go next:

1. 🎓 Join our free webinar, where we unpack the Dutch job market live and answer your questions. Save your spot: https://resettl.nl/webinar/
2. 🚀 Want to go deeper? Dutch Workplace Decoded is our online group program where we work on all of this together. A new group starts every two months, and the waiting list hears everything first: https://resettl.activehosted.com/f/49

Questions or a topic you'd like us to cover? Find us on LinkedIn: Mirjam de Bakker (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirjamdebakker/) and Corine van Dijk-den Ouden (https://www.linkedin.com/in/corinevandijk-denouden/). We're happy to connect!

Two coaches, one shared plot: we both built careers abroad, moved back to the Netherlands, and found that home no longer fit the people we had become. So we built Resettl, career partners for International professionals. Press play for the short version, then start with episode one for the whole story.

Two coaches, one shared plot. After years of building careers abroad, from Karachi and Singapore to Geneva and the US, we both moved back to the Netherlands and found that home no longer fit the people we had become.

In this first co-hosted episode we tell how a networking walk we were not supposed to keep talking on turned into Resettl, why a "fragmented" international CV is a treasure rather than a gap, and what our two lenses, HR and recruitment on one side, marketing and positive psychology on the other, let us spot that a single coach would miss.

If your years abroad feel like something you keep having to explain away, start here.

00:00 Coming home was its own move

00:59 Meet Mirjam and Corine

04:54 Why the two of us work

06:48 Two lenses: HR and marketing

08:00 The afternoon Resettl began

11:04 From frustration to action

13:58 Your years abroad are your superpower

Building a life and career in the Netherlands? Here's where to go next:

1. 🎓 Join our free webinar, where we unpack the Dutch job market live and answer your questions. Save your spot: ⁠⁠⁠https://resettl.nl/webinar/ ⁠⁠⁠

2. Questions or a topic you'd like us to cover? Find us on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠Mirjam de Bakker ⁠⁠⁠and ⁠⁠⁠Corine van Dijk-den Ouden⁠⁠⁠. We're happy to connect!

You're not doing anything wrong. You're just doing more of the wrong thing - and in the Dutch job market, that gets exhausting.

In this episode Mirjam walks through three patterns that quietly work against internationals job hunting in the Netherlands, and the small, slightly uncomfortable shifts that actually move things. Fewer applications, aimed better. One real conversation instead of ten cold clicks. And your international story told as a strength, not smoothed away.

Chapters:

00:00 Your experience is the superpower

00:32 Who this show is for

01:41 Three "mistakes" (really patterns)

02:45 Mistake 1: numbers vs targeting

05:20 Mistake 2: waiting to network

07:00 Front door vs side door (via-via)

09:13 Networking in real life

10:22 Mistake 3: adapting too much

12:15 What to do this week

13:24 Who it's for + free webinar

14:56 A small ask before you go

In this episode:

- Why the numbers game loses to the targeting game

- Why the "side door" of networking opens more often here than the front door, and how to do it without the cringe.

- Why blending in is the opposite of what makes you hireable. Your difference is the point.

Resettl is Mirjam and Corine — career partners for internationals building a life and career in the Netherlands, and for Dutch repats coming home. We've stood in your shoes.

If this resonated, follow the show — we make it for you.

Building a life and career in the Netherlands? Here's where to go next:

1. 🎓 Join our free webinar, where we unpack the Dutch job market live and answer your questions. Save your spot: ⁠⁠https://resettl.nl/webinar/ ⁠⁠

2. Questions or a topic you'd like us to cover? Find us on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠Mirjam de Bakker ⁠⁠and ⁠⁠Corine van Dijk-den Ouden⁠⁠. We're happy to connect!

In this episode: It's 11pm and the inbox is still silent. Around application forty, you start to wonder if it's you. It isn't.....

Building a life and career in the Netherlands? Here's where to go next:

1. 🎓 Join our free webinar, where we unpack the Dutch job market live and answer your questions. Save your spot: ⁠https://resettl.nl/webinar/ ⁠

2. 🚀 Want to go deeper? Dutch Workplace Decoded is our online group program where we work on all of this together. A new group starts every two months, and the waiting list hears everything first: ⁠waiting list⁠

Questions or a topic you'd like us to cover? Find us on LinkedIn: ⁠Mirjam de Bakker ⁠and ⁠Corine van Dijk-den Ouden⁠. We're happy to connect!

🎯 In this episode: just a short introduction on what this podcast is about

Building a life and career in the Netherlands? Here's where to go next:

1. 🎓 Join our free webinar, where we unpack the Dutch job market live and answer your questions. Save your spot: https://resettl.nl/webinar/

2. 🚀 Want to go deeper? Dutch Workplace Decoded is our online group program where we work on all of this together. A new group starts every two months, and the waiting list hears everything first: waiting list

Questions or a topic you'd like us to cover? Find us on LinkedIn: Mirjam de Bakker and Corine van Dijk-den Ouden. We're happy to connect!