Going West

Breakfast and lunch

2008-01-07T19:56:10Z

It has been quiet here for a while. More often than not, lack of blogging coincides with a very busy real life, and this is not an exception. However, having said that, I must say that I had expected the adjustment to living here to be much harder than it is. Having been in the lucky circumstance that I was able to start work almost immediately after coming here, a daily routing was pretty much forced upon me; get up in the morning, have breakfast, get ready for work, leave, come back, have dinner, wind down, sleep, rinse and repeat. However, it is often the subtle differences in a daily routine that make adjusting harder. For example, in the beginning I had difficulty to get compatible breakfast and lunch foods. My breakfast typically consists of a bowl of yoghurt and muesli. Finding an acceptable yoghurt that was not more expensive than a gallon of fuel and that did not have the consistency of kwark(sp?) was hard, but after discovering Trader Joe's, that was easily remedied. Muesli, or even better, Cruesli, is known here as trail food and/or Granola, and can be found, but again, is very expensive. Fortunately, the same store provided a solution for that too. I haven't found a good lunch-routine yet. Going off-campus for lunch is fairly normal here, but just about all lunches involve hot-food and that's not my thing. A simple sandwich (or two) is good enough, but that's hard to find. Bringing my own would be an option, but that just doesn't work (yet). All and all, the adjustment process is going well, and we are keeping it together.

Started work

2007-11-21T17:56:41Z

I was just reminded that I have not posted in a little while. The most important reason for that is I have started work on Nov 7. As with any new job, it takes a while to get back to a normal routine and pick up things again that are not directly related to work. I have been very fortunate at receiving an open and friendly welcome. I have spent some time in the past at my current employer, so I already knew some of the people with who I would be working. Between a Thanksgiving luncheon and a welcome breakfast, the process of re-established those social ties is progressing reasonably well. Benefits and taxes work a lot different here than I am used to, and I am still struggling with that. Although making the right choice is always difficult, not being familiar with terminology that is so obvious to natives that it is explained nowhere (W-6, 403b, HMO, PPO, etc) results in additional uncertainty and delays in making those choices. Combined with a two-weekly pay-cycle (nice) and still getting paid in cheques (not-nice), I would say that I am not entirely done settling in.

Learner's permit

2007-11-06T01:42:39Z

As a foreign driver who establishes residence in the United States, it it my responsibility to obtain a US driver's license within 30 days after arriving in the country. The US does not have a reciprocal agreement with any other countries (except Canada), which means that I will have to go through a full driver's license program here. The facts that I have had a license for 15+ years, never had any accidents and put about 20,000 miles on the clock last year do not mean anything. identical to the questions in the online quizzes of the New York State Driver's Manual and Study Guide. When you go to the DMV, be prepared to wait for a long time. The first line gives you a ticket that entitles you to stand on the second line. The second line checks your forms of ID (passport + visa, social security card, marriage certificate, in my case), takes your photo and gives you a ticket that entitles you to stand on the third line. The third line entitles you to take the test and to take place in the fourth line. The fourth line will give you your results and takes your money ($55). The whole process took close to 2.5 hours, and, according to the DMV-lady, this was a quiet day! Also; people at the DMV are not nice and have no sense of humor. Remember that. Anyhow; I passed the theory exam, got my learner's permit and I am now looking for a place to take the 5-hour (!) classroom instruction.]]>

Social Security Card and Shipping Container Arrived

2007-11-03T13:44:23Z

Yesterday was a big day. The shipping container carrying all our goods arrived and I got my social security card in the mail! Suddenly, the pieces of the puzzle are coming together. so important is sent by regular plain mail. I did not even have to sign for it! Since we were busy, the mailman just left it next to the front door and that is where we found it. Amazing! With the number, I can start work (most likely, this Wednesday), I can go for a driver's permit and I can open bank accounts and/or apply for credit cards. Welcome to life!]]>

Homeland Security (0) vs. Social Security Administration (1)

2007-10-26T23:21:16Z

Hello, World!

We arrived in the United States last Monday, and we are busy settling in. After arriving at JFK airport, we cleared immigration as we would do normally. The main difference between our previous visits and this one, was that it was quicker to get through the initial screening. Unlike the other times, this time we were not going on to collect our luggage directly, but we were directed to a second desk where they validated the visa. The additional time that we spent at immigration was about 10 minutes, but I think we won that time back by not having to wait for our luggage. After my visa has been validated, all the bags were already together and sitting next to the luggage carousel.

]]> When I asked the immigration officer for proof that they requested a social security number on my behalf, I was informed that I needed to go to my local social security office the next day, and that a receipt would be issued on the spot. When we went to the office, I did not even make it past the security guard. I was informed that they would not even look at me until I had been in the country for at least 15 full days!

After that time, the social security administration will assume that no SS# has been requested for me, because they have no way of checking with the immigration service. From that point on, getting the number will take another 2-4 weeks, but at least they'll be able to issue the receipt that I have applied for a number. With that receipt, I'll be able to start work.

Hello, World!

2007-10-24T21:07:50Z

We have arrived in the United States. Our flight got in last Monday at 8.15pm and immigration was effortless. We did not experience any delays while clearing immigration and customs, and the ride to the house went very smoothly. Our internet connectivity was installed today (Wednesday), so we are back in touch with the world again. I will post a more detailed report on our first few days, and especially immigration, in the next few days.

On double nationality

2007-10-11T19:37:44Z

There is a lot of unspecific information doing the rounds at the moment regarding an intended new law that would require children with a double nationality to relinquish one of their nationalities at their 18th birthday. The original news item is a little more subtle that the all the others. It says:

Buitenlandse kinderen die vijf jaar in Nederland wonen en Nederlander willen worden, moeten voortaan, als ze 18 jaar worden, kiezen voor een Nederlands paspoort of voor het paspoort van hun moederland. Dat meldt RTL Nieuws. Minister Hirsch Ballin van Justitie wil niet meer dat deze kinderen de dubbele nationaliteit houden. Hij doet het voorstel morgen in de Ministerraad.

Source: RTL Nieuws]]> die vijf jaar in Nederland wonen en Nederlander willen worden..."; in other words:

Children born as dual nationals will not have to give up one of their citizenships when they turn 18.

The new law apparentely only applies to children who adopt the Dutch nationality; not to those who are born Dutch.

Progress after two days

2007-10-11T19:15:42Z

Two days after our goods were picked up, things are going well. Just about everything that was left behind after the movers left has been sorted in to different piles. The piles are meant for different people, for re-use or for disposal. Unlike the United Sates; in the Netherlands, rented houses need to be returned to the house owners bare; no appliances, floors stripped to the bare concrete, no light fixtures, etc. We were very lucky that a new renter has been found before we left who is willing to take over the responsibility for the laminate in all rooms, for the floor tiles in 2 halls and the kitchen, and for some other things. By not having to remove all that stuff, we gains three of four days and a lot of costs. Hopefully we will be able to get through getting rid of the large stuff tomorrow. Saturday and Sunday are for picking up the remaining large appliances by their new owners, taking down a few ceiling fans and other small things and cleanup of the house. With some luck; Monday will be the last day that we need to pick up things.

Goods shipped; Voerman UTS provides excellent service

2007-10-09T13:00:30Z

The movers picked up our stuff today. As mentioned before, we decided to use Voerman UTS and the guys that they sent us were excellent. At 7.55 sharp, the doorbell rang and a team of three movers arrived. After doing a quick inspection round, they started packing up all our belongings. With only a 15 minute coffee break in the morning and a half hour lunch break a little after noon, a second truck carrying our shipping container arrived at 13.30. While the movers were finishing up the last few things, the truck was packed very well and sealed in front of us. At 15.30, our house was empty and we could start cleanup. Exhausted.

Health Insurance

2007-10-05T20:00:00Z

Finding good, affordable, health insurance can be a serious problem. In the Netherlands, we are used to having mandatory health insurance our entire lives. In the United States, such a thing does not exist; everybody is free to decide whether or not they feel that having a health insurance coverage is worth the cost.

]]> When moving to the United States, we encountered two main problems:

To enroll in health care plans, a social security number is required, and it may take several weeks after you are admitted into the country to get one. Not having insurance during that time may be acceptable to some people, but I personally felt that the risk was too high.
When health insurance is not a job benefit, it is incredibly expensive; to the point that it is no longer affordable.

Since an immigrant is not considered a traveler, a regular traveler's insurance does not help. Fortunately, the are companies that cater to just this eventuality in the expat market. We have found two: OOM verzekeringen, based out of the Netherlands and expatriate insurance services, who are based out of the United Kingdom.

Both companies seem to understand what they are doing, and who they are catering to. We have requested quotes from both and we will compare them to find out exactly what they have to offer, for which prices.

Moving data

2007-10-05T11:25:09Z

In the connected state that we are in most of the time, we tend to gather insane amounts of digital data. When it is time to move, efforts must be made to ensure that this data is not lost. I have three main 'data repositories':

1. The hard-drives of my main home server;
2. An external 500 GB hard drive;
3. A portable 60GB USB drive

In addition, I have data on two laptops, but those laptops do not contain anything irreplaceable.
]]>
Shipping container

Main computer
One laptop
500 GB external hard drive

Checked luggage

Hard drives of main computer

Carry-on luggage

One laptop
Small portable 60 GB USB drive

In addition, I am going to leave behind a DVD with our most important files with a trusted source in the Netherlands. That should limit the risk that anything gets lost during the move sufficiently. I have also briefly thought about encrypting the backup data, but the risk of accidental exposure is minimal: the container gets sealed before it leaves to go on the ship, the hard drives in the checked luggage only contain Linux xfs filesystems and the drive in the Carry-on luggage is NTFS-formatted and uses Windows filesystem encryption.

Looking for IT jobs

2007-10-02T19:42:55Z

One of the hardest things to do is to find a job in a different country. Job hunting is hard enough as it is, but in a market in which you do not have much insight, it is much harder.

Having realized that the whole job application process is much shorter than it is in Europe, I decided that I needed to get a good grasp on what kind of jobs are available in my targeted area. I started putting my feelers out about 8 months (!) before I started looking for a job seriously. I am in information technology, which influenced my choices on how I approached the job market.

]]> I used the following job sites:

monster.com
All purpose job site with a very nice variety of markets. Most jobs that seemed interesting to me were too much entry-level for me though
dice.com
Dice.com is a site where most (if not all) postings are not done by employers directly, but go through recruitment agencies. Nice variety of jobs
careerbuilder.com
Overly complicated sign-up procedure but also a very nice selection of positions.
theladders.com
By far the best site that I found. Wide variety (more than just IT) high-quality job postings, nice features and good interface. Theladders.com only targets $100k+ jobs. One drawback is that it charges a fee for any and for all of its contents. The common wisdom "you get what you pay for" definitely applies though. The fee is worth the price. One of the services that they provide (which is included in the subscription fee) is a resume review. Of course, all reviews will pinpoint more-or-less the same problems and all of the reviewers are more than willing to make your resume the best on the market (for a price).

On each of these sites, I set up email notifications and I got new jobs delivered to my mailbox every day. Although it is quite a lot of work to religiously read them all, it is the only way to get a good feel for the job market. Not only are the job titles that are in use different, but the way that qualifications are phrased and the salaries that are offered also greatly differ from my previous experiences. If you want to write a resume that gets the job done, you need to be aware of these things.

After looking around for 8 months and after having theladders.com do a few reviews of my resume, I started sending in my resume to employers and I was getting phone calls almost immediately (keep in mind the tips I gave in an earlier post).

The forth resume that I sent out landed me the job that I was looking for. Oh; and I did not find the position through any of the above mentioned sites. This opportunity came through my personal network :)

Writing a resume

2007-09-30T13:30:00Z

One of the most important success factors in an international relocation is the ability to find a job in your new home country. It does not need much clarification that the job market in the USA is significantly different than the job market that we are used to in the Netherlands. What came as a little bit of a surprise to me was, that the job finding process is also not quite comparable to what I was used to.

]]>
When I realized this, I also found out how important a good resume is. Resume writing is something that we are not used to in the Netherlands. A Dutch CV typically contains a lot of information and provides many details about your personal and professional history. CV's of 5 pages or more are nothing out of the ordinary.

In the USA, initial screening is done via an abbreviated CV, known as a resume. Head over to your search engine of choice, and look for terms like 'resume writing', 'resume sample', or any search term that might get you some good results. You will quickly get a feel for what US-employers are looking for.

A good resume will capture the essence of who you are, and what your strengths are, in the first half of the first page. The rest of the at most 2-page document, should concisely list your professional experience and your education, and lend credibility to your personal profile and claimed expertise. Do not include details, such as gender, date of birth, expected salary, city and town of birth, marital status, children, etc. If you already are approved for a work visa, do include that information clearly and from very early on.

Another thing that worked well for me is not to list my NL address and phone number on the resumes that I sent out. Instead I used my address in the USA with the note "currently residing in the Netherlands".

Sign up for a US-based local phone number via Skype, Yahoo!, Callcentric, or any other voice-over-IP (VoIP) provider. For a price of somewhere between $2.50 and $10 per month, you can list a very easy (and cheap) US-domestic phone number, rather than a complicated international one. With most of the VoIP-providers, you will be able to take calls to that phone number on your PC, forward your new phone number to a Dutch phone number, or send it to a voice mail service that you can check-out remotely.

As always when you write something, make sure that you keep your audience in mind. Resumes are generally not initially reviewed by hiring managers who know what they are talking about, but by human resources departments that are looking for certain keywords. Make sure that those keywords are present on your resume, or you will never be found, no matter how good your qualifications are.

Also keep in mind that the USA typically uses a different paper format than we do in the Netherlands; set your text editor to use Letter format paper, rather than A4. It is just a small detail that probably will not even be noticed consciously, but I am convinced that at a subconscious level, it does make a difference.

Make sure that you do not have too much blank space on pages. In the Netherlands, using whitespace is an acceptable way to make a page flow better, but many US-based employers will view it as page filler that is used to masquerade that you do not have enough relevant experience. Use a decent font (I prefer Century Schoolbook over Arial or Times), in a proper size (10.5pt or 11pt) and use paper margins of about 1,5cm on all sides. Try to shy away from using lots of bullet lists; use flowing sentences instead.

When you do send out a resume to a prospective employer, keep track of the date on which you submitted it, and also make sure that you know which version you sent out. Follow up if you have not heard for a week or so.

One last very important and crucial element is that your resume should absolutely and positively not contain any faulty spelling and/or bad grammar! Nothing will get you disqualified faster than the inability to write proper US-English.

Status update

2007-09-29T19:41:21Z

As our moving date is getting closer by the hour, our primary objective is to reduce the amount of stuff that we are taking. Even the smallest things quickly add up in volume, and it is always a good thing to keep that in mind. In the end, the bill is going to be settled exclusively on the volume that is being shipped. I have been thinking about a few things that I will be posting about when time permits. Topics that are already in the pipeline are:]]>

Building a credit ratio

Travel with children

Keeping in touch

Finding a job

Health Insurance

Driver's license

The importance of planning ahead

If you are reading this blog, and you are experiencing other problems and/or have other thoughts, please let me know!

Selecting a moving company

2007-09-27T13:20:16Z

When picking an international mover, the first decision that must be made is if the moving company is going to pack everything for you, or if you are going to pack everything up yourself. Since we had moved only just over a year ago, and packing was one of the most stressful things that we did in a long time, we decided that (if the price was acceptable) we would be using a full-service mover this time. It is definitely more expensive to go this route, but the movers also take care of all the paper work that is required for customs (bills of lading, several forms, etc). We decided that the additional convenience would be worth the money.

]]> So; how did we go about finding a mover? After Googling around for a bit, we found a site called www.internationaalverhuisadvies.nl. The site is not much more than a mediator; they forward some details with respect to the planned move to a number of movers. Our request was forwarded to four companies: Kuiper Verhuizingen, Euromovers Dijkshoorn, Voerman UTS, and Crown Relocations.

The last one (Crown) disqualified itself: they never got back to us. Voerman UTS and Euromovers contacted us professionally within two days and Kuiper followed suit a day after that. After asking for rough estimates (based on 15m³ of volume), Voerman UTS and Euromovers made it to our shortlist. Both companies were asked to send an inspector to our home to assess the volume and the amount of work that was involved.

The first to be at the house was Voerman UTS. Their "relocation consultant" was perfectly on time, knew what he was talking about, and he was able to anticipate all of our question. He left a very professional, and well-organized impression behind. The inspector from Euromovers was late, did not have an answer to most of our question, and clearly indicated that they were not doing many relocations to the United States.

After we received the quotes of both companies, Voerman UTS was cheaper (by far) than Euromovers, so that settled the problem. We booked the move with Voerman UTS and they immediately confirmed in writing, and they included a copy of all the necessary forms, including a detailed set of instructions how to fill out most of them.

At this point, we are confident that UTS will live up to our expectations. More to follow when they have been here.