About Make it in the North
Our mission is to connect English-speaking jobseekers with international-friendly companies in the Northern Netherlands.
We're here for talent in Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe: international students, (highly skilled) migrants, spouses, permitholders, but also Dutchies looking for an international work place are welcome on our platform and at our career events.
- Find international-friendly jobs and companies in the North
- Get practical tips on (net)working in Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe
- Join physical and online networking events and workshops
Have a look at some of our recent activities
Project roadmap 2024-2026
Make it in the North is currently funded for 3-year periods by local government, universities and business associations (see 'Project partners' below). The activities of our project are determined by our partners, and by the needs of internationals and companies in the North. The project was first launched in 2018.
Fundamental activities
- The upkeep of our website, a high-quality career platform with relevant, up to date English information about international-friendly jobs, companies, industry and job market developments, career support, and testimonials
- Organizing events: informative events for jobseekers and companies, networking events, and career events (often together with more local partners). We also offer 1-on-1 Job Hunt Advice.
We are always on the look-out to make Dutch-language career events and services more accessible to internationals. For example: by translating relevant promo materials and event information, having a stand at the event for English-language support, placing Make it in the North flags on the stands of international-friendly companies, and organising English-language presentations about looking for work or starting a startup as an international in the North.
Want us at your event? Contact us, please!
Some of our ambitions for 2024-2026
We have so many plans! And we want to have them all realized yesterday! But since we're a small team of less than 4FTE, running a full project already, we'll have to take it one step at a time. We still want to give you insight into what we're working on
- Launch a Jobseeker Dashboard with a personalized Career Roadmap so that it's super easy for jobseekers to understand what steps to take and what information they need to access the Northern Dutch jobmarket, and to keep an overview of their active job applications through our platform
- Make international-friendly volunteering opportunities more visible: through local volunteering organisations, events and festivals
- Set up a Sector Ambassador program: a network of local professionals who have a strong network in their respective sector, and who are open to doing a coffee with a medior-senior international to warmly connect them to their Northern Dutch network.
- Set up a Career program: a multi-week program for international jobseekers with weekly meetings to guide them through every step of prepping their professional portfolios, looking for work, creating accountability groups, and organizing a networking event to close it off
- Set up an Onboarding program: a multi-month program for a new international employee together with their Dutch employer and the existing Dutch employees that includes intercultural communication training (for the whole company), implementing best onboarding practices, Dutch language training, and regular check-ins for both the new international employee and the company to smooth out any onboarding hiccups
- Improve our target group-specific support: custom pages for and about permitholders plus toolkits for the coordinators of the 'meedoenbalies' (participation desks) at asylumseeker centres. Additional research and support for these target groups: international spouses; PhDs and PostDocs; labor migrants
Project partners
Make it in the North was created by a big group of organisations in the Northern Netherlands (business associations, universities, city governments, and other).
All these organisations wish to connect internationals and internationally-minded Dutchies with local companies. We are super proud of our region and of its increasing internationalization, and we want to make this place welcoming for everyone.
We're websites twinsies and content partners with the Frysian talent platform WRK.frl/. Frysian companies can login to both websites using the same account!
