I live in Delft, the netherlands. five years ago i finished my PhD and was looking forward to do a postdoc and to continue in academia. i couldn’t find any openings in Brisbane, so i thought I’ll look interstate. i also found nothing. then i thought, if I’m gonna get on a plane to fly to sydney/melbourne, i might as well look further abroad.

i came across this job listing at TU Delft on linkedin after searching for “biomedical engineering postdoc” under “worldwide”. i didn’t really exclude any locations except for the US (i really didn’t want to go there hehe). long story short, i did the interview, they offered me the job the next day, booked flights and off i went three months later. it was life changing, for better or for worse.

would i do it again? definitely yes. do i regret anything? perhaps not. the main downsides are that you cannot visit your friends and family on a whim (and vice versa), and the weather sucks. but of course you make new friends and you *kinda* get used to the weather or just fly to spain for a long weekend and enjoy yourself there.

i have since gotten a new job, and have just applied for permanent residency. let’s see where it takes me, I’m just going with the flow. i don’t think I’ll return just yet, as I’m a travel junkie and i haven’t visited all the countries and islands in Europe yet. if i could choose (let’s say i had a dutch-based remote job), I’ll split my time roughly equally between the Netherlands, spain and Australia. cycling is also very big in my life and here there’s a lot of cycling going on - nice rides, races to do, places to go to etc.

oh, and the property market here is also crazy af. i don’t know which is worse. australia or the Netherlands. haha 😁

I live in the Netherlands lmao Ik spreek ook wel Nederlands

dutch people are loud on trains lol

there was once my friend and i were in a hair salon. he was speaking to me in a normal voice and the hairdresser told him to shut up as the other customers are disturbed 😂

hey mate I just came across your post.

funny because I’m an Australian (33M) living in the Netherlands. I’m alone here, and sometimes it does feel like you’ve “missed the boat”. i can tell you that it’s not easy sometimes not to be able to visit your family members on a whim.

sometimes i jokingly tell myself I’m this guy in this Japanese fairy tale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urashima_Tar%C5%8D basically when you went away, you had fun, lost track of time, and when you return, everyone has moved on.

i was stuck here during the pandemic, but have gone back and visited twice since the borders reopened. i love travelling (sounds like you do too), and that’s what’s keeping me here. it does feel funny going back to oz though. you’ll still have your old friends, but they might not give you the same attention as before - because they’re also busy and have to work and a family to attend to. it’s not personal. when you go back for a holiday, they make an effort to catch up. but if you’re back home permanently, then you know it’s not like they’ll come visit you every week. the grass is always greener on the other side. there has been quite some posts of aussies/kiwis missing home and wanting to go back, and when they’re back they want to leave again.

if i can advise you on some things, is to put your mental health first, prioritise your family and friends.

i tell you what, see if you can get a remote job. if you can, then you can split 6 months in each country for now, for the next two or three years. then see what happens.

come say hi when you happen to be in Delft or Brisbane ;)

which city are you in?

i’d like to move back to Australia for a bit, maybe 2 years or so, then i know I’ll be itching to move abroad again :)