Today was a pretty chill Sunday as it was an “organized free day.” This morning, we traveled as a group to the largest flea market in Europe called IJ-Hallen, which boasted a plethora of clothes, shoes, accessories, trinkets, and furniture. The weather was beautiful and this mixed with the bustling crowd and vivid colors throughout made the experience this morning all the more worthwhile. We traveled there via public transportation (by ferry and tram), which has now pretty much become a routine for us as Amsterdam locals of a whole week. The public transportation here is so efficient that we can get to almost anywhere we need to by using it. 

When I entered the flea market, I immediately noticed the diversity of not only goods (which is to be completely expected at a flea market), but also a diversity of people. Within my first few minutes there, I heard at least five different languages being spoken among the sellers and the customers. This setting seemed very “in character” for The Netherlands to me because of the diversity of people present and of course, the sustainability of selling secondhand goods. This was the first place where there was a noticeable diversity of people and in this way, I was reminded of American culture, which is also incredibly diverse because of the diversity of its population.  

When it came to actually purchasing goods, I was able to get a little taste of the business world by practicing my negotiation skills. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I was the best at this, but I was able to bargain a piece of jewelry down from 12 euros to 10 euros, so I’ll call that a win for the day. It seems as though negotiation practices are similar here to the US. I just offered a price much lower than the asking price, expecting that to get countered and eventually ended up at a price better than the original and probably closer to its actual value. Thankfully, despite there being dozens of languages spoken at the market, a language barrier was not an issue.

Even though I was mostly shopping for gifts for my family, in some ways, this was a simple mini supply chain with me taking the role of the distributor that sources goods for good prices and plans the transportation of these goods to end up in the possession of my family. The sellers were the suppliers and the final consumers would be my family members, though they aren’t paying for the goods from me. It’s not a perfect analogy, but there’s definitely a connection. 

After the flea market, we made our way to a restaurant called Pacific to meet and network with some Pitt Alumni who currently live and work in Amsterdam. Some of them were recruiters and although I won’t necessarily need that connection until later down the road, marketing myself to these people was important to do so that I can improve my networking skills and expand my network. They were all wonderful people and had very interesting stories of how they ended up where they are now. A common thing I heard from the alums I spoke to was that in their time working in The Netherlands, their work-life balance has been a lot better. They said that burnout here was less likely because there’s less expectation to always be doing your job, especially outside of work hours. This contrasts the American business setting and some alums said this took some time to adjust to, but in the end, they said it was a positive adjustment to make. They also told me that they get 25 standard vacation days here; let’s just say, I may find myself back here in a few years for work. It almost felt like they were marketing to me the experience of living and working here and I have to admit, I was pretty sold. Still, I wanted to be a rational decision maker, so I inquired about some challenges they faced while working in different cultural and professional settings. Something I didn’t know, but learned from Christina, one of the alums who’s currently in the marketing field, was that the patriarchal nature of the workplace here is a challenge. She said this came as a surprise to her because The Netherlands is so progressive, but this was one area that hadn’t quite reached that state yet. As a woman in a professional environment, she shared that it was hard at times because some colleagues did not respect her despite her positional authority because she was a woman. She said that in the American business world, while female leaders are a minority, they do exist. Here, this is almost impossible to come by, but she said that the pros outweigh the cons and she’s happy with her life here. This gave me valuable information to consider as I begin to start my professional journey.