Globetrotter Interview: Eras Botha
We met up with Eras Botha, one of our Globetrotters and a software developer at Human Inference who recently moved to the Netherlands with his wife and their dog. We asked him about his journey (from first contact with Ir Olav’s Globetrotters all the way through to his new life here in the Netherlands), got some valuable tips for others thinking of making the move and found out why he recommends Ir Olav's Globetrotters and the Netherlands to other IT specialists in South Africans that want to move abroad.
Eras says that moving abroad was always at the back of his mind and so he felt it useful to study for and get an internationally recognized degree that would save him time and money later when he did get the opportunity to move abroad. The decision to move to the Netherlands happened by coincidence: they were originally planning on going to New Zealand when the opportunity in the Netherlands came along.
“We thought this would be a nice adventure to have to move to the Netherlands instead of New Zealand or Australia where if we want to travel anywhere, we had to then travel by aeroplane and couldn't quickly catch a train to wherever we wanted to go.” – Eras Botha
Eras had actually been in touch with Ir Olav’s Globetrotters a couple of months before (his wife found them on Facebook!) for another position. That didn’t work out but then Ir Olav’s contacted him about the position at Human Inference. He didn’t meet all the requirements in the Tech stack but gave it a shot and applied anyway and now he’s living in the Netherlands!
The application process for Eras (as with all Globetrotters) after sending in his CV, consisted of:
- An initial meet and greet with Sonja and Diane
- Logic test
- They then presented him to the client for consideration
- Meeting with the MD at Human Inference
- Technical Interview
- Presentation Interview (this was something new but fun for Eras)
- Letters of Intent
- Relocation Process (getting all the needed paperwork and documents together)
Lynsey Schonfeld from Ir Olav’s placed him in contact with a relocation company that helped with the immigration process such as the visa application. She also put him in contact with Dutch Home Hunters which helped them find a rental property while they were still in South Africa. He was extremely grateful for the assistance in finding a home as the housing market, especially with a pet, in the Netherlands is “challenging” to say the least.
Eras had already started working for Human Inference while in South Africa while they were getting the documents and so forth ready for their immigration to the Netherlands. Initially, this would have been just a 3 month period before coming over to the Netherlands but unfortunately, Omicron struck and they had to delay their plans by a few more weeks.
While working remotely from South Africa Eras got to meet his team members virtually before meeting them all in person in January. He feels this helps eases things a bit as you don’t have that bomb shock of meeting everyone on your first day at the office. This period also afforded him the opportunity to come to terms with the idea of moving to the Netherlands because it is a big step, but also whether he and the company were a good fit as it is a two-way relationship.
When asked if he would recommend Ir Olav’s Globetrotters to other IT Specialists Eras had the following to say:
“Yes. The thing that makes them different from most other recruiting companies is that they eat their own pudding. What I mean by that is they employ South Africans themselves. It is not a recruiting company that gets South Africans but has no idea of what our culture, the South African culture is about, but also who we are as people. And I mean, coming to a different country is a big step and having that sympathy and knowing that the people you're talking to understand that makes it fun. And they obviously also know that we are curious about that culture… So, I would definitely recommend them and the fact that they know and they make it so comfortable, so exciting to come over.” - Eras Botha
