Why I decided to become a developer in the Netherlands

How a dream of leaving Brazil led me to a different relationship with work, quality of life, and the challenge of building technology for a multilingual world.

The dream of leaving Brazil

From a young age, I dreamed of leaving Brazil. It may sound like a cliché, but that goal shaped many of the choices and sacrifices I made over the years.

It kept me going through the hard parts: spending countless hours preparing for international interviews and carrying on after hearing "no" again and again. Without that dream, many of the things I have achieved might never have happened.

Why relationships matter

One thing made an enormous difference for me: the people I met along the way. I worked with remarkable people, and over time several of them moved abroad.

Watching someone you actually know go through that process makes the possibility feel real. It is different from seeing a stranger tell their success story on YouTube. When it is someone who once sat next to you, "I can do that too" carries much more weight.

That is why I always give the same advice: build genuine relationships. The return may not be immediate, but over time those connections can open doors you never knew were there.

International salaries and opportunities

Brazil has technology companies with a global reputation, and tech salaries can be very competitive within the Brazilian market.

But during the pandemic and the years that followed, international remote work exploded. Many people stayed in Brazil while working for overseas companies and earning in stronger currencies such as dollars or euros. It revealed a difficult truth: in general, Brazilian companies cannot compete financially with offers from abroad.

That opened my eyes to international earning power. At first, earning euros while staying in Brazil sounded like the best of both worlds. But something was still missing for me. Money mattered, but it was not enough. I wanted a better quality of life, new cultural experiences, and the feeling of truly living in another country.

Work-life balance in the Netherlands

One of my happiest surprises was discovering how healthy the relationship between work and personal life can be in the Netherlands.

Before moving, I assumed work was the same everywhere: pressure, an intense routine, and very little flexibility. I could not have been more wrong. Here I found a culture built around punctuality, respect for personal boundaries, and diversity in the workplace.

• Four-day workweeks are common.
• Part-time work is respected and valued.
• The first question people ask is not "What do you do?" Your job does not define your social worth.
• There is less pressure around university prestige or job titles.

This cultural shift changes everyday life in a profound way. It is not simply about working fewer hours. It is about working in a healthier way, with more purpose and less stress.

New technical challenges outside Brazil

One thing people sometimes overlook is how much technical challenges change with the context in which you work.

European companies constantly face language barriers and the realities of international expansion. The goal is rarely just to build for a local market. Systems have to fit different cultures, languages, and country-specific regulations.

In Brazil, technology is usually designed for the domestic market or, at most, Latin America. Here, defaulting everything to English is not always viable. Products often need to support several languages, currencies, and legal systems at once. These were complexities I had never faced before, and they broadened both my technical skills and my product thinking.

More than a career decision

Leaving Brazil was a personal turning point, not simply a professional move. Every challenge brought a different reward, whether in my career, my growth as a person, or my quality of life.

If you share that dream, know that the journey is not easy. But it can change you in the best possible way.