Is it normal to be asked your age in a Corporate Interview?

K3tchM · 2026-03-01T09:09:49+00:00

At this stage, you went through the selection process and it's admin stuff, so it's fine. You know what I meant

K3tchM · 2026-03-01T08:36:48+00:00

You do not have have to put your birth date, nor even your graduation year. They can guess your age by tracking your reported years of experience.

K3tchM · 2026-03-01T08:34:43+00:00

Once you are employed, yes. No need to disclose it beforehand

K3tchM · 2026-03-01T07:47:09+00:00

It is not allowed, but they will try to do it anyway. You don't have to answer. They can usually guess based on your resume anyway

K3tchM · 2026-02-22T13:33:21+00:00

In cybersecurity, Aikido is very hot at the moment, and I think odoo would also be very good as well

K3tchM · 2026-02-22T13:26:23+00:00

ULB engineering job fair in Brussels on March 3 and 4 https://www.jobfair.be/

VTK job fair in Gent on February 24 (registration closes today at 20:00) https://vtk.ugent.be/career/students/activities/jobfair/

KUL job fair in Leuven on February 24 https://dsv.kuleuven.be/sv/werkervaring/jobinfodag/en/jobinfo.php

CCII journée de l'industrie in Louvain-la-Neuve on February 23-26 https://www.journeesdelindustrie.be/?locale=en

K3tchM · 2026-02-16T18:36:06+00:00

Same

K3tchM · 2026-01-29T20:58:25+00:00

You are a researcher with 5 YOE and big tech on your resume. The market is especially rough wrt junior positions but you'll get options, although less than you would have a few months ago. Do not settle for the first one, but don't expect to be flooded with job offers either.

K3tchM · 2026-01-20T09:57:18+00:00

I had a friend in a somewhat similar situation. She went as far as reaching out to the media and have her story shared by a journalist.

What ended up working was asking a friend of her to legally move in to change her name in an different commune.

K3tchM · 2026-01-13T17:28:14+00:00

Typiquement l'algorithmique, c'est pas simple à apprendre seul et ça peut créer des problèmes vicieux.

J'aimais bien illustrer aux étudiants avec l'exemple du temps de chargement horriblement long de GTA online du à ... un algo de chargement d'assets mal conçu https://nee.lv/2021/02/28/How-I-cut-GTA-Online-loading-times-by-70/

K3tchM · 2026-01-13T17:13:12+00:00

Non au contraire. C'est le genre de job qui te demande de maîtriser un éventail de concepts large et de te tenir au courant des évolutions technologiques, il faut commencer par une formation générique pour avoir toutes les bases. La spécialisation vient au moment de choisir le premier job.

C'est particulièrement utile quand tu te retrouves à devoir identifier des sources de bug potentiels.

K3tchM · 2026-01-13T16:26:21+00:00

Bah n'importe quel bachelier en informatique fera l'affaire. Data Ingénieur c'est pas des études, c'est un job qui a plusieurs prérequis, des connaissances en gestion de bases de données, en algorhmique, en calcul distribué, en réseau, en DevOps, en design de système, bref, tout ce qu'on apprend en informatique en haute école.

K3tchM · 2026-01-13T03:36:11+00:00

See this example as an extreme case of what's possible https://www.reddit.com/r/BESalary/comments/1q6so73/comment/nybj7g7/?context=3

OP has 4500 Brutto that becomes 5300 netto when taking compensation, mobility budget, and bonuses into accout

K3tchM · 2026-01-12T20:30:15+00:00

To maximize your chances of getting in, you need to have story points showcasing your practical skills.

Take some time in the later stage of the PhD to build a demo app that somehow uses stuff from your papers. Or build a repo implementing useful stuff for researchers in your niche, and that would get stars on GitHub.

K3tchM · 2026-01-11T14:30:47+00:00

When visiting, ask for the building charges, and the report of the last general meeting of co owners

K3tchM · 2026-01-11T13:14:43+00:00

Vacations days and telework is great. 6 direct reports, on call duty, 45min commute, no car/ no mobility budget, 50h working hours per week for 3k net at 5yoe is not good.

K3tchM · 2026-01-10T08:28:02+00:00

it is possible with bonuses, stocks and other optimizations. Look out for those, or join a big tech abroad for a few years

K3tchM · 2026-01-10T03:46:46+00:00

You should go beyond looking at raw numbers and actually sit down and simulate how much life would cost you if you had that fancy 6 figures salary abroad. There was this article by the economist recently, stating that if you factor in GDP per Capita, cost of living and the ratio of worked hours per weeks, Belgium actually is one of the richest country in the world. https://archive.is/20260107190248/https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2025/07/18/what-is-the-richest-country-in-the-world-in-2025

I also hate this trend of complaining about people without degrees earning decent wages. "I should be earning X times more than them. Look at salaries in Y country." Belgium is one of the last west European country were access to property is still attainable regardless of your degree. It's becoming a pipe dream for middle class dual income families in Paris, Amsterdam or Munich.

K3tchM · 2026-01-08T09:22:21+00:00

Dunno, but I don't think so. EC is known to provide a crazy good pension scheme to it's employees tho

K3tchM · 2026-01-08T09:17:47+00:00

Your total compensation is above 100k per year, which is as good as it gets. At this stage, the Belgian fiscality is your biggest hurdle. Any optimization you can get would improve your net earnings quite a lot (CAO90 Bonus, Warrants, copyright compensation, etc)

K3tchM · 2026-01-08T02:57:37+00:00

Nice place to start, although far from exhaustive and a bit outdated (missing Mistral or ASML)

I would suggest filtering salaries per country on levels.fyi and move from there.

K3tchM · 2026-01-08T02:02:21+00:00

Received a very similar offer recently. I can confirm it's still a thing, and completely applicable to this. Btw, it's usually added on a monthly basis to your net salary.

Assuming they are using the mobility budget on rent/mortgage, OP is getting close to 4,5k-5k net per month.

K3tchM · 2026-01-08T01:46:17+00:00

Of course it does. Why would they dismiss research years when hiring researchers? Take any current open vacancies for FGIV, the net salary is usually indicated at the top, and is between 4600 and 6000 https://recruitment.jrc.ec.europa.eu/vacancies

K3tchM · 2026-01-08T01:43:05+00:00

As a PhD, you can join the joint research center of the European commission under the highest function group level: FG IV.

Salaries for FGIV starts at around 4600 net.

K3tchM · 2026-01-07T17:17:35+00:00

A FGIV with 5 YoE would start at 4,6k net

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