We Love Brussels
  • Urban Life
    • Urban Jungle
    • Photo Stories
    • But Why?
    • Smart City
    • City Branding
    • Seniors
    • Real Estate
  • Culture & Creativity
    • New Economy
    • Local Makers & Shakers
    • Illustrations
    • Fashion City
  • Discover & Meet
    • Travel & Tourism news
    • Foodie guide
  • Event Diary
  • Europolitan Trends
Brussels Inspiration Bureau
Social Links
Instagram 70K Followers
Facebook 71K Followers
X / Twitter 10K Followers
  • Our Story
  • Partnerships & Collaborations
  • Contact
70K
71K
10K
We Love Brussels
We Love Brussels
  • Urban Life
    • Urban Jungle
    • Photo Stories
    • But Why?
    • Smart City
    • City Branding
    • Seniors
    • Real Estate
  • Culture & Creativity
    • New Economy
    • Local Makers & Shakers
    • Illustrations
    • Fashion City
  • Discover & Meet
    • Travel & Tourism news
    • Foodie guide
  • Event Diary
  • Europolitan Trends
  • Community news
  • Building the platform
  • Community of city admirers
  • Partnerships & Collaborations
  • Get in Touch
Become our contributor. Join the team!

Sign up for our newsletter

Get our periodical updates. Zero spam.

  • community
  • Urban Life

Lessons from living and working in the heart of Europe – the good, the tricky, and the unexpected

  • Editorial Team
  • September 24, 2025
  • 3 minute read

September in Brussels is a funny month. The heart of Europe doesn’t just get busier – it gets younger, more eager, and slightly overdressed. Traineeships start, new jobs kick off, and suddenly the streets fill with people juggling maps, badges, and big expectations.

But Brussels has a way of humbling even the most ambitious newcomers. You arrive with a career plan, and the city just smirks, tossing you into an unplanned bootcamp of patience, adaptability, and figuring out what actually matters.

A survival guide disguised as personal reflections

Here are some lessons I learned along the way – the ones that no induction call, welcome pack, or onboarding game can prepare you for.

1.      Treat the recruitment process as free education

Everyone hates interviews. The prep, the nerves, the waiting. But in Brussels, the process itself is a crash course in a new sector. Preparing for a job interview here means diving into an organization’s mission, members, and policy files – sometimes in industries you didn’t even know existed. From aviation to animal welfare, renewable energy to digital policy, you end up learning far more than just how to answer “What’s your biggest strength?” The research alone broadens your horizon, and even when you don’t get the job, you’ve gained something valuable.

2.      Learn what you don’t want

Photo by aris setya

Interviews aren’t just about convincing them – you’re also learning about workplace culture. You can pick up a lot before you even sit down: a receptionist’s stress level, an office atmosphere, the way an interviewer reacts to your questions. And if the same organization posts the same vacancy three times in six months? That’s a red flag in neon. Every small detail leaves you with sharper instincts for the next round.

3.      Stop chasing titles, start chasing impact

Brussels can make you title-obsessed. Policy Officer. Senior Associate. Director of Something Impressively Vague. It’s tempting to treat your LinkedIn headline as your biggest achievement. But here’s the truth: nobody remembers what is printed on your business card. They remember the impact.

Did you move a project forward? Did you create something that actually mattered? Did you make life better – even a little – for a community, a colleague, or a cause? That’s what lasts. Redefine “success” not as a line on a CV but as a legacy that can’t be erased with the next restructuring.

4.      Careers are jungle gyms, not ladders

Forget climbing in a straight line. In Brussels, careers zigzag. My advice? Don’t dismiss “smaller” roles in admin or events. Handling logistics gives you a front-row seat to how organizations actually run. You’ll learn their past by digging through archives, contracts, or mailing lists that have been around for decades, and glimpse their future by helping with launches, board meetings, or strategy events.

But you’ll also discover hidden Art Nouveau halls while scouting venues. You’ll sip champagne at receptions you organized. You’ll learn to manage budgets (and stretch them), negotiate with grumpy venue managers, and coordinate caterers, photographers, and last-minute VIPs.

And those skills? They’re gold when you move on.

5.      Don’t confuse the Bubble with the world

It’s dangerously easy to think “everyone” works in EU affairs because that’s what you’re surrounded by. Personally, I’ll never say this enough: I only realized how Eurocentric my outlook had become when I joined an international trade association. But Brussels is bigger than the Bubble. There’s tech, art, finance, academia, startups. Keeping perspective matters: if you step outside the usual networking circles, you’ll find fresh ideas, opportunities, and people who don’t start conversations with, “So, what do you do at the Commission?”

6.      Don’t walk alone, join a tribe

In Brussels, it’s not always your closest friends who help you take the next step. It’s the acquaintance you met at a rooftop drinks, the person you chatted with at a conference coffee break, the friend-of-a-friend who remembers your name.

And if you don’t know where to begin, start by joining an association. Whether it’s an alumni network, a young expats group from your country, or a professional platform, plugging into one (or a few) of these communities gives you both a safety net and a launchpad.

This article was written by Martina Cilia, communications manager at CropLife International and co-chair at Brussels New Generation. Original article published at LinkedIn.

Total
0
Shares
Like 0
Tweet 0
Share 0
Share 0
Like 0
Share 0
Editorial Team

WeLoveBrussels is a digital platform focusing on the city life, culture, creativity, events, amazing places, lifestyle, urban development trends and simple beauty around us.

You May Also Like
View Post
  • Events diary
  • local makers & shakers

BEL Prizes 2025: the Brussels Expertise Labels turn the spotlight on talents from Brussels

  • Editorial Team
  • October 3, 2025
View Post
  • Urban Life

Leica celebrates 100 years by opening a new boutique in Brussels

  • Editorial Team
  • July 18, 2025
View Post
  • culture & creativity
  • local makers & shakers

#ClickRevolution: Watch the trailer for the new documentary film by Brussels-based director Anja Strelec

  • Editorial Team
  • June 11, 2025
Brussels Inspiration Bureau

Exploring the best of Brussels since 2014. Get our free monthly newsletter!

Discover more!
Our columnists & bloggers:
Aleksandra Rowicka
Addicted to cultural life of Brussels, fashion photography and dark…
Aris Setya
Indonesian living in Brussels. Passionate about photography. Love…
Boro Milovic
Boro is the founder and editor-in-chief of WeLoveBrussels. His interests…
Dorka Demeter
Dorka is a Hungarian expat living in Brussels for 10 years. Admirer of…
Karolina
Karolina is a blogger sharing stories on European cities, local…
Laurence-Anne Doetsch
Brussels-born and bred, a few years living in Toronto only convinced her…
Meredith @ellesbxl
Meredith Geldof is a Flemish girl who moved to Brussels and enjoys…
Priyanka Roy Banerjee
Blogger, writer and editor at Writersmelon. Blogs: One and a Half…
Salvatore Costantino
Salvatore is an archeologist who has crossed over into contemporary…
Tireless_Traveler
Nath is born and raised in Brussels but with a serious case of…
Incentives & events in Brussels:
Incentives & events in Brussels:
Download our free guide!

Views & opinions expressed across this website are solely that of the authors and contributors themselves and may not reflect the position of WeLoveBrussels. The editorial or publisher of WeLoveBrussels cannot be held responsible for expressed opinions or unintended errors and oversights if any.

Get our periodical updates. Zero spam.

Instagram 70K Followers
Facebook 71K Followers
X / Twitter 10K Followers
WeLoveBrussels
  • Our story & more
  • Get in Touch
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal notice
Brussels Inspiration Bureau. Your guide to city life, culture, business, travel, Brussels events agenda & cultural diplomacy.

Input your search keywords and press Enter.