Having just successfully completed another round on the market for freelance jobs in Belgium, I thought I’d offer these observations.

The Belgian market is still slow and cautious. Unlike their neighbours in the UK or Germany, Belgian-based companies take longer, interview more candidates and do much more rigorous testing. There was a time in those other markets when an interview more or less meant getting the job, provided you didn’t completely bomb. In Belgium this tends not to be the case. Be ready for a decision process over weeks and start times weeks after that.

There is a lot of interesting and diverse work in Belgium. From new communication technologies to audio processing, medical, home automation… there is a lot going on here. The most technically advanced work tends to be in Flemish centres around Leuven, Kortrijk, Sint-Niklaas, Antwerp, Mechelen, etc. Brussels tends to have financial and web development mostly. There are things happening in Wallonia; e.g. in Louvain-le-neuve, but this seems to be much thinner on the ground.

There is a work culture divide between Flanders and the rest of the country. Companies in Flanders look and feel more international and operate more comfortably in English. By all means you should work on your Dutch skills, but it is not a roadblock. In Brussels and Wallonia it would be very hard to work without French.

What’s in demand? Low-level technical skills on one hand; getting down and dirty close to devices and micro-controllers. Java, C#/.NET on the other hand tend to be hot skills.

Bottom-line - the market is alive but not booming. Keep cool, keep active and stay in touch with local players who know the market. Aggressive foreign agencies get the job done from time to time, but are slower off the mark for many jobs and their style can put people off.