What Employers in the Netherlands Actually Ask For, Skill by Skill

Job ads often list a long wall of skills without telling you which ones actually matter most. NewLuxJob looked at its own live job postings for the Netherlands, role by role, to see how often specific skills show up. Here is what the postings show, sector by sector.

Skills for Data, Finance and Office Roles

Among Data Analyst postings (from 170 listings), Python appears in 44%, SQL in 38%, Excel in 32% and Power BI in 29%. For Software Developer roles (from 380 listings), Agile/Scrum appears in 34%, Python and CI/CD each in 23%, Java in 22%, Azure in 21% and .NET in 18%.

On the finance side, Accountant/Auditor postings (from 380 listings) list Auditing in 47%, Tax in 31%, Excel in 29% and Reporting in 26%. Finance postings (from 273 listings) list Budgeting in 48%, Excel in 37% and Forecasting in 29%. Across all four of these roles, Excel keeps reappearing, but each role pairs it with a different specialist skill: Python and SQL for analysts, Auditing and Tax for accountants, Budgeting and Forecasting for finance staff.

Skills for Trades and Engineering Roles

Electrician postings (from 153 listings) are dominated by one requirement: Installation appears in 95% of them, with PLC showing up in 13%. Welder/Metalwork postings (from 256 listings) list Welding in 81%, MIG/MAG in 53% and TIG/WIG in 41%, so employers frequently name a specific welding method rather than just "welding" in general.

Engineer postings (from 393 listings) are more spread out: CAD appears in 30%, PLC in 28% and SolidWorks in 17%. Unlike the electrician and welder listings, no single skill dominates, which suggests engineering job ads in the Netherlands describe a wider mix of day-to-day tasks.

Skills for Customer-Facing and Hospitality Roles

Customer Support postings (from 512 listings) list Communication in 78%, CRM in 18% and English in 15%. Waiter/Hospitality postings (from 299 listings) list Hospitality in 92% and Service in 29%. Marketing postings (from 211 listings) list Content in 78%, Social Media in 51% and SEO in 15%.

These three roles all lean on one broad, high-frequency skill first (Communication, Hospitality, Content), then a smaller set of specific tools or channels behind it.

Skills for Management and People Roles

Manager postings (from 641 listings) list Stakeholder Management in 44%, Strategy in 43% and Budgeting in 36%. Consultant postings (from 284 listings) list Strategy in 58% and Stakeholder Management in 51%, so these two skills appear near the top for both roles. HR Recruiter postings (from 171 listings) are led by Recruiting itself, at 99%, with LinkedIn appearing in 17%.

What This Means for Your Application

If you are applying for one of these roles in the Netherlands, these figures point to the skills that show up most often in the postings themselves. That does not mean every employer wants the same thing: an Engineer posting is far less concentrated around one skill than an Electrician or Production Operator posting is, so it is worth reading each listing closely rather than assuming your CV covers what is needed. Matching the specific tools named in a posting, such as SolidWorks for engineering roles or Salesforce for customer support and sales roles, can be as useful as matching the broader skill category.