1. PERSONALIA

• Age: 30
• Education: Masters in Engineering and PhD in Physics
• Work experience : 6 years in academia + 2 in "industry"
• Civil status: Married
• Dependent people/children: 1

2. EMPLOYER PROFILE

• Sector/Industry: Semi-Public, semi-private Sector/Contract research
• Amount of employees: About 1000
• Multinational? No

3. CONTRACT & CONDITIONS

• Current job title: R&D professional
• Seniority: 1 year
• Official hours/week : 40 Real hours/week
• Average real hours/week incl. overtime: 30-50 depending the period
• Shiftwork or 9 to 5 (flexible?): 9 to 5
• On-call duty: None
• Vacation days/year: ~40 base + the option to fully convert 13th month to 20 additional days

4. SALARY

• Gross salary/month: ~4900 EUR (excl bike lease of 128 EUR)
• Average net salary/month (incl. net fees): ~2910 EUR
• Netto compensation: 0 EUR
• 13th month (full? partial?): Full, with option to trade for vacation
• Meal vouchers: 8 EUR (1 EUR own contribution)
• Ecocheques: Yes
• Salary car/bike and/or fuel card: Option for bike leasing
• Group insurance (% employer): Yes
• Other insurances: Yes, hospitalisation and other medical costs (ambulante kosten) including dental. Can also include other family members
• Other benefits (bonuses, stocks options, ... ): Home internet is partially paid

5. MOBILITY

• City/region of work: Antwerp/Kempen
• Distance home-work (km's/time): 7 km in 20 minutes
• How do you commute? Bicycle
• How is the travel home-work compensated: Can opt for 0,23/km or monthly flat fee
• Telework days/week: 3-5 days depending on week. 1 "connect" day per week, but it's not a big deal if you can't make it.

6. OTHER

• How easy can you plan a day off: Easily, can be same day or even retroactively
• Is your job stressful? Not much so far
• Education possibilities: My entire job is learning constantly
• Responsible for personnel (reports): If I want to mentor students

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Overall, for my "level of education" I could be doing a lot better financially, but the pay is not bad for doing interesting and enjoyable work with a lot of freedom. Also, I have the option to have a lot of holidays and can work mostly from home, which are fantastic when one has young children.