I am not sure where else to post this, but this community has always felt honest and helpful, so here I am.
I graduated in September 2024 after finishing my Master’s program in Leuven, since the beginning of 2025 I landed my first job with a startup in a DS/AI Engineer role. It was exciting as it felt like I started to do meaningful, relevant tasks after years of investing in the field, from doing Python courses in my first job to saving up money and studying in Belgium. I gave everything I had to the role, learning fast and wearing as many hats as demanded without negative feedback.
This month, that came to an unexpected stop due to an administrative issue with my work permit (my employer failed to renew it before my ID expired). I only found out when it was already too late to prevent it.
Without being too detailed, TLDR: I suddenly find myself unemployed with no support from the employer and have to rebuild everything again from scratch.
It has been an incredibly stressful and traumatic few weeks where I can feel like my life has turned upside down. I am not looking for sympathy, just a fair chance to keep building something here and to find my way back to some normalcy. If you know of any companies worth approaching, opportunities in relevant fields or employers in Belgium who are open to single permit sponsorship, I would be genuinely grateful to hear about them. I would be more than happy to share my full CV in DMs.
Thank you for reading.
Edit: Below is an anonymized/compressed version of my CV