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Ask HN: How do I get a job abroad?

9 points by jgaxn ↗ HN
I am an American software engineer currently happily employed in the United States. I'm interested in potentially working in a different country when it's time for my next career move in a couple of years. What kinds of things should I be doing to network or discover opportunities in other countries? What immigration issues should I be worried about?

13 comments

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mthomasb
Check out https://jobbatical.com/. They help you find ~12 month contracts with startups abroad, mostly Western Europe.
jgaxn
Hey thanks! That looks like an extremely useful site.
msurocks
Useful ?
jgaxn
Yes. Looking at it, it has a listing of jobs in non-US countries looking specifically for foreign (including US) workers in my field. At a glance I saw multiple jobs that I would be interested in applying for.
ddorian43
I just, like, applied online. Went on the job-boards of the country that I wanted to go, created email-alerts on all of them, and applied to the one I wanted in my email-inbox.
FlopV
You find a gig?
ddorian43
I got one job without needing to meet them. Another company invited for local interviews, and I used the 4 days I was there to also interview at 2 other companies that I was already interviewing on skype with and also got another offer.
wprapido
do you at least have an idea where you'd like to move to?
jgaxn
Europe, generally. England and France more specifically. Other first-world countries (Australia, New Zealand) also considered.
BjoernKW
Pretty much depends on the country you'd like to work in.

That said, highly skilled workers such as software engineers usually don't face a lot of immigration issues.

dalerus
I work in international development. If you're looking for a career abroad and interested in working on solving interesting problems, the development sector is a good place to be. Pretty good pay, decent benefits, home leave, no issues with immigration.

Devex.com has a decent listing of jobs and companies to work for.

msurocks
It's pretty tough .. I applied to more than 200 Plus companies in different countries none of them even replied even though I had all the required skills.

Best option: Select where you want to go, save some money, find some companies from that location and personal contacts there, Get a tourist VISA, go there and talk personally.

Your success will depend on getting appointment while visiting and ability to pursue your future employer for an Employee VISA.

Good luck..

drakonka
I'm not sure what kind of relationship the US has with the country you are hoping to move to, but in my case it went like this:

- Ukrainian living in Australia on permanent residence Visa, eligible for citizenship but hadn't bothered to get it. I wanted to move to Europe.

- Went through the Australian citizenship application process. As an Australian citizen I would be eligible for a working holiday visa.

- (In the meantime) Saved up about a year's worth of living expenses from running a business in Australia.

- Also in the meantime spent a year locked away in my house building a small portfolio of games. Freelancing meant I could work largely from home and set my own hours.

- Applied for a working holiday visa to Sweden. Received approval via email in about 2 weeks.

- Moved and started applying for jobs. Started work about 2 months later.

I did try to apply for jobs remotely but that didn't work out - though I had prior experience in my chosen industry I was not senior or experienced enough to justify a company relocating me from the other side of the world. Physically being there and not scaring a company with the prospect moving expenses and arrangements helped.