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?
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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:<p>- Ukrainian living in Australia on permanent residence Visa, eligible for citizenship but hadn't bothered to get it. I wanted to move to Europe.<p>- Went through the Australian citizenship application process. As an Australian citizen I would be eligible for a working holiday visa.<p>- (In the meantime) Saved up about a year's worth of living expenses from running a business in Australia.<p>- 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.<p>- Applied for a working holiday visa to Sweden. Received approval via email in about 2 weeks.<p>- Moved and started applying for jobs. Started work about 2 months later.<p>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.
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.<p>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.<p>Your success will depend on getting appointment while visiting and ability to pursue your future employer for an Employee VISA.<p>Good luck..
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.
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.<p>Devex.com has a decent listing of jobs and companies to work for.
Pretty much depends on the country you'd like to work in.<p>That said, highly skilled workers such as software engineers usually don't face a lot of immigration issues.