

Ask HN: How do I find a job overseas? - readyforchange

Some background:<p>I am a young software engineer(25) from the US, mostly full-stack web development but dabbling into general needs at my company. I&#x27;ve traveled the US a bit, but I&#x27;ve had little chance to leave the country. While I&#x27;m young and mobile I&#x27;d like to make the move across the ocean, so that I can cut the biggest hurdle to traveling to far off countries. In particular I was looking into London, so that I could have a home base with a familiar language and culture, but within a few hours flight of most places I want to see.<p>The issue is that I have no idea how to find a job without moving there first. Unfortunately, I have no contacts overseas to reach out to. I would not be going alone, and we are not in a financial situation to handle move overseas, and handle unemployment for months before finding a job.<p>Some of the questions that I have, that I have not seen any quick answers to:<p>1. Do I need a visa or any other special paperwork before applying for a foreign job?<p>2. Is the cost of relocating from the US too high of a cost for companies to consider me?<p>3. How do I even go about finding jobs in a specific city like London?<p>4. Most of my work has been for the government and naturally closed off. I do small side projects when I can, but I don&#x27;t have any sort of jaw dropping set of open-source contributions. I feel like this has been a hinderance for other jobs that I have applied to, and could amplify the perceived risk as I noted in number 2.<p>5. I have an additional complication of security clearance, sponsored by my current company. Before traveling overseas I must get it cleared with our security officer. I&#x27;m not sure if there are any extra steps I have to take before applying to a foreign company. Obviously I&#x27;m a little hesitant to just go and ask him, letting him know that I&#x27;m looking to leave the company.<p>I know that many people on here have gone through similar situations, so any advice or leads would be appreciate, thanks.
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gamechangr
I'm a mid thirties guy from the US originally. I've lived overseas for about 7
years.

I can be a point of reference. First of all, degree really matters overseas.
If you have an advanced degree even better (but I would guess that you don't
since you mentioned you were 25).

I would avoid Europe at all costs. I have not lived in Europe, but I have
traveled for business many, many times. Beautiful, enjoyed the people, and all
of that.

Here is why I would avoid it like the plague: 1)EU work permit : slow and
painful. 2)Cost of living almost double what you might be paying 3)Tech wages
are lower (when you take into account cost of living) 4)Some tech scenes, but
they are quite specialized and much smaller than what you would be accustom to
in the US. That makes networking much much harder 5)Different countries,
different languages which means that nothing scales, so if they want a larger
market they have to sell it to an American company. That means the big ideas
leave for the US and there are less quality jobs as they are a limited amount
of good employers.

I would suggest that you pick another destination. Two that I would recommend
personally would be Santiago, Chile and Manilla, Philippines. Cost of living
is unbelievable in both. Work permit (if online) is easy to get (as you are
not "taking a job from a local"). They both have thriving English communities
and excellent cultural experiences. Chile has the mountains and beaches (but a
little colder) and Philippines has beautiful beaches.

Both are tech hungry!

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paulhauggis
You are going to have some difficulties because a company will need to sponsor
you (IE: work Visa), which costs them much more than a local client.

Why not just find freelance/contracting work? I did this for over a year while
I traveled overseas a few years back. If your timezone matches up or isn't
that much different, it works pretty well.

