How do i achieve this, for me? | Hacker News Reader

How do i achieve this, for me?

5 pointsmdmd5 comments

Hacker News lets me stay anonymous(i think) and ask questions about me which otherwise i would not ask someone in person.

I want to work outside of my country. I have never been out of this place. And the prime reason is not money, atleast 90% reason is i want to see another country and meet people who are different from my native place.

Working abroad might not be the best experience i realize depending upon differences in language n culture etc but i am willing to see for myself.

I work as a fulltime freelancer, it brings me pretty good money, more than what most regular people of my age earn here and can have more if i continue like this. But i can't live life like this, without ever going out, seeing places, learning stuff i will never get a chance to do here in home. I am pretty much interested in Europe, as i have had great luck recently working with really nice people from France, Germany, Italy and Netherlands. That tells me people there greatly appreciate your good work. I have heard, read and seen pictures proving many european countries are beautiful. Such things fascinate me.

I don' have anything against United States, the odd fact is since i started freelancing few months ago i had more clients from Europe than from US, so my knowledge about US is only limited to hollywood movies, where i have had more chances to chat, voice chat (more recently) with people from Europe to know about their cultures better.

I wish to work for atleast couple of years before heading back home, settling with a family. This might be the time i can do this.

Now how do i do it? Should i be looking for jobs on various job boards? How can people take me seriously as a IT worker and a perspective employee worth importing to their country to work for them? (one of the reasons i am afraid to reveal my country, ppl from my region are generally not considered to be good, i know that)

And what are the impacts of recession on such type of hiring that is hiring people from far away countries?

If you have some similar experience which can broaden my knowledge about this topic, please share :)

I'm an American, living in Norway for about 12 years. I can definitely recommend the ex-pat lifestyle-- at least, it works for me. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Europe differs a lot from country to country. Some countries have very high unemployment rates, others (such as Norway) suffer from systemic under-employment, and generally imports workers.

Before I sold my start-up, I hired employees from many different countries, and with the exception of one coming in from Russia, never had problems with immigration papers, etc. (We eventually got the Russian in, but it took a bit of time and hassle. It was worth it, he was great.)

So, can you do it? Sure.

Now, how to do it. Looking on job boards is a good idea. Prepare a good CV in English (have a native English speaker proof-read it). Be prepared to sell yourself in a cover letter. You want to seem eager, but not desperate.

Be ready to prove your chops. Have good recommendations, code samples, contributions to open source projects, what-have-you. You need to be able to demonstrate that you are worth the bother.

If you have enough savings, and have decided on a country you want to live in, self-finance a trip to visit. Let prospective employers know you are coming. Even if you don't get a bite during the visit, having been to the country will make you look more serious to other employment prospects from that country down the road.

Finally: see if any employers in your home country also have branches in the places you want to work. They might be able to help you out.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info about how it works in different European countries.

You have realistic points, someone taking the pains to import me should really be interested in my skills to be worth it.

Thought i can't say i have enough savings to travel on my own, the only things i have to sell are my skills. (don't even have my passport, never flew, but that can be taken care of i suppose)

Revealing a bit more, i am a css/frontend guy (people say i am good, though no at all great/brilliant/Google/Yahoo standards). This actually might be a -ve point, as most agencies would prefer to hire solid 'programmers' from outside not a soft coder like 'css guy', what you think?

I worked abroad for 7 years. Being a freelancer will mean that you won't put anybody's nose of of joint by seeking work and experience outside of your country.

To paraphrase a character in Hilary Mantel's, "Eight Months on Ghazza Street":

"It was if by going away we had criticized everything about our own country".

In other words, as an employee, experience working abroad can set employers against you with questions like, "Why did you leave?" This is exactly what happened to me and why I ended up out of tech and in a succession of crappy jobs for 5 years.

I quit a safe, secure job to work all over the world. Do I regret it? No. Would I work abroad again? In a heartbeat. It is still a goal of mine to own a business that I can operate from anywhere in the world via a laptop and a broadband connection - to me, that's the ultimate freedom.

So go! See the world, meet people from other cultures, and work wherever you find yourself. As a freelancer you already have the only thing you really need to suceed - resourcefulness.

Good Luck!

Go to business and/or developer meetings and announce what you are looking for.

I went the first time to work abroad about 7 years ago. Got the initial contact and contract by reading job postings on a small unkown website, this was pure luck. After that, I had multiple trips to different countries and even convinced my girl to live with me for 18 month in Africa.

For me it was like a chain reaction: You go to a new country and you will sooner or later meet the other foreigners. New friends, new connections, new countries, new job offers. Repeat until homesick. :)

Do you know where the guys from the Netherlands embassy do party in your country? I bet there are some more people from the Netherlands as well. Go, find some new friends. From my experiences most foreigners are happy to have friends among the locals.

You will know how important this is soon. I wish you good luck.

(German in Angola)

Here's a semi-related post from about a month ago:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=658805

Reply on news.ycombinator.com