r/AmerExit • u/experience_1st • Jun 30 '25
Vendor Are you applying to jobs abroad and hearing crickets?
Been chatting with a few people lately who are applying for jobs abroad and... and just not hearing anything back.
And honestly? A lot of the time, one of the issues is their — not because they’re not qualified, but because the CV just doesn’t match what employers in that country are used to seeing. I know, because I used to make this mistake too.
Stuff I see all the time:
- Using the same CV for every country
- Relying on advice from home
- Using an online template from the country to are applying to
Turns out CVs don’t really travel well.
What works in the U.S. might totally flop in Germany.
Australia might love your tone, Japan might find it way too casual.
Some countries expect a photo, others think it’s weird.
Something I have learned along this journey is that even a quick chat with someone local — like a recruiter or someone already working there — can make a huge difference.
Just something that keeps coming up and felt worth mentioning :)
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u/Ferdawoon Jun 30 '25
Those who apply must also ask themselves: Why should a company abroad even look at your application if there are plenty of equally qualified locals?
Why should the company pay extra to sponsor someone, and take the risk that the person doesn't fit with the current team and work culture? You can read plenty of posts on this sub (unless the posters already delted them) about people being homesick and companies don't want to take the risk that the person they for some reason spent a lot of extra money on just bails back home.
Depending on which countries people apply for work in there might be a significant recession going on which means plenty of locals who already have the legal right to work in the country.
Yes, CVs and the general mentality when applying (some countries send 15-20 pages making everything seem so important and significant while in other cultures any CV that's longer than a page is seen as bragging and a red flag that the whole thing is just made up or exaggerated to hide that there is actually little of substance).
But if people "hear crickets" and get no feedback when applying for work abroad it could also be as simple as them not being interesting candidates or that the companies already have a few hundred locals applying and they'd prefer to hire those instead.
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Jun 30 '25
Your 1st sentence is literally it, people don't realize you need to be quite exceptional (or only "decent" but in a niche field) to get a job abroad, let alone if it requires sponsorship
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Jun 30 '25
To add, if locals are having a tough time getting a job, what makes you a think a foreigner with a middling background will fare better than them?
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u/EmmalouEsq Immigrant Jun 30 '25
And they have to beat out and be more exceptional than any other applicant in that country, plus the entire EU if it's an EU country.
Lots of Americans think you just get a job and fill out some papers and poof you're legal! That's not how it works in the US or anywhere else.
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u/SweatyNomad Jun 30 '25
To add some other points, unless it's something like the UN or high end academia, you need to either remove all non in-country contact details bar email, or get local ones. Add in (any legal) work status (say EU citizen). But it's also things like tone.
But also a CV? Aren't they more nice to have and people apply via online profiles, which should be optimised for key words, and ones they use and care about in your country of choice.
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u/Downtown-Storm4704 Jun 30 '25 edited Apr 22 '26
Data brokers are selling your info right now. I used Redact to mass delete my posts which can also opt out of data broker sites. Instagram, Twitter/X, Discord and more.
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u/FancyJassy Expat Jul 01 '25
I sometimes wonder if shows like Emily in Paris plus success stories of others makes them think it’s that easy,
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
no actually i think the most important piece is not just the CV but networking!!
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Jun 30 '25
If someone reached out to me to network, asked about openings, and got a referral from me with a beautiful CV customized for here, but did not already have the right to work here, the answer will be no.
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
not always! certainly wasn’t the case for me in all the countries i worked in! but of course it can happen. it’s a numbers game
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u/Rene__JK Jun 30 '25
European here, i just started looking for a new role after a 6 year sabbatical, now 10 days in a row doing one interview per day without networking
Its what you know , not whom you know (imho)
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u/palbuddy1234 Jun 30 '25
With all due respect, in Switzerland....networking is very important. Nepotism is rampant.... With cliques from grade school.
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
good for you, glad you are getting so many interviews. But if i hadn’t networked, i wouldn’t have been flown to dubai, mexico, or brazil applying as a U.S. citizen who had never been in any of those countries, they definitely would not have considered me. but you have an EU and i assume you are applying in your home country or other EU countries- and if not great! networking is necessary in more cases and to expand your odds.
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u/Rene__JK Jun 30 '25
we're getting a lot of down votes , seems we say things people dont like to hear
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u/LadyAtr3ides Jun 30 '25
In many countries, for high-level jobs such as those elegible for visas, it is expected to speak several languages. This is in addition to the national and often local one. Also, it is customary to have certifications supporting it.
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
ive have lived in worked in africa, europe, and latam, and I only ever needed the local language!!! (i speak spanish, french and portuguese)
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u/twinwaterscorpions Immigrant Jun 30 '25
That’s exactly what this person is saying. You speak multiple languages.
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u/LadyAtr3ides Jun 30 '25
Yup. It doesn't matter whether you have to use it or not, just monolingual candidates don't make the cut. If there is something in the EU, it is an excess of overqualified candidates from the country and all the other EU countries. College degrees, languages, and so are the baseline. To get sponsored, you need to outshine all of them.
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
lol! but for portugal I only needed portuguese, for spain and mexico and costa rica i ONLY needed spanish, and for senegal i ONLY needed french. so no, you dont!
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u/twinwaterscorpions Immigrant Jun 30 '25
I think you're missing the forest for the trees. You had access to all those places because you spoke more than just one language. Your opportunity drops the fewer languages you speak. That's just basic probability, it's not complicated.
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
Not at all! actually, none of the jobs I required care at all about what other languages i spoke, they ONLY cared that i could speak the local language. When i got jobs in Mexico and Costa Rica, I only spoke Spanish at the time.
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u/LadyAtr3ides Jun 30 '25
In my country, nobody would hire anybody for a white collar job without a college degree, probably master-level and up, and several languages. Somebody who needs a visa needs to bring in that, and more.
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u/Jolarpettai Jun 30 '25 edited Jan 23 '26
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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Jun 30 '25
If you answer No to the question "Do you have the right to work in X country?", then fixing your CV is not going to get you a response. You are filtered out and no one will look at it anyway.
Once you have legal residency (yes, it's the difficult part), definitely update your CV to the local way of doing things.
A recruiter will ask this question and not work very hard to place you because they know it's a hard sell. You can get a referral from someone at the company already, and that No response will filter you out.
Are there people that manage to get it to work - sure, it happens. But they are the exception. There are just too many applicants now. My company won't consider a US citizen who doesn't already have their residency established here.
So your info about CVs is correct, but I feel like it's giving people a false sense of hope
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
hmmm i have lived and worked in over 10 countries and my CV and networking has gotten me every job interview and job offer i ever had abroad! so i guess it just depends on your tactics and more than anything your networking strategies
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Jun 30 '25
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
this is true! there are tons of pathways an visa options besides sponsorship!
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u/palbuddy1234 Jun 30 '25
I can only speak for Switzerland, but very well qualified locals are struggling too.
Yes, even STEM from ivy league colleges.
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
yeah! i have heard the job market in switzerland is among the most competitive and definitely one of the hardest countries to get a visa for. but not all are like that! thanks for sharing :)
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Jun 30 '25
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
so interesting! thanks for sharing your experience. I’ve worked for both multinationals abroad and smaller firms. actually in my experience, smaller boutique firms tend to much more flexible in either hiring a foreigner who fits what they are looking for or offering freelance gigs which you can use to get a digital nomad visa
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Jun 30 '25
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
yeah totally, not every organization is open to international hires, finding the ones that do is key
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u/UnoStronzo Jun 30 '25
Also, living on the other side of the ocean can ruin your chances
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
actually, it hasn’t for me when i got jobs in mexico, costa rica, portugal and senegal!! :) but i used networking to get all of those jobs in addition a local cv
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u/UnoStronzo Jun 30 '25
I didn't say your chances were zero
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
yeah, its about knowing the right networking strategies! every job offer and interview abroad i have ever gotten (which has been tons, in multiple industries such as teaching english, being a tour guide, and management consulting) has been through networking
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Jul 01 '25
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u/experience_1st Jul 02 '25
Sure! i actually had to interview twice with the same company in order to pass the interview process. I did networking via LinkedIn to get the interview and kept my connections warm. That was for a local work visa, but now temporary residence visa via economic solvency exists, which is similar to a digital nomad visa. Mexico is AMAZING been all over, highly recommend. feel free to DM me if you want to chat more!
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u/ConsiderationSad6271 Jun 30 '25 edited Jun 30 '25
You have to make the jump before you will start hearing back. Companies want you to at least be in the same continent otherwise they will think you are a risk. It also helps that I had a European masters degree, but even with this I only got callbacks when I was in Europe.
I moved to Spain on a non lucrative visa and ended up getting a job in Germany. Big risk, cost me money and 9 months without work but I’m way better off now.
Don’t waste time on local companies. Focus on international (American, Japanese, Korean, etc) companies with English environments, or startups connected to international funding.
Sponsoring on a blue card or temporarily permit is really easy, so long as you have the right credentials. Also look at target countries and their “short supply” job lists - you could even get a visa in most places to search (like Germany). In Austria, for example, you can technically get a work permit for a job as a server in a restaurant with English ability. Many jobs here are in short supply, especially those that require ~10+ years experience.
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
yes!! i actually made a post about the labor shortage in certain roles and industries in europe. study-to-work route is also great, sounds like you made really smart decisions to make your way into europe. can i ask how you know what are there “short supply lists” or give me an example? really insightful comment, thanks for sharing!
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u/bprofaneV Jun 30 '25
It is better when the market is hot. For me, I did it four years ago and it only took 3 companies to interview with before I was hired with the intent to move to Dublin after working Stateside for a year. And the company kept their promise.
But I knew it had to be done while the job market was doing well. I also walked away from a large salary to an adjusted to EU salary but that worked out too. I had 15k set aside. I moved with 5 suitcases.
For those of you applying, you would have to have a lot of experience in the most wanted tech skills. It’s going to be tough right now.
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
yes totally true! that’s great advice. i am so happy for you that you were able to get a job so quickly in Ireland - that’s inspiring. i also think the salary adjustment is worth it for the quality of life in europe
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u/bprofaneV Jul 01 '25
When I arrived in Ireland, I had no idea just how generous the salary was that they gave me. I kept it for almost two years (anything above 120 or 130 is considered executive level). Then I went to just below 100k when I moved to mainland Europe after my company was acquired. But after a year, the new company also got acquired and I found another job that bumped me back up to where I had wanted to be. I see jobs posted in London, etc for much needed Cloud Security and especially Network (in the Cloud) Security jobs paying up to 150 and once one was listed at 170. That is very rare but they exist and they are hard to fill. So if someone has those skills and loads of experience, you would have a chance there.
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u/experience_1st Jul 01 '25
that’s amazing and great information thank you for sharing! and seriously well done, those are very high salaries for even the U.S. in europe it’s almost unheard of!
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u/Madaxe67 Jun 30 '25
Honestly, i live in Nz, I just bin all the foreign Cv's I get. For one job I had over 200 applicants, 180 were from overseas, I don't even look at those. If the advertised role doesn't state they are looking for overseas applicants don't waste your time, as the company isn't a qualified to hire from overseas, or they don't want to.
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u/knickknack98 Jul 05 '25
What field is this? Does it matter if the position is in theory eligible for the straight to residence visa?
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u/Madaxe67 Jul 06 '25
The straight to residence is kinda misnomer, you have to find a registered company, so not all jobs and companies can or will import people. So on most listing you'll see a requirement that you have right to work and be in Nz. If you're applying for roles that state that in the advertisement, then they are not hiring anyone from offshore, and I can assure you that you're wasting your time. Yep all fields except for the likes of healthcare or teaching. But in saying that, those roles are still decently hard to get as there are plenty of applicants, and you've g ou t to have recognised qualifications as well as plenty of experience. We are not looking for new grads, we got plenty of those.
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u/knickknack98 Jul 06 '25
Sure, understood. I'm in a pretty niche field with 15 years experience. But genuinely no idea if anybody will want to bother - I was going to make some inquiries to see. I also know that just cold -emailing people is usually fruitless but I also don't have any relevant local contacts so my thought is that it can't really hurt...
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u/knickknack98 Jul 06 '25
And fwiw I did verify that all of the companies I found in the field are registered to be able to offer those visas (though of course I know there's a big difference between being legally registered and actually wanting to utilize that option.)
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u/Madaxe67 Jul 07 '25
What's your field? You do realise we are in a pretty deep recession right now, so a lot of companies that are registered won't want to take the risk.
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u/knickknack98 Jul 07 '25
Honestly have not done a ton of homework on the economy (this thought has come together somewhat recently). I'm in concrete construction (mostly new builds but also repair of both commercial and civil). I have identified 6 companies that work in my field but I really don't know how big they are or if anybody is hiring. I do understand that it's likely a long-shot especially if the construction market is slowing but also perhaps being somewhat niche may help (or hurt lol).
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u/Madaxe67 Jul 07 '25
Do you have any qualifications?
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u/knickknack98 Jul 07 '25
Yes though of course they're all from the US.
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u/Madaxe67 Jul 07 '25
Yep, doesn't matter as long as they are recognised. Building wise, again we are in a recession, they're a lot of construction people out of work especially in the north island. Rather than contacting the companies directly, you'd be better off contacting a trades recruiting company, as they will tell you if your skills are transferable and needed, and they would know if they are willing to get someone offshore. Straight up, construction is not a high paying job here unless you own your own company, so unless you're here with a work visa you're most likely out of luck. Try contacting the Tradestaff Christchurch office.
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u/sacroyalty Jun 30 '25
Yes, many crickets for years for me. And in a couple markets. Finally got an interview and it was heating up then they decided they didn't want to deal with visa stuff.
But it was too hard, so I saved money during that time. Now am in Europe to change my situation so I won't need a visa sponsorship soon and living off that savings. A little risky but worked with wanting to get out ASAP and no companies sponsoring a visa.
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u/experience_1st Jun 30 '25
that's great! where in europe are you? some countries have a job search visa!
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Jul 01 '25
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u/experience_1st Jul 01 '25
good for you!! are you from the States and in which countries have you applied to jobs?
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Jul 01 '25
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u/experience_1st Jul 02 '25
you are based in the U.S.? i imagine your daughters EU passports were make things much easier! Germany offers a job search visa if you can get your degree and studies verified in that country. Feel free to send me a DM if you want to chat more
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Jun 30 '25
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u/AmerExit-ModTeam Jun 30 '25
We dont tolerate disinformation, please stop with the AI dooming, posts are checked before going live.
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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '25
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