How to get a job abroad

Last year I went for my first job interview abroad and I successfully got a job in Ireland. I thought it might be useful to share a couple of tips for those of you who think about looking for a job abroad as I had sought such an article myself before I had my interview.

1. Fine-tune your LinkedIn profile

In my opinion, this is the most important thing and that’s what enabled me to be contacted by the headhunter. I played with my LinkedIn profile for years. It became a hobby for me, I published an article about my core value (integrity) and I filled in all the sections available on the LinkedIn profile. In my former job, I was an ambassador at university job fairs and within the ambassadors’ group, I lectured a LinkedIn course for my teammates. It was wonderful because I learned many new things as about 30 people were attending one of my presentations, many of them from Recruitment and HR so I learned some secret inside hints at those meetings.

Nowadays LinkedIn is a place to be when one looks for a job, its job marketplace is immense. With a good looking profile you are very well set to receive calls from headhunters or recruiters. It is important to set up your career interests in the dashboard on your profile page “On”. This way you’re more likely to receive any job offers and learn about the opportunities as the sourcers, recruiters, and headhunters know you are open to learning about new opportunities.

2. Focus on your English

If you are applying for similar kinds of jobs as I do, i.e. office jobs in multinational companies you are probably aware that there might be a language requirement. Foreign language is not something you learn within a week, but learning English is useful for practically any job nowadays. On the other hand, I have had many colleagues who came in with zero or low language skills and they learned as they went, improving their English was their motivation for the job and there are many jobs where your mother tongue is highly appreciated. So don’t be afraid, there is no better place to learn than by real-life practice.

3. Try out some interviews

The practice is the mother of skill. You can practice not only language but also a job interview in real life. Just apply for a job you are somewhat interested in and give it a try. At least you will gain some confidence when applying for another job. In the beginning, I was very nervous during an interview, but when I went for my 5th or 10th interview it became pretty much a routine thing. I think it is very healthy to attend a job interview at least once a year. You will get to know about the opportunities on the market and you will find out what is your current price if you successfully get to the last phase of the recruitment process when you are offered an actual job.

4. Aim high

Some of my friends love it so much they go for ań interview very often, I was told that it was very good to apply for jobs way out of your league because sometimes you can learn many new things about the job you would love to get in future. Sometimes we also tend to underestimate ourselves so you might be surprised by receiving a spectacular job offer eventually.

5. Don’t be afraid

When you get a job offer and you are now standing in front of the decision whether you are going to move abroad, please be aware that you are facing the hardest part of the whole process. You will think about all that moving to a foreign country brings to you. Your brain will work hard on producing ideas, imaginations, pros, and cons, you will think about what you will miss and what will improve in your life. The hardest part is to do the last step.

6. Do it!

My only advice is easy. Do it! Everything you are thinking and analyzing will be completely different anyway. Stay calm. If it is something you always wanted to try, do it! You can always move back. You can find a different job in your new city. You can do whatever you want. Life is too short to be afraid to do new things and for postponing things.

7. One last thing

And now the most important thing in the end. Do it! Really. No excuses. Try it. It’s a good experience. Don’t think about it anymore. Just do it.

Fingers crossed🤞