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I live in Europe right now and work as a fullstack dev in one company since over 2 years - my job was really uninteresting and unsatisfying for the past few months though. I want to not only change it but also to change a place of living (private reasons) - I've been looking for a job in Asia a lot recently in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, or Malaysia, but to no avail - companies just don't respond in 95% cases (remaining 5% are usually weak companies).

Therefore I can see two options - wait and continue looking, or quit a job and go live in some cheap part of Asia from where it would probably be much easier to get for an interview or communicate in general. I have a lot of money saved to do that, but I'm afraid that it won't solve any problems, and I will just go back to Europe afterwards.

Is quitting a job without a new one always a bad idea? Is it better to be on-site when looking for a job on another continent? Is this not too "unprofessional" career move to make?

Thanks for any suggestions!

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  • At the moment, I agree with the duplicate. You've could pivot this question into "how could I improve my chances for being hired in a foreign country?"
    – HorusKol
    Commented Apr 6, 2019 at 20:56
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    You won't be able to do this. You can't just go "live in another country" - they will throw you out. You can go "live in HK" if you have about $15 million dollars to invest in a business (in that case they'll give you a certain type of visa).
    – Fattie
    Commented Apr 6, 2019 at 23:54
  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it belongs on the "expat" site.
    – Fattie
    Commented Apr 6, 2019 at 23:55
  • The suggested duplicate has no connection to this question. (This question is whacky and should be closed, but it has no connection at all to the other mentioned question.)
    – Fattie
    Commented Apr 7, 2019 at 0:02
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    Find NEW job and then quit existing job...
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Apr 7, 2019 at 9:07

2 Answers 2

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Many companies (in Australia and New Zealand at least, it may or may not be the same in Asia but I'd imagine it's similar for good companies) won't interview candidates who are outside the country and/or don't have a valid work visa. The risk that the candidate will not be granted a visa or will change their mind about moving is high, and so it's commonly considered a waste of time.

My source for this is conversations I had with recruiters while applying to jobs in Australia from outside the country (with a valid visa). In my case it turned out that I received no interest during six months of applications from outside the country, but within three weeks of moving to Sydney I had two good job offers.

So first look at the visa requirements for the country you want to move to. Are you eligible for a working visa there? How long does the application process take, and what does it require? If you can't get a work visa then you can't work in that country no matter what.

Then do some job market research - try and get in touch with companies / recruiters / professionals in the area you want to work in, and see if you could expect interest in your CV if you were local, or if there's just not a good job market there at the moment. Then look at the cost of living and see if your savings will cover you if things go wrong and you aren't able to find employment after moving there (and don't forget that moving is really expensive too). Then take your research, weigh up the options, and make a decision.

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  • you have a valid visa. I might say that your answer will just confuse the OP, who apparently thinks you can "just move" to different countries. (Yes, by all means, if you do have papers already, you must move first, as you explain. Nobody's going to care about you while you're still overseas. But again, it is unrelated to the question here.)
    – Fattie
    Commented Apr 6, 2019 at 23:57
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    @Fattie, possibly it will. I tried to call out the importance of the visa in the first paragraph, it probably belongs in the last one as well.
    – Player One
    Commented Apr 6, 2019 at 23:58
  • Note to OP - it must be a visa that includes the right to work. Your basic tourist visa will not include that - so even heading over on that in the hopes of picking up work once you're there will probably not pan out since you won't have a right to work. Countries also typically make it harder and more expensive to apply for a work visa from inside the country, too.
    – HorusKol
    Commented Apr 7, 2019 at 12:23
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My experience in Thailand has been good companies, in general, do not care that much if you are based there beforehand or not. If you don't get any replies from those types of companies applying from abroad, you're unlikely to get replies being there.

That goes for the "good" ones, the "bad" ones you will most likely have more luck with physically being in the country when you apply and go for face to face interviews with.

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