Doubts about being hired from abroad

Question

I'm a .NET developer with 4 years of experience. Now I live and work in Russia. However, I've been thinking of searching a job somewhere abroad (Europe, presumably). It would be nice to get a full-time job with relocation, but a remote one would also be good.

Doubts gnaw at me though. I'm worried that nobody will consider me worthy to be hired. Perhaps, it may be reasonable because:

• I'm not a rockstar in my field, just an average Middle dev
• So far I have worked on full-time jobs only, no freelance projects (mostly because the first type suits me better). Therefore I virtually have nothing to show to a potential employer except for my CV
• My university background is a bit different (information security) from what I'm doing now.
• Also I'm not really sure what level of English is required (I took my IELTS year and a half ago with 7.0)

Nevertheless, I'm trying to do my best at work and I always try to find some time to master my professional skills. Perhaps, it looks naïve but I don't want to give up this idea to be hired by some foreign employer.

Do you think if there are chances for me to achieve this? What else should I think about?

Answer 1

Right now, due to Covid, everything is more complicated. If you don't find opportunities now, that's not on you. Don't give up, keep trying.

Generally speaking, relocating will be seen as the more favorable solution, because you will need a VISA that includes an allowance to work in that country anyway. Even if you physically reside elsewhere, the company is still bound by the laws of the country where they employ you. Working remote in the same country (or in the EU maybe in the EU area) is just an infrastructure problem for the company, working remote from a different country is a major legal and tax headache for the company. So be prepared that many "remote" positions in Europe actually mean "remote, but inside the EU" or at least "remote, but has a VISA and working allowance for this country".

Companies are well aware of the fact that you cannot show what you did for other companies. That is normal. Everybody has that problem. You don't need a side project. Keep a working history, make sure you can talk about the general work you did. It might be hard to get a normal job if for example your former work is so classified you cannot talk about it at all. Most companies and interviewers can tell whether you are familiar with a tech stack by talking to you, by letting you talk about it. Not company specifics, but general stuff. For example you will never see my code, but I can talk freely about the time I was on the team that did the backend for a large ecommerce platform. I can talk about the problems we faced, what we did to solve them. And as an interviewer I can smell if someone actually worked with a technology, or just has it on it's CV. For example we are working with a specific frontend technology and I will mentally sort out all candidates that tell me they can do it and they never had problems with it. It's a lousy piece of garbage (and that's not my opinion, everything I hate about it exists as confirmed but unresolved bug reports in their repository) and anybody claiming to have had "no problems" with it, obviously did not use it. So bottom line: make sure you can talk about the deeply technical aspects of your code and nobody will ask you for actual code.

Your English skills seem to be very good. Stay sharp in that regard, communication is super important. Most of my colleagues from other countries that did not make it, did not fail on coding, but on communicating. You can be a rockstar, but if you don't ask to clarify the requirements and program the wrong thing, being a rockstar does not help a bit. That is a two way road, the company should have people that make sure you got the requirements right and help you along the way, but in the end, if those people fail too, it's your job on the line, not theirs. So in the end, it is your own personal interest to communicate as good and frequently as possible. English is very likely to be their second language too, so once you know where you are heading, take classes in their language.

Summary: keep trying. Experience is good. Language skills are helpful. You seem to be building both, you are on a good way.

Answer 2

Whether you are a rockstar or just average, it depends on which company you are going in the future,why would they hire you?

Mostly they are looking for skills you have, experiences is sufficient enough, but to stand against over candidates require more than just experience, like your portolio (which you can't show virtually), or certifications.

Invest some on professional certifications, I am not saying this will have you 100% chance to get recruited, but for stand against other candidates, this is your best bet, then you good to go.

Answer 3

I'm a .NET developer with 4 years of experience. Now I live and work in Russia. However, I've been thinking of searching a job somewhere abroad (Europe, presumably). It would be nice to get a full-time job with relocation, but a remote one will also be good.

Doubts gnaw at me, though. I'm worried that nobody will consider me worth to be hired. Perhaps, it may be reasonable because:

I'm not a rockstar in my field, just an average Middle dev So far I have worked on full-time jobs only, no freelance projects (mostly because the first type suits me better). Therefore I virtually have nothing to show to a potential employer except for my CV My university background is a bit different (information security) from what I'm doing now Also I'm not really sure what level of English is required (I took my IELTS year and a half ago with 7.0)

Nevertheless, I'm trying to do my best at work and I always try to find some time to master my professional skills. Perhaps, it looks naive but I don't want to give up this idea to be hired by some foreign employer.

Man is what he thinks. I know sounds cliche but look at the highlighted words. Do those words pictures positivity? Are those words of a confident man? Or they giving negative thinking that lies beneath your mind?

My suggestions change your words and change your life. You must start believing in yourself first. In order to do that, let's flip everything. Please sit down at some quiet place, take a pen and a paper and write down positive aspects of your profile, tell me what you are good at, tell me what obstacles you overcome, tell me what new things you learn, your passion, show me the bright side of you.

I think you can do this or anything once you gain that clarity and focus and strong belief in yourself. And one more thing, don't think others are Superman or Supergirl. We all have weakness. But important thing how you are using stregth to achieve what you want despite of weakness. I hope it helps. good luck :)