From Rejections to Relocation: Mojtaba’s Journey to a Tech Job in London 🇬🇧

An interview with a software engineer who found his new role in London through The Global Move’s weekly job lists.

Mojtaba, a backend and platform engineer from Iran, applied to hundreds of jobs during his international job search. This year, he landed a tech role in the UK — thanks in part to The Global Move’s weekly job lists. In this interview, he shares his honest experience, challenges, and practical advice for those of you searching for a job abroad.

Hopefully, his story brings you inspiration and some useful hacks.

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Could you briefly introduce yourself?

I’m a Software Engineer from Iran with about 10 years of experience, mainly in backend and platform engineering. My core tech stack includes Python, Django, FastAPI, AsyncIO, Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, Terraform, AWS/GCP, Redis, PostgreSQL, and modern DevOps tooling.

Before relocating, I was part of Deriv in Malaysia, where I worked on developer tools, infrastructure, and AI onboarding systems.

I got into tech out of curiosity about hacking, hardware, and even game programming — none of which actually happened 😄. But that curiosity pushed me into coding, and I loved how quickly I could build things.

Why did you decide to relocate?

I wanted more growth, bigger challenges, better tech culture, and the chance to work with highly skilled teams in Europe. I also wanted long-term stability and a place where I could build my future.

When did you start searching for jobs abroad? And were you doing it actively or passively?

I started around early 2024. I fell apart multiple times during these two years because of so many rejections, but I never lost hope and just kept applying 🙂.

You mentioned falling apart multiple times due to numerous rejections. What kept you going?

My goal of working abroad. Even when I felt broken, I knew quitting wouldn’t get me there. Taking short breaks and improving myself helped me keep going. There were moments when I stopped entirely because I had lost all hope — especially after being rejected in the final stages, right before an offer — but after a longer break, I started applying again.

How did you approach your job search?

I kept improving my resume, practiced system design and coding, researched companies, and applied consistently. I tracked everything and learned from each interview in an Excel sheet with these columns:

• Company name

• Country

• Location (city)

• Role

• Application date

• Where I found it (LinkedIn, referral, etc.)

• Resume version (I had different resumes for each role)

• Status (HR, technical interview, system design, cultural, etc.)

• Visa sponsorship (true/false)

• Relocation package (true/false)

• Salary (net)

I also added a separate column for additional application details — for example, the cover letter I wrote for the role — so all the information was in one place.

Did you target specific cities, countries, or regions?

Yes — mostly the Netherlands 🇳🇱, the UK 🇬🇧, and Germany 🇩🇪. I also applied to other places in Europe, but not as actively.

Were you focusing on certain types of companies (e.g., startups, scale-ups, big tech, specific industries)?

My personal preference was startups because there’s more flexibility, but visa sponsorship is harder to get from startups. So I ended up applying mostly to big tech companies since I needed visa sponsorship for relocation.

What criteria mattered most to you when choosing which companies to apply to?

The most important criteria for me were an interesting tech stack, a strong engineering culture, a good feedback process, learning opportunities, and visa sponsorship.

What was your application strategy? Did you focus on one approach, or did you use a mix — for example, applying on company websites, using job boards/LinkedIn, and reaching out to recruiters with your resume?

A mix: direct applications on company websites, LinkedIn, job boards, and sometimes messaging recruiters directly. I didn’t rely on just one channel.

I also used Relocate.me, which was really helpful.

And, of course, The Global Move! You’re doing a wonderful job hand-selecting tech jobs that support visa sponsorship and sending them out in the newsletter.

I was a paid subscriber of The Global Move and found my new job in London in one of your Thursday job lists.

If you had to start your international job search again, what would you do differently?

I would apply to fewer roles but more intentionally, prepare earlier, and start small projects sooner. I’d also follow more of this site’s recommendations — it really helped me.

What resources did you use during your job search? Which ones were most effective?

LinkedIn, StackOverflow Jobs (when it was active), company career pages, Telegram/Discord groups, newsletters, and system design/coding platforms.

Note: If you haven’t already, subscribe to the Relocate.me Telegram channel for international job opportunity alerts and practical advice.

What about LinkedIn? What did you like or dislike about using LinkedIn? Did you have any LinkedIn-based successes (e.g., recruiter outreach, interviews from posts, etc.)?

I liked that recruiters could reach out directly and that LinkedIn shows roles with visa sponsorship. The downside is the noise and the number of irrelevant job posts. But yes, I did get recruiter messages and a few interviews through LinkedIn.

Unfortunately, most inbound messages from HR (head-hunting) turn out to be for non-visa-sponsorship roles 😢. These days, it’s really hard to find a job that offers sponsorship.

From your experience, what makes an applicant “good” or competitive in today’s job market?

A clear CV, real impact, strong fundamentals, good communication, and consistency. Showing real projects and being prepared matter a lot. Communication is especially important these days with the rise of AI tools.

Based on your own journey or any experience interviewing others, what do you think helped you stand out?

This site helped me a lot: https://interviewguide.dev. But in a nutshell, a few things really made a difference:

1. Practice LeetCode, especially medium-level problems.

2. Practice system design.

3. Don’t lose hope after rejections — just keep going and keep improving.

4. Build small hobby projects that push you to learn new technologies/the skills the market wants (the ones that show up frequently in job postings).

What was your strategy regarding cover letters or motivation letters? Did you submit one with your applications?

I kept them short and human. I always created a custom cover letter for each job posting (I know it is really annoying, but unfortunately there’s no other way).

For your cover letters, did you focus on your experience (essentially an extended version of your work experience), or did you try to demonstrate your interest in a company and explain how your experience could benefit them?

I kept them short, focused, and personal. More precisely, I included a bit about my experience plus a clear reason why I liked their company. If I break it down, maybe 60–70% was about me and how my tech stack related to the role, and around 30% was about the company and why I wanted to work there.

Did you customize them for each role/application? And what tools or methods did you use to make that easier?

Yes — light customization based on the job description. I used ChatGPT to refine them without making them too long or complex.

Roughly how many jobs did you apply to? How many first interviews did you receive? How many final rounds? How many offers did you get overall? What influenced your final decision?

I didn’t track everything in my Excel sheet (as I mentioned before 😄 — sometimes I was too tired to write it down), but these are the approximate numbers:

• Around 200–300 applications

• About 15–20 first interviews

• Around 6–8 final rounds

• 2 job offers (including one from PhysicsX, where I now work)

I chose PhysicsX because of the challenge, the people, and the chance to work on deep technical problems.

What advice would you give to tech professionals looking for jobs abroad in 2025, especially given how challenging the market is? Any practical tips or ‘lifehacks’ from your own experience that could help others succeed?

Be consistent. Improve your fundamentals. Prepare well for interviews. Keep your CV simple. Don’t get discouraged — it’s normal to fail many times. Use weekends to learn, build small projects, and keep applying.

Why small projects? How did they help in your job search?

They gave me something concrete to show, kept me motivated, and showed interviewers that I was improving, not just waiting. They were also really helpful for system design sessions. And even in LeetCode-style interviews, small projects sometimes help (depending on the company).

By the way, is your new company still hiring?

Yes, PhysicsX is usually hiring, especially strong backend and platform engineers. We’re looking for great people who want to solve exciting problems, and, as far as I know, the company still supports relocation and visa sponsorship for strong candidates.

Anything you wish you had known before starting the relocation/international job search journey?

How long the process can take, how important good storytelling is, and how much mindset matters. I also wish I had known earlier that relocation stress is normal and temporary (I hope :D).

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💡 Bonus section: Mojtaba’s resume review

As a former tech recruiter, here’s what caught my attention when I looked at Mojtaba’s resume:

1. Clean and simple one-column layout.
   Nothing overcomplicated. Just a clear, readable, one-column resume with proper spacing and structure. Easy to scan and professional.

2. Strong GitHub and Stack Overflow presence.
   While Stack Overflow isn’t a major factor for most companies these days, showing past contributions still adds weight. In this case, both GitHub and SO were listed and showed consistent technical involvement.
   

3. Skills section placed in the header.
   The resume showed key technologies immediately: Python, Django, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, Docker, AWS.
   

   On the second line, a broader set of languages (Go, Perl, etc.) and database technologies were listed, giving a full-stack impression at a glance.
   

4. Bullet points written with clarity and impact.
   Bullet points were short, concrete, and full of measurable accomplishments. No fluff, just what was done, how, and what changed. It followed the pattern I often mention: “Did X by doing Y, which resulted in Z.”

   Optimized development by leading a Dockerization initiative, reducing AWS EC2, GCP setup times from 15–30 minutes to 2–3 minutes, boosting efficiency and cutting costs.

   Reduced memory usage of servers by 70% from 2Gib to near 0.7Gib by Integrating unnecessary split Flask microservices.

   Executed High Availability method between 6 servers using CockroachDB Distributed DataBase.

   Achieved saving 200+Gib of unstructured subtitle texts in MongoDB for 10+Tib of videos saved on the disk.

5. Company context included.
   Each job had a short sentence or bracket explaining what the company does — whether it’s fintech, smart home, or B2C edtech. That helped create immediate business context, which a lot of resumes miss.
   

6. Clear and relevant AI involvement.
   Instead of vague “worked with AI” buzzwords, Mojtaba described real contributions where AI/ML was applied and recruiters can immediately tell that it’s not just resume decoration.

   Won AI prize for RAG-based AI onboarding bot by integrating real-time text-to-speech (TTS) and speech-to-text using OpenAI’s Whisper, the Kokoro model, and ChromaDB, enhancing accessibility and user engagement.

   Developed an autonomous AI Agent using CrewAI (built on LangChain) to automate operational tasks, including generating test coverage reports and posting daily DevOps sprint summaries to Slack, streamlining workflows and improving team visibility.

7. Good balance of tech depth and focus.
   It didn’t feel like a wall of buzzwords. Just the right number of relevant technologies, clearly grouped and placed in a logical order — no overloading or trying to list everything ever touched.

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If The Global Move helped you find a job, please message me — email, LinkedIn, or Substack DMs all work. I’d really enjoy learning about your journey and experience.

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