How to Prepare for an Overseas Job Move 6–12 Months Before You Apply
You need to do research, start warming your market up and make a name online before you apply for a relocation-friendly job.
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Most candidates treat relocating for work like a standard job search, just with a flight to another country at the end of it. They wait until they are “ready,” polish their resume, and then start mass applying to roles that offer relocation to Germany, Canada, or Spain.
But there’s a mistake hidden in this process. And the candidates will notice this mistake when they start stacking up their rejection emails.
The mistake is that, even before you apply to a relocation-friendly job, you need to get yourself and your profile ready for the local market (I call this “warming it up”). Matter of fact, you should prepare for an overseas job move 6–12 months before you apply.
I recently caught up with Eli Gündüz, Principal Tech Recruiter at Atlassian and founder of Careersy Coaching, to discuss what actually works for candidates who want to move abroad. As you can expect, we agreed on one core truth: the most successful candidates start building their runway 6 to 12 months before they ever send a single application.
Why so much preparation? Because when you plan to relocate, you’re missing out on your local network
If you wait until you need the job to start looking, you are already behind because you’re forgetting that you’re not playing under the same conditions as you are at home.
This is not like applying for a job in a market you know about. In a local search, you have a network, you know the market, and employers recognize your previous companies. You might even have a friend here or there who can refer you.
When you move abroad, you lose those advantages. It sounds a bit coarse to say it like this, but remember: you’re entering a new ecosystem where no one knows you, trusts you, or understands your background. (Unless you purposely connect with someone who’s from the same place as you are.)
That’s why you have to treat an overseas job as a market-entry challenge. And a challenge, any challenge, requires preparation!
Researching your market and warming up to it is more productive than mass-sending CVs
If you want to relocate and find a job abroad, you can divide your preparation into two distinct buckets:
The Logistics (30%): Essentially, getting your CV, LinkedIn, GitHub, and your digital footprint polished (here’s an article Eli published with some tips for LinkedIn) and sorting your paperwork up so you can apply for jobs and have a better chance. And this involves researching your visa options and speaking with an immigration expert.
The Market Entry (70%): The reputation building, networking, and “warming up” the market.
Most people spend their time worrying about the first bucket and ignore the second until they start getting rejection emails. In Australia, a market Eli knows a lot about, warm referrals and internal advocacy help you get attention, but a CV written for the Australian market is absolutely necessary to convert that attention into interviews.
But what I usually see is a time and effort imbalance. People either over-polish their CV and stay invisible, or they network hard but lose momentum because the CV they send isn’t tailored for the Australian market.
When you’re targeting roles abroad, you can’t rely on a polished CV alone. You need to warm up the market and make sure your CV is designed for how hiring actually works there.
Phase 1: The Logistics (Months 1–2)
This part covers the first two months of your preparation before applying for a job. And you’re deciding exactly where you will play so you don’t waste energy on markets that won’t hire you.
Pick two or three cities at most. Each city has its own salary standards, tax laws, and tech communities. Mixing Berlin with Singapore in one search makes your strategy too thin. Also, choose target companies. Look for organizations with a history of hiring from abroad. You can find these by looking at the Relocation-Friendly Tech Jobs Report, which highlights the sectors (like fintech) that actively look for international talent. You should also know your visa requirements, since knowing this early means you can tell recruiters exactly how you will get there, even if the company helps you do it.
By month two, you should have:
A focused list of companies: Aim for 10–15 companies that fit your skills and are known to support relocation. These are the places where your application has the highest chance of success.
A focused list of no-employer-required visa pathways: Because you can always get to relocate without a job, even if it’s not the most conventional path. You should be familiar with this, since it’s a good plan B.
A list of 20–30 people to talk to: These shouldn’t be random names. Find recruiters, engineers, or team leads who already work at your target companies. You don’t need to ask them for a job yet. You just need to start following what they say and how they work.
A clear timeline: You should now know when these companies usually hire. Many European companies, for example, have slower hiring cycles during August, but that’s not necessarily the case for a company in Australia, where slower hiring takes place during Christmas.
By the end of these two months, you will have a clear map. You won’t be guessing which companies might sponsor you or which cities are too expensive. You will have a system in place that tells you exactly where to spend your time.
Get serious about your financial game right away
This is also part of the logistics: Plan your costs ahead! Companies with relocation packages will cover the big stuff (flights, maybe a month of housing), but you will likely have to pay for deposits, temporary furniture, and living costs before your first paycheck lands. Start saving a specific “relocation buffer” now so that you know you can effectively move when you get the offer.
Phase 2: Building Surface Area (Months 2–6)
Once you have your map, you need to start showing up. This phase is about making sure people in your target market know who you are and how you think. You want to create enough “surface area” so that when an opportunity appears, you are already there to catch it.
One good place to start is LinkedIn. Yes, both Eli and I advise starting off with a presence over there. You don’t need to write a book! A helpful comment or a shared link once or twice a week is enough to keep your name visible. You should try to:
Make it obvious in your headline or “About” section that you are targeting that specific location (e.g., “Software Engineer | Planning a move to Auckland in December 2026”). We wrote about this play in detail along with Eli, and I’m sure there are many ideas you can take from that post.
Connect with the right people: Send connection requests to the recruiters, hiring managers, and engineers at the companies you identified in Phase 1. Comment
Link up over Slack: Not every connection is out on LinkedIn. Some are easier to reach out to. Consider connecting with engineers from your current company who already work or have worked in your target market. You can just slide into their DMs and tell them your plans.
Map the key local tech platforms and recruiting agencies in your target market and make sure you have up-to-date profiles there (e.g. Dice in the US, Welcome to the Jungle in France and Europe, hackajob in the UK, WeAreDevelopers in Europe, JapanDev, VanHack for Canada, etc.). This is how you cast your nets for future opportunities.
Comment thoughtfully: Avoid generic “Great post!” comments. Instead, add a perspective or ask a follow-up question that shows you actually read what they shared. But don’t spam with AI-generated worthless comments!
Share what you know, and then listen up and learn: If you plan to post rather than just comment, write about problems you have solved in your current role.
Try other platforms: You can try joining Slack or Discord groups of developers from your target country. Maybe even recruiters lurk those channels…
Visible, ongoing GitHub activity (yes, the green squares) can strengthen your candidacy. Contributing to a future employer’s open-source projects on their GitHub page can even serve as an icebreaker in an initial conversation with a recruiter or engineering manager.
What you get, in return, is:
They’ll recognize your name: When a recruiter at your target company sees your application in six months, they should think, “I’ve seen this person’s comments before, they know their stuff.”
You show up in local searches: You also come up in searches in the local market because you have Auckland (or Sydney, or Berlin) in your LinkedIn profile now.
Micro-rapport: You are building small layers of familiarity. These “micro-interactions” make it much easier to ask for a referral later. We’ll get into that!
If you connect with a recruiter and they start seeing your comments, trust starts to compound during these months. You are moving from being a stranger to being a peer, which is the strongest position you can hold when you finally start to apply.
Phase 3: Getting to the top-of-mind (Months 6–9)
By this point, you have a map of the market, and you have started showing up in the right circles. Now, you need to turn that visibility into trust.
If you apply cold to a company in London or Amsterdam, you are a risk. You are an unknown quantity from a different market. To a hiring manager, “unknown” equals “risky.” Your goal over these 6–12 months is to de-risk yourself.
Eli and I often see candidates who try to quickly build mutual confidence. They send LinkedIn messages saying, “Hi, I want to move to your country, can you refer me?” This rarely works. Trust takes time to build, which is exactly why you are starting a year early. Instead of rushing, during these months, you should:
Attend remote conferences: And ask questions during the Q&A so that people remember you.
Send valuable messages only: If a peer has shared a post on LinkedIn, now you can slide on their DMs and send them that paper that touches the subject.
Talk lightly with recruiters about relocation: You can start telling explicitly to recruiters you’re planning to relocate. Remember, you should advertise this on your LinkedIn headline.
By the end of month nine, if you followed this process, you will have:
A network of advocates: You now have people who are willing to speak up for you.
Top-of-mind status: When a hiring manager mentions an opening, your name is the one that comes up because you were recently helpful or visible.
Become ready for a referral, although…: If you did all this, you supposedly become someone people could refer. But my colleague Giovanni Di Felice, Director of Talent Acquisition at Statista, already confirmed with me that he typically doesn’t recommend or refer someone to a company unless he knows them well or has worked with them directly. So don’t be disappointed if you can’t get a referral. The whole plan works so that you can have a job overseas without a referral.
In this phase, you become a person with a history of being useful. By the time you are ready to send an application, you aren’t a stranger hoping for a chance, and instead you are a known peer that the team is already excited to talk to.
Phase 4: Entering the Market (Months 9–12)
By this final stage, you are no longer an outsider looking in. You have spent months laying the groundwork, and now it is time to turn that preparation into a signed contract. Because you started early, you are applying with a level of confidence and support that most international candidates never have.
📋 You have a list of real people, including recruiters who may be hiring for a role that supports relocation, who recognize your name and understand your work.
🧳 You also know which companies are hiring, what they care about, and how the local visa process actually functions.
⏱️ Time is on your side, because you’ve been planning this.
You do realize most candidates don’t have this, right? So you can now enter the market in style by doing the following:
Start targeted applications: Instead of spraying your resume everywhere, focus on the high-priority companies you mapped out in Phase 1. Or you can also browse through the weekly hand-curated tech jobs with relocation list to find even more jobs.
Try to book calls with familiar recruiters: If there’s a relevant job opening, apply so that they get your profile on their ATS and only then contact the recruiters you spoke with during Phase 3. Remind them of your previous “future interest” conversation and let them know you are now ready to interview.
This is what you can expect in return:
Higher interview conversion: You are far more likely to get a “yes” for an initial screening call.
Faster trust-building: During interviews, you won’t have to spend as much time proving you are a serious candidate. The hiring team already has a sense of your thinking and your character from your months of visibility.
A smoother timeline: Everything moves faster when you aren’t a stranger.
Okay, just three bullet points for a whole year of work. Sounds like it’s not a lot, right? But it’s actually a big deal since it gives you a substantial advantage when compared to other candidates who haven’t done their homework. By the time you hit “submit” on an application, you have already done the hardest part of the job search. You have built momentum, and now you’re a peer. Everyone else is just a PDF waiting on an ATS!
A tale of two candidates who want to relocate
To show you why this matters, let’s look at two scenarios.
Scenario A: The Late Mover (The “Panic” Method)
February: Decides to move to Australia in April.
March: Updates CV, applies to 50 jobs via the “Easy Apply” button. Doesn’t even check if the company supports relocation.
April: No responses. Panics. Sends desperate DMs to recruiters who don’t know him.
Result: Burnout and a rejected visa application.
Scenario B: The Long Game Mover (The “Smart” Method)
January (12 months out): Decides to move. Starts saving. Researches visas. Changes her headline on LinkedIn.
February: Joins a Sydney tech Slack group. Introduces herself as a developer from Brazil interested in the local tech scene. She has a great, very relevant GitHub that keeps growing.
May: Has a few casual conversations with engineers in the group. Comments on their LinkedIn posts.
August: Updates her CV using the principles from my guide on How to Prepare a Strong Tech Resume, along with Eli’s guide on how to stand out. She focuses on clarity and impact, since she knows recruiters only scan for seconds.
October: Mentions in the Slack group: “I’m starting to look for roles in Sydney for a January start. Does anyone know teams hiring?”
November: Notices three jobs at companies that have employees she has been chatting with for months.
December: Interviews, takes it with a stride since its holiday season in Australia.
January: Offer signed.
Just like Eli says, “the system rewards those who show up early.”
Jump into the next step of your preparation (or find that ideal job)
After working hard for over a year to build your profile, getting ready for your first interview for a job that allows you to move should feel as routine as any other day at the office. I recently wrote an article on how to prepare for the first round interview with an international recruiter, and you can also get cues from that. If you need help preparing for these steps or for different ones, you should connect with Eli and Careersy Coaching.
As long as you’re here, I’ll quickly remind you that The Global Move is what I’m publishing to support software engineers who want to move and work abroad. It’s turned to be one of the largest selections of tech jobs with relocation support and visa sponsorship on the internet.
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Good luck!