The relocation game in tech has changed. But not everyone has realized it yet.
I’ve been involved in tech recruitment + relocation since 2011. Over the years, I think thousands of software engineers have relocated using different resources, articles, tools and products that I’ve built.
Relocation has always felt like my thing. My vocation. I’ve also relocated several times myself. That search for more freedom has always been an important part of my own journey.
The reason I’m writing this article is simple. I constantly receive LinkedIn messages, emails and comments asking more or less the same question. I try to answer as many of them as I can via my articles, but after repeating myself enough times I thought it would be better to put everything in one place. Think of this as a bonfire conversation. I just want to honestly share how I see things.
I’m not writing this because I think I have all the answers. I don’t. The relocation market is changing quickly, and like everyone else, I’m trying to understand it while it’s happening.
Before getting into my own observations, let me give you 3 numbers.
According to the latest report from Greenhouse, an applicant tracking system (ATS) used by tech companies, the average number of applications per job opening has nearly doubled since 2022. This report includes data from 6000 companies and 640M applications.
At the same time, recruiting teams have become much smaller, which means recruiters now handle roughly 5 times more applications individually than they did only a few years ago.
The last number comes from the Dutch IND (immigration agency). I took the Netherlands, but I believe that’s pretty much the overall picture. According to their data, the number of highly skilled migrants (aka software engineers, designers, scientists, etc) moving to the Netherlands in 2025 is almost half (13900) of what it was in 2022 (26200).
None of these numbers tells the whole story on its own. Together, though, they describe a market that’s very different from the one many of us became used to.
Companies receive far more applications than before. Recruiters have far less time to carefully review each one. At the same time, the number of actual relocations has generally gone down. There isn’t a single reason for that. AI is changing how software teams work and, as a result, how companies think about hiring and team growth. The post-Covid era of cheap money is over. Wars, politics and the broader economy all play a role.
The result is that getting a job with relocation support has become more competitive every year.
That doesn’t mean relocation is disappearing. It doesn’t even mean it’s becoming rare. But I do think the game has changed. And from many of the conversations I have every week, I’m not sure everyone has realized that yet.
What’s changed?
As we discussed earlier, relocation opportunities are becoming something closer to a luxury ticket. Or maybe a better comparison is the Olympics. The opportunities are still there, but the competition is much tougher than it used to be.
One thing, however, hasn’t changed. Companies still hire people from abroad for exactly the same reason they always did: they can’t hire the people they need locally.
Before 2022, when the tech market was booming, almost every company wanted to hire more developers. More engineers meant more products, faster growth and, in many cases, a higher company valuation. If you were a software engineer with 5 years of experience, you usually had plenty of opportunities both locally and internationally because companies genuinely struggled to fill those positions.
Today the situation is different. The market has shifted back towards employers. Tech was an exception for quite a few years, but many job seekers still behave as if that exception is the normal reality. It isn’t.
Recently I received an email from a front-end developer with around 7 years of experience. He told me he wanted to move abroad for a better future, a more stable economy, better education and more security. I completely understand those reasons. They’re good reasons to relocate.
The problem is that they’re your reasons, not the employer’s.
Employers don’t relocate people because they want to improve someone’s quality of life. They relocate people because they need to solve a hiring problem.
Companies no longer need to hire many developers simply to justify higher valuations. When they decide to sponsor someone today, they’re usually looking for expertise they genuinely can’t find locally, someone who brings unique value and someone who’s motivated enough to make the move worthwhile.
If all those things come together, the result may well be a better quality of life for you and your family. But that’s the outcome, not the reason.
That’s probably the biggest shift I’ve seen over the last few years.
I often compare today’s relocation market to getting into a top university.
You need to work for it, but more importantly, you need to treat it as an investment.
If you want to build a career abroad, you need to invest in it just like you invest in learning new skills, improving your health or building a business. Sometimes I’m surprised when people tell me they dream about relocating but don’t want to invest even a small amount into understanding how today’s market works.
What to do then?
I keep hearing these days is that people send hundreds of applications without getting a single interview. That’s very different from a few years ago. Back then, some of the most popular discussions on Reddit were about choosing between multiple offers or deciding which country to move to. Today, the biggest challenge is getting noticed in the first place and securing that first interview. Hopefully with a tech recruiter, not an AI screening tool or a coding test upfront.
That’s why I don’t think sending even more applications solves the problem.
For years, the market encouraged volume. Easy Apply became the default. Now we have AI tools that promise to apply for hundreds of jobs while you sleep. That might work in some local markets, especially if your profile is already very strong. I don’t think it’s a good strategy when you’re competing internationally.
Instead of trying to send more applications than everyone else, I’d focus on standing out from the people who are applying for the same job.
That could be a stronger resume. A thoughtful cover letter. Better preparation for interviews. Referrals, cold outreach or networking. Speaking at conferences. Building a visible online profile. The exact method matters less than understanding the goal. You need to cut through the noise.
The second thing I’d do is make it easier for opportunities to find me.
Recruiters still search LinkedIn every day, even at companies like Meta and other Big Tech companies. They actively look for engineers with specific skills using Boolean searches and various sourcing tools. Not every company openly advertises relocation support, but many are still willing to make exceptions for exceptional candidates. If you’re invisible, those opportunities never have a chance to find you.
The third thing I’d seriously consider is whether employer sponsorship is the only path to relocation.
If your goal is to build a life in another country, there are often other ways to get there. Talent visas. Job seeker visas. Digital nomad visas. Studying abroad. Employer of Record arrangements with an existing remote employer. They all require different levels of effort and investment, but they also give you something valuable in return.
Imagine you’ve already moved to the country, have the legal right to work there and are applying locally instead of internationally. The conversation with employers immediately becomes different. The pool of companies becomes much larger because visa sponsorship is no longer part of the equation.
That’s why I keep coming back to the idea of investment. Sometimes investing more upfront creates many more opportunities later.
One more thing has also become much more important over the last few years.
When you apply overseas, you’re competing on a global market. You no longer have the “home field” advantage of already living in the country or speaking to recruiters face to face. That makes positioning yourself much more important than before.
Understanding your strengths. Explaining why you’re different. Building relationships with recruiters and people who’ve already relocated. Learning how to present your experience in a way that’s relevant to the market you’re targeting.
Those things have always mattered. Today, they matter even more.
Know where you want to go
One thing I’ve been noticing more and more is people telling me they want to relocate anywhere.
I completely understand where that comes from. There are dozens of reasons why someone might want to leave their home country. Better opportunities. Better quality of living. More stability. More freedom. Those are all perfectly valid reasons.
The problem is that if you translate those reasons into today’s job market, they become much less convincing from the employer’s perspective.
5 years ago, saying “I’m happy to relocate anywhere” wasn’t necessarily a disadvantage. Companies desperately needed engineers and were willing to sponsor visas simply because they couldn’t hire enough people locally.
Today the market is different.
Recruiters have become much more selective about who they sponsor. Technical skills are still important, of course, but they can evaluate those during interviews. What they’re also trying to understand is your motivation. Why this company? Why this country? Why now? Those questions matter much more than they used to because employers have many more candidates to choose from.
That’s one of the reasons I think it’s much better to have 1 or 2 countries you genuinely want to move to instead of trying to relocate anywhere.
Once you know where you want to go, you naturally start learning about that place. You read about the housing market. Maybe you’ve already visited the country. Maybe you’ve spoken at a conference there or have friends who relocated before you. None of those things will get you hired on their own, but together they show that you’ve thought seriously about the move.
I don’t think the world has become less welcoming. I simply think employers have far more choice than they did a few years ago. And when people have more choice, they naturally become more selective.
Clarity about where you want to go, and why, is now a competitive advantage.
Why I’m still optimistic
I also don’t want to make dramatic predictions about where the market is going. Nobody knows that. AI is moving incredibly fast, companies are still figuring out how to use it, and every few months something changes the conversation again.
What I do know is that relocation isn’t disappearing. Otherwise, I wouldn’t still be in this niche.
I still see companies hiring internationally. I still see people changing their lives through a job opportunity abroad. The market is smaller than it used to be, and it’s definitely more competitive, but the opportunity itself is still there.
For many years, relocation was almost a natural consequence of being an experienced software engineer. Companies competed for talent, recruiters reached out constantly, and many candidates had several international offers to choose from.
Today’s market rewards something different.
It rewards people who understand why companies hire internationally. People who invest in their careers. People who stand out instead of blending into hundreds of applications. People who adapt instead of hoping the market goes back to the way it was.
If even one person reads this article, changes how they approach relocating abroad and starts treating it as a long-term investment instead of a lottery ticket, I’ll consider it worth writing.
That doesn’t mean you’ll get an offer next month. It doesn’t even mean you’ll get one this year. But I do think you’ll make better decisions.
Good luck! 🤞