People are republishing posts from this blog on other Web sites. You have my permission to repost one article. I only ask that you provide a link back here and make it clear that this blog is the source. If you post more than one article, drop me a line and ask my permission. I'll probably say "yes", but I've had issues with other sites scraping my content to drive traffic to their site.
This is the Overseas Exile "how to become an expat blog". I also have a personal blog. I'm a US citizen who's lived in five countries and am now happily living in a port town on the West coast of France. I have met many people who've left their home country and many more who also want to live in a different country but don't know how. This blog is here to answer your questions.
You are going to be either a skilled or unskilled worker. Both can live and work in another country, but you'll take different paths to get there. Unskilled workers will be considering teaching English overseas, working as au pairs/nannies and things like that. We'll cover these and other options as we go along. See my Young Person's Guide to Living Abroad, though honestly, it fits just about anyone who is an "unskilled" worker.
Skilled workers will be considering a traditional work permit route. To do that, you want to read my 5 part "work permit" series.
Regardless of which route you go, you must read Why you'll say "no" to living abroad. It's the seminal post of this blog. I make reference to one fictional "Count von Europe" and why you'll turn down his offer to be the caretaker of his castle. Most people I know who say they want to live in another country find a reason to say "no" to him. Once you can say "yes", you're ready to go.
Also, working abroad is pretty safe, but just as a precaution, you should read about the dangers of working abroad.
And because this has quickly become one of the most popular entries on this site: the secret back door into Europe.
And rules for commenting: be polite, that's all I ask. You can strongly disagree with me or others, but you must be civil. If you're not sure if your tone is civil, don't post. I will delete rude responses without warning (I rarely delete responses because I want to encourage discussion and sharing of ideas, but calling someone an "idiot" is a perfect way to getting your comment deleted, no matter if you are correct or not).
Here's a list of international job web sites you may find useful.
Finally, part of what inspired me to start writing this blog was all the people asking the same questions in the Reddit /r/IWantOut/ community. Not only have they been a motivation, many of the answers supplied there have been useful in this blog. Thanks Reddit!
Sometimes I have "no post today" entries with a brief explanation of why. As a bit of an inside joke, I tag these posts as "aristotle" to allow you to filter them if you prefer.
Oh, and you also want to read Beginner's Guide to Moving Abroad. I wrote that for a friend and it explains a lot of information that's not present here.
Overseas Exile is a participant in the Amazon Europe S.à r.l. Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk/Javari.co.uk/Amazon.de/Amazon.fr/Javari.fr/Amazon.it.
