The Brutal Truth About Landing a Remote International Tech Job Right Now
The question I receive the most in Q&A sessions and podcast episodes is pretty straightforward: how do I get a remote or international tech job? How do I actually pull that off?
In this article, I’m going to share my perspective and give you a few tools that I think are absolutely key and they might not be what you expect. So let’s get to it.
Starting Locally to Build the Foundation
Starting from the start, there’s one big truth you need to be aware of, and you need to answer a tough question: why would a company hire you? Why would they even talk to you? Especially in these types of roles where there’s massive competition locally and globally. Nowadays, it’s a global playing field. Why would it be you?
To answer that question, you need to focus on one thing first and foremost: building solid fundamentals. Focus on your craft. I honestly don’t mind what it is. Front-end, back-end, full-stack, software engineering infrastructure, cloud infrastructure, data analysis, data science, data engineering, security—pick one. Make it your core and become really, really good at it. That is going to be your foundation from a hard skills perspective.
If you don’t have that yet, then honestly, you need to find a company locally and build up that skill first. Managers aren’t just looking at technical capabilities; they also think about who they are hiring from a person perspective. Starting locally instead of immediately chasing an international job without any experience is the best move you can make. Professional experience is completely different from your educational journey or what you learn by reading newsletters and consuming media online.
Working in a team day in and day out, contributing toward a product, a shared vision, and business outcomes as an individual contributor is a totally different beast. You need to build up that muscle and get into that rhythm just to be able to relate during the interview process in the first place.
It takes a lot of discipline and you have to put in the work. If your fundamental skills aren’t there, even if you manage to get your foot in the door, it’s a wasted opportunity. And getting your foot in the door nowadays is already incredibly difficult.
The Case for the Office Early in Your Career
While building up these hard skills, I see a lot of people looking at remote jobs as the holy grail, especially early in their career. During Covid, everyone was remote. But nowadays you have options: hybrid, fully in the office, or local remote.
My advice, especially for people early in their career? Go to the office. All right, you might hate the idea of five days in the office. That’s what I did, and obviously I’m speaking from experience here. But seeing people who haven’t done that, it’s different. You’re completely isolated. It’s very hard to ask for help when you have to explicitly put in the effort to call someone.
When I went to the office, having colleagues right next to me made it incredibly easy to pair program, ask for quick help, or sit in after hours. I would spend hours after work discussing technical intricacies and learning about people’s interests, which built trust and helped us execute better. Because I was eager, people would take their time to walk me through technical concepts on a whiteboard after hours. It was basically a personal tutoring session, and you just don’t get that remotely. Remote work feels way more transactional.
Find an environment where you can be there in person with people who are enthusiastic to teach you. Once you build up those fundamentals locally, you can leverage a major shortcut: moving internationally through your company.
If you work for a local branch of a large international company, it doesn’t even have to be Big Tech. If you build a stellar reputation within your team and your org, that can translate into landing a job overseas. If you are vocal about your career path and what you want in life, your manager and your skip-level can support you in getting there. Honestly, this is often the most feasible path. You will still have to apply formally and face competition, but your foot is already in the door because people within the organization can put in a good word for you. Your time spent at that organization becomes your leverage, and your reputation pays dividends.
The Unspoken Skill: Flawless Communication
I receive a lot of questions from people in non-English speaking countries who want to move to an English-speaking country. This means language is core. English is the most internationally accessible language for tech professionals, so it makes sense to get really good at it.
No one talks about this, but if it’s hard for you to get your thoughts in order and communicate smoothly in English, you are at a massive disadvantage compared to people who can. It’s the harsh and honest truth. You need to be sharp verbally, in your writing, and in your reading comprehension. Communication and maintaining a smooth conversation with someone is usually the most challenging part to master.
Luckily, you can practice. I did it subconsciously by playing a lot of video games while listening to podcasts, which naturally improved my speaking. Doing this podcast on a week-to-week basis and speaking English at home with my partner has gotten my English to a highly professional level. That’s where you want to be. Whether it’s through tutoring, language classes, podcasts, or joining a local Toastmasters club to work on your public speaking, do whatever it takes to up your communication. If two candidates have the exact same hard skills, empathy, and kindness, the one who communicates better is getting the job every single time.
The same applies the other way around. I have friends trying to move from the UK to the Netherlands, and speaking Dutch has been their biggest bottleneck because local marketing or sales roles require the local language. But because English is so ubiquitous in tech, the inverse is usually much easier.
Distinguishing Yourself in the Age of AI
We still haven’t answered how companies judge your skills before they even talk to you. With AI nowadays, it’s incredibly easy to retrieve information and generate content. A lot of resumes companies receive look exactly the same either generated by bots or written by real people using AI to tweak the tone perfectly for the job description. It makes it nearly impossible for hiring managers to weed through hundreds or thousands of applicants and choose you for an interview. Getting your foot in the door is probably the most difficult it has ever been.
So, you can probably guess what I’m going to say next: you need to build up a social presence.
I know some people hate that phrase. It doesn’t mean you have to become a typical social media creator, but you must distinguish yourself from the herd.
Writing and Newsletters
If you love reading, you might be excellent at writing. Start a newsletter or a blog internally at your company or externally for the public. Get your thoughts in order and publish material outside your immediate sphere of influence. If you set a goal to write a blog or a newsletter weekly, you will build up a massive muscle and a legacy of work.
Imagine being a year down the road and telling a hiring manager, “I’ve written 52 articles on software engineering.” That is incredible social credit. You can even use this to network by reaching out to engineers at companies you want to work for and asking to interview them or co-create an article. People love building their own technical credit and are usually very open to this.
When I look back at my career, I don’t remember exactly what I built five or ten years ago, but I remember the relationships. Networking through collaborative writing is a simple, highly effective way to build those bonds.
Open Source and GitHub
Since we’re talking about software engineering, contribute to open source, optimize your GitHub profile, and build side projects. Find what you are passionate about and learn out in the open. Create things you are genuinely proud of.
Read More:From Bad UIs to Ink Scams: The 100 Most Annoying Tech Problems
I recently saw a job application form that asked, “What is exceptional work that you’ve done?” and it explicitly stated that if the section was left empty, the application wouldn’t even be considered. A legacy of beautiful open source contributions or cool GitHub projects shows exactly what you are proud of and makes you stand out.
Podcasting
If you love listening, you might want to start a podcast. I know that’s a bigger leap than writing, but hear me out because that’s exactly what happened to me. Inviting people on a podcast to share knowledge builds immense credibility and expands your network globally. If you conduct remote interviews with experts in different countries, you are practicing your English communication skills while building professional relationships.
Finding Community
A lot of networking happens through local meetups, conferences, Discord servers, and online forums. Find your community, engage, and help people. Explain technical concepts on YouTube, write tutorials, or mentor others. Share as much knowledge as you can and pay it forward. It’s an abundance mindset—not a dog-eat-dog world. You never know when that effort will come back to help you.
Strategic Outreach on LinkedIn
Let’s say you’ve done all of that. Your craft is solid, your English is great, you have social proof through a blog, GitHub, or a podcast, and you are ready to apply.
Most people just go to a company’s career page, upload their resume, and leave it at that. But nowadays, it’s incredibly easy to see exactly who is recruiting for a position on LinkedIn. If you are a perfect fit, send that recruiter a direct message.
Don’t be cocky or spammy—be authentic and kind. Tell them exactly why you are excited about the role, why you want to work at that specific company, and how your experience matches the requirements. Most importantly, share the evidence that distinguishes you. Drop a link to a specific GitHub project, a relevant article you wrote, or a podcast episode that showcases your communication skills.
They might not reply, but when they do, you have smoothly skipped the resume black hole and landed your foot right in the door. I’ve seen this work firsthand. I still interview occasionally just to keep my interviewing skills sharp, and this personal, authentic approach works far more often than you’d think, even for highly competitive roles.
w used to be a standard LeetCode exercise, followed by a system design round and a few team interviews. But because AI tools can solve standard coding puzzles instantly, companies are pivoting. They are putting way more focus on system design, pragmatism, and live collaboration.
I recently spoke with the CTO of Polar Steps, and they use a full-day, eight-hour exercise focused entirely on collaboration, communication, trade-offs, and pragmatic execution. For remote or international roles, companies are recreating these extensive collaborative sessions online.
System design is highly trainable. There is a mountain of content online to help you prepare. Practice the rhythm of building a system, validating assumptions, having a dialogue, making trade-offs, and explaining why you scale certain components. You can even use ChatGPT on your phone, speak to it, and ask it to evaluate you as a mock interviewer.
You aren’t going to nail every single interview, and failing is an inevitable part of this long, hard path. Sometimes it won’t even be your fault—companies lose budget, undergo reorganizations, or pull job openings at the last minute. It sucks, especially when it’s your dream job. But don’t sulk or sit on it for too long. Learn what you can, protect your confidence, and keep moving forward.
