Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Working Abroad: 6 Countries that are Great for Freelancers Who Want to Live the Expat / Nomad Life

Episode Date: August 10, 2018

Born in Bermuda, Lené Hypolite has lived in Venezuela, Canada, the U.S., Amsterdam, and is soon headed to Singapore and Tokyo. She loves the excitement of expat life, and also how its benefiting her career. On this episode, we talk about six countries where it’s a little bit easier visa-wise to live abroad, and how to find work there.Visit sarahmikutel.com for photos and a list of the countries. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to the Postcard Academy. I'm your host, Sarah Micatel. Quite a few episodes ago, I interviewed Tim Leffel, a travel writer and author of A Better Life for Half the Price. We talked about how to become an expat, where you can live well on the cheap, how to test out a new country before committing, and other questions to ask yourself before becoming an expat. This has been one of the most popular episodes of this podcast, and so to continue this theme, today I am talking to Linnae Hippolyte. she is founder of Take Flight, a relocation coaching and consulting company that helps you turn your dreams of moving abroad into reality. Linnae has lived in several countries herself, she's about to move onto her sixth one, and today we will be talking about six countries where it's a little bit easier visa-wise to live abroad and how to find work there.

Some of these places really surprise me. After the show, you can head on over to postcardacademy.co for photos and a full list. list of the countries we talk about today. This podcast is brought to you by Audible. Not a member yet. Postcard Academy listeners can get a free audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up using the link, audible trial.com slash postcard. Now into my conversation with Linnae. Well, thanks for coming on the podcast. I'm looking forward to collaborating with you. I interview expats around the world and I especially like to feature women to inspire other women. to just get out there and be more adventurous.

And so I think you're a perfect person to be on here. I really, really appreciate it. Before we start, I'd like to know a little bit about your story there, because I think I'm going to be talking a lot about mine. And I want to know why you got started and what your background is. Well, I have traveled, I guess, my whole adult life. I did some study abroad when I was in college in London. But even before that, like I had an English boyfriend,

and so we spent a summer in England together working, in the Lake District. And I always wanted to come back to England, but I didn't think it was possible. So, like, many years go by. And then I realized because I'm of Italian heritage that I could actually apply for Italian citizenship and get an EU passport that way.

So I actually did that. So I moved to Italy and surprisingly got my passport in, like, two months. But I liked the town I was in so much. I ended up staying for, like, at least nine months and made some good friends there. but then it was time to earn some money because I was not earning any money in Italy. So I went to London and then have been there more or less over the last seven years, although I come to Italy quite a bit. And actually over this last like six months, I've been just sort of digital nomadding around.

I'm thinking of like maybe living in another place, although I still love London, but it's just getting quite expensive. And I kind of want to do more take a little break. and just think about what I want to do career-wise. Like, I'm starting to start my own, like, freelance business in a way that I want to set up to be more location-independent. Like, I do a lot of contract work now, but it's more going into offices and stuff. And so I'm just, I'm figuring all of that out right now. Nice.

Okay. Interesting. What kind of work do you do? Marketing, communications, a lot of internal communications. So I've worked for some pretty big companies in London. because it has to be a big company to have a communications department. So I've worked at Barclays. I've worked at Apple.

I've had some really great experiences. But my background's mostly in a lot of writing. So, I mean, that's stuff you can do anywhere in the world. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Okay, nice. That's really cool. Yeah, I've been to London a bunch of times. So I'm actually UK citizen, but I've never lived in London.

So kind of like your story with Italy, very similar to mine, from Bermuda. I got my passport to make it easier for me to move to Europe. And yeah, London is just, was just always so expensive. I remember I went to visit. I went home for Christmas break to work and then I went to London on holiday, spent all the money that I made for Christmas. And so I was in uni at the time and I went back to uni with like no money for the semester because I spent it all in like two and a half weeks in London, crazy. Crazy time. Yeah, it's shocking. Yeah, it's shocking. Like I still live with roommates and, you know, I, I, And to be honest, over the years I've gotten used to it and I enjoy it now.

But like in my 20s, did I think I would be well into my 30s still a thing with the room? No, but it's a necessary. It's necessary. It's so expensive. Yeah. How did you get a UK passport? So Bermuda is actually still a colony. Oh, okay.

It's a little tiny island in the Atlantic Ocean right to the east of South Carolina and North Carolina area. Not in the Caribbean, which most people think it is. but still have that Caribbean culture. So when you're born, you're born with dual citizenship. So you're born with, yeah, British and Bermudian citizenship. And so, yeah, you really just need to apply for it. It takes a little bit longer because I think they're trying to discourage people from applying for it, but we still manage to get it.

Well, that's awesome for you. That works out. I mean, so many options. And I think that a lot of Bermudians don't take advantage. or a lot of people who have dual citizenship, just like you, don't really take advantage of it, you know? So that's something that I always tell people. Yeah, just get that passport and make your life so much easier. You're currently living in Amsterdam.

So what was your first experience abroad? So my first experience abroad was I was six years old, and we took a family trip to Disneyland. And that was the first time that I actually left the country. And I think I caught the travel bug, even at, six years old. Because after that, I think we traveled at least once or twice a year, just around the U.S. and Canada. Now we're too far, but yeah, really just to those regions.

And I always loved it. I always looked forward to going abroad. I think back then the biggest thing was McDonald's, because we didn't have a McDonald's in Bermuda, so every time we would travel, I would be so excited to just get a happy meal and get the toy, you know, and it's just so different from Bermuda. Yes, that's a draw for many kids. around the world. So how did you end up in Amsterdam? Great question. So this is, I think, country number five that I've lived in. And I was living in Atlanta at the time, Atlanta, Georgia, in the US,

and I had lived there for about four years. And it was kind of, things were kind of getting old. Not that I didn't love it because I really, really love Atlanta, but I think things were getting a little bit kind of redundant. And I kind of like that new, exciting feeling. And it was kind of everything was becoming a little bit routine. And I've always wanted to move to Europe. So I decided to take a trip to actually visit a friend of mine in Barcelona because I thought I was going to move to Spain. And I loved it. The beaches were nice. The weather was awesome. The people were amazing. And I also had a friend living in Amsterdam at the time. So I thought on the same trip, I'd go to Barcelona and then I'd go visit my friend in Amsterdam. I came to Amsterdam. And as soon as I

got off the plane and I got to where I was staying, I knew that I was moving there. I just knew. The reason why is I think, and I talk a lot about this in my webinars and things like that, but I really had to sit down and think about what I was willing to give up to live in Europe. I wanted, I did want to have great weather. I wanted to be able to enjoy my life. You know, I wanted kind of like the ease of life that Spain offers, but I also wanted to continue to progress in my career. I wanted a good standard of living in terms of of a higher income and I wanted to be able to afford to travel around Europe and I knew that the Netherlands would be able to give that to me over Spain and also being from not the Caribbean

but from a Caribbean influence island I wanted somewhere that I could see you know see myself and my culture represented and the Netherlands has a really big Caribbean culture here as well so that's one of the reasons why I decided to to move to the Netherlands I moved to Amsterdam also it's just a really cool city. It's really cool. Yeah, and I didn't know about that, that, about the Caribbean culture. So that is really cool. I think, you know, when we think of Amsterdam, we don't necessarily think of a ton of diversity. So that's good to know. So what were you doing for work when you first moved? Did you have a job that has been, has let you live in all these different countries? Yeah, that's a good question. So I'll just, maybe I'll start from the, start from the beginning. So my first experience living abroad, I was

17 and I participated in an exchange program in Venezuela, literally the middle of nowhere. So I lived in a really tiny mountain town called Rubio, which is, I think, one of the towns closest to the border between Venezuela and Colombia. I did an exchange there. And then I moved to Canada, to Toronto for undergrad. And then I moved to Atlanta. It got a little bit too cold for me. So I moved to Atlanta, Georgia in the U.S. for grad school, and I also stayed and worked a little bit there.

And then that's when I made the transition to Amsterdam. And I'm also actually in the process of moving to Asia soon. All over the place. So what did you study and has a specific job moved you around? Yeah, so I studied international economics for both undergrad and grad school, which was a terrible idea. But it's helped me, actually. And yeah, in a way it has. So I've always wanted to work in a job that combined business and technology. And I think that that degree was a great foundation in terms of the global finance and global technology space. And when I moved to Amsterdam, I worked for a global payments company and I was able to go all over Europe, to Asia, to Latin America and things like that with that company. And then two years ago, I switched to the company that I worked for. for now, which is in the travel space.

And it's the same thing. So I'm able to travel all over the world. Although I think within the next few months, I'll be focusing more on the Asia region. Because you're moving to Tokyo. Moving to Tokyo. So that's actually interesting. So I am moving to two countries in Asia.

So I'm moving to Singapore and Tokyo, actually. How is this working? Yeah, fascinating. Yeah. Tell us everything. So originally, so my partner, is moving to Tokyo for work. And the plan was for me to also move to Tokyo and we would, you know, live together and continue our lives there. But I actually ended up getting employment in Tokyo,

which was great, but it just didn't feel right. So I think I got the job about a month ago. And, you know, it's kind of thinking about whether I should take it or not. And then I just decided, you know, maybe I shouldn't take it. Maybe it's not the right fit, even though, I just had, you know, kind of a feeling and then I thought, what if I try to go with the company that I'm with now? You know, like what if I pitch, hey, would you guys send me to Tokyo to work? And I pitched it and there was some compromise on both sides. And they said that we will send you to Singapore, but you'll spend 25% of your time in Tokyo and 75% of your time in Singapore. So I took the deal.

And I took it for two reasons. I took it because, first of all, it allows me to spend some time with my boyfriend, we can kind of have some time together. But Singapore is a great country or a great place for expanding my career horizon. So right now I can say that I have work experience in the U.S., Europe, and now Singapore, which is a major financial hub globally. So I think, yeah, I think I have the best of the world now. So long story short. Yeah, that's so cool.

Your dates are going to be so glamorous in these different international cities. What are you doing for the travel companies? Is it finance related? It is finance related. I would say a combination of finance and technology. But yeah, it is, it is finance related. So something sort of like fintech related then? Exactly. So I work basically in fintech. That's exactly what I do. It's a global company. You know, we have connections all over the world that need to be managed. And that's kind of the team that I'm focused on. Okay. Definitely a growing sector. And I'm just interested because I talk to, you know, a lot of writers, a lot of travel bloggers. And women in finance is not something that comes up a lot, especially when it comes to like traveling around. So I just think it's really cool to hear that.

That's what you're involved in. Yeah, I find that a lot as well, you know. I find that a lot of a lot of the travel bloggers are writers, which is awesome because their blogs are probably way better than mine. But there are also opportunities for you to progress in your career field if you, if you want to, you know. And that's what I want to get out there as well. Yes. So it doesn't, if you want to travel, it doesn't mean throwing away your career when I started doing a ton of travel and especially taking contracts and then taking several months off to travel around. My parents freaked out a little bit. And we're like, what are you doing? You're going to have all these holes in your resume and no one's going to hire you. And I've definitely found that the companies that you want to work for are the types of companies that appreciate this global experience that you. you're getting to understand other cultures and you have other values in life just besides, you know, working a regular nine to five in that when you actually come to a job,

you're ready and refreshed and are ready to give 100%. Right. I think the world is changing. I think I actually had this conversation with my mom a few months ago, you know, and she was kind of on the fence about it. But I think back in the day, you know, people would work in the same job for like 10 years, 20 years, right? And we just don't that happening as much anymore. It's like, you know, two, three years and then on to the next one. And as the world becomes more globalized and we're connecting online and there's a lot of these online businesses popping up where you actually don't have to be present, you know, your experience abroad becomes a benefit because you can help your company reach a wider audience,

right? So you are the founder of expat launchpad. So what is this and why did you start it? Yeah, so Gregor, Expat Launchpad is a program. I'm under my company that's called Take Flight. And it's basically the starter kit for people who want to live and work abroad, but have absolutely no idea on where to start. What I realize is that having my one-to-one coaching and doing my webinars and Facebook lives is that a lot of people really have specific questions that they need kind of dedicated time to answer.

And also, I think that there's a huge, huge amount of research and information online that can be difficult and overwhelming to tackle. So we provide very specific research to our clients based on what their needs are when it comes to moving abroad. And we also provide a coaching package to help them to strategize, to help them make decisions and to help them kind of prioritize and put a plan into place on getting them from where they are to actually where they want to be. Yeah, it can definitely feel overwhelming when you know you want to live abroad, but it's like, where do I start? Exactly. So some people are fortunate. to get global transfers with their companies.

Other people are lucky enough to have a partner who gets one so they can just go along for the ride. I would really like to help the single folks out there who want to move abroad, but they're just an average, like, say, American, they've got an average job. They don't have that many international connections or they don't think they do anyway. So I would love to get your top country recommendations on where they could work abroad and, you know, maybe what the visa requirements would be for the average, Joe. Sure.

I would recommend the Netherlands, Spain, Bali, Singapore, France, and my bonus is Bermuda, and I'm going to tell you why. Ooh, let's break down them all, yes. Okay. So when it comes to living abroad in the Netherlands, I think it's a great start a place. And I think it's underrated with people who haven't had a lot of of moving abroad experience because of the language barrier.

I think a lot of people assume that there's not a lot of opportunity for English-speaking jobs here. So it's kind of underrated in the expat space, I think. What I like about it is you got a great quality of life and it's a lot less expensive than, I'd say, London, for example. You can find a lot of opportunities to work in English in terms of working, in terms of the visas that you can get. A lot of companies do sponsor visas. here. There's a lot of international organizations here like your Netflix, your Uber, things like that. And even for entrepreneurs, so for American entrepreneurs, it's a great place because they have what's called the Dutch American Friendship Treaty. And it's basically a treaty between the U.S. and the Netherlands that Americans who want to live in the Netherlands and do freelance work, they can get a special visa for that. And the requirements are a lot more strict. streamlined than they are for the normal freelance visa process.

That's so great. I think most people don't know about that one. Yeah, it's really, really, it's really, I wouldn't say it's hidden, but it's not common. And I think you really have to dig and do a lot of research to find it. But it's a great way to get over here. And there's low, low, low requirements in terms of like the money that you have to have, your startup cost, the process. It's all kind of worked out, which is great because I think a lot of the visa processes can be

quite daunting in a lot of countries, but here in the Netherlands, it's quite smooth. Yeah, and the Dutch speak perfect English. Yeah, the funny thing is, a lot of them think that they speak better English than English speakers. Like, I've had people correct me, like, actually, you know, this is how you say it, and I'm like, okay, I mean, this is your country. Forget that is my language, it's fine, you know. But, yeah, they have one of the highest proficiency, proficiency of English in the world.

So, yeah, it's quite easy to get around. I think I've only met one person in the last three and a half years that didn't speak English. So I think it's great for people who want to advance in their career, even if you're starting off kind of, you know, in a year not so sure career. It's a great place to come, continue to progress no matter what industry you're in. And also, it's a great launching pad to be able to see Europe because of its location. And you can get to Paris in three hours. You can get to Brussels in less than two hours.

You can get to Germany in two hours. So it's, yeah, it's a great place to live for travel as well. There's also great tax benefits for expats as well. So they have what's called the 30% ruling. And basically it's a deduction in your total taxable income. So you can get basically 30% of your income tax free, which is great because the taxes are really high here. Wow, that is great. Yeah.

What a great tip. Yeah. And I think one of the biggest cons are one of the biggest big. gets disadvantage is to living in the Netherlands. The weather is terrible. It rains all the time. I think it rains more than 200 days a year here. So you really need to be comfortable with walking around in the rain, biking in the rain, you know, because I can't rain a lot here. It sounds like the pros that way, but I appreciate the con. Yeah, like give it to us straight, Renee. Yeah, I think so. Because the reason why I mentioned is because I didn't know when I moved here, you know? And that's another reason why I want

to do take flight because there's a lot of. of things that I didn't know about that I want to make sure that people who move around the world know. And that's one of the things. I came here with, you know, I had recently gotten my hair straightened and, you know, I thought I was, you know, it rained for like one or two days. I think it rained for like every day for like the first two weeks I was here. It was terrible. But yeah, the pros definitely outweigh the cons. And the good thing is that when the weather is nice, it's even nicer because it doesn't happen so often. You can stroll around and enjoy the tulips. Exactly. It's not too expensive.

to live in the Netherlands. I think you probably need on average around 3K per month to live really comfortably if you want to be able to travel. But you can definitely live on less than that. I just would recommend around that month to make sure that you're comfortable and you can

live a decent life here. Do you live in the center? Can you live in the center for that? I would think not. So it's possible to live in... So Amsterdam, if you think about like a little ring. So the city of Amsterdam is It's quite small.

Actually, probably takes maybe 25 to 30 minutes to bike from one side of the city to the other. And so inside of that ring, that's where, like, Dam Square is, remember I'm paying, lines the plane, all the key places are inside that ring, which are really cool places to live, but they're quite expensive. If you move just 15 minutes away, your rent is a lot cheaper and you're still really close. You know, it's not like bigger cities like New York or London where it can take almost an hour to get to, you know, the cool places. It's quite small. you have the advantage of moving just a little bit over to the east or to the west or even to the north now and still having access to everything. Is it easy to find an apartment?

Are there any websites that we should check out? It's very difficult to find an apartment in Amsterdam. Found our first apartment. It took us about two months to find it, three. Yeah. It's because everyone wants to, you know, everyone wants to move into the big city. You have a lot of Dutch people that are coming from other places. You have, you know, expats coming.

in and it's a very small city right so i started early so and this is one of the things that i do that i also recommend when i moved to the netherlands i had temporary housing for the first six months which was basically just like a living space and a shared kitchen something like that and and during that time i started to do a little bit of research and trying to find permanent housing and so two months before the end of my um the end of the lease of my temporary housing we started looking for actually no it was about four months before the end because we found it two months before we left so about four months before the end of the lease on my temporary housing we started looking at apartments and it took us two months to find one so how much money should we have before we go so I think that really

depends on your lifestyle and it depends on yeah what your living expenses are going to be but I would recommend at least two to three months inexpensive and I think that's excessive I think you'll be I I know people that moved here with zero savings. Okay. So it's doable. But I personally want to give advice to people to make sure that they are 100% secure, especially if you're moving without getting a job first. Right.

Right. Okay. Well, those were some great tips for Amsterdam. Let's move on to the other countries. So then I want to talk a little bit about Spain. So Spain is a really great place because the weather is amazing. the quality of life is great in terms of like it's quite chill. You know,

people really enjoy drinking wine on the beach, you know, going for nice dinners, having great conversation. So it's a really great environment to kind of live in. And there's the possibility of becoming an entrepreneur there as well, especially like online entrepreneurship. So I think it's great for people who really want to live a comfortable life

either later in your career or you just really value having. you know, having a great life, being close to the beach, being close to sun, you know, and people that want to be entrepreneurs. So they have an entrepreneur visa? So that's a tricky thing. It's not as organized as the Netherlands. However, they do have some longtime residency visas where if you're working online, you can just get that visa, be able to live there, and then continue your online business

globally. So it's a little bit more tricky. It's not as straight forward as the Netherlands, but there's ways around it. The easiest option for people who are moving abroad for the first time is probably to go the freelance route if they want to have their own business. Okay. And yes, on the volunteering episode of the podcast, Shannon was telling us that she actually got to stay on a visa that's kind of more for retirees. She's by no means retiree age, but she was able to like prove bank account was that she could sustain herself. So that was another option. Yeah, I think so as well.

You can get a lot of, I think it's like a long-term residency visa where basically they're saying, okay, you can live here, but you're not allowed to work in the country. But what you can do, and this is quite tricky, but what you can do is continue to work outside of the country. So you can have your clients, you know, coming from the U.S. or from France or from anywhere else in the world. So that's also an option. But that I think I would only recommend that to people who are online entrepreneurs already. The digital nomads.

Exactly. Digital nomads. There is a new residence program, an entrepreneur law that Spain has. And it actually facilitates the movement of people to enter and remain in Spain for investors, entrepreneurs, and highly qualified professionals, researchers and things like that. So Spain, but obviously has. better weather than Amsterdam based on how you described it before. The weather is amazing. Yeah.

But I guess a con would be maybe not as many work opportunities or? Exactly. So the problem in Spain is, is number one, there's not a lot of work opportunities because the economy is not quite strong. So there's a lot of competition, even with, you know, Spanish people applying for jobs versus, you know, expats coming there. Also, the salaries are quite low, very, very low. and I think if you want to move to Europe to travel,

you're going to have a difficult time trying to finance that all on a Spanish salary. And also, if you're a person of color, you can experience some levels of discrimination more so than in other areas of Europe. So that's one thing to note. And it's not anything that's detrimental to your economic well-being or your safety, but there is a little bit of discrimination for people of color. But other than that, I think it's a great place to live. If you are an entrepreneur, if you have savings, or if you are one of the very lucky few to be able to get a job, a great job in Spain, take the opportunity because it's a really, really great country.

Yes. And I think I've heard you talk about before, you know, before you go, you should know what you like, what you're, you know, what you can take and what you can leave, what your own lifestyle is. And for me, for Spain, like, I personally know I couldn't live there because they eat dinner too late. Like, the culture is just too different for me. Like, I'm a vegetarian. There's, like, I don't think I could do it. Yeah, I understand that. And I think that's quite important to know.

So it's great that you, it's great that you already know that I've, you're probably the first person I've ever talked to that said they couldn't live in Spain. But, you know, that's pretty good because I think a lot of people think that they would love it. And then they get there and they're like, actually, I'd. I this really isn't for me. We had a session with a few expats in Spain in Madrid actually a few weeks ago and a lot of them, you know, they were like, yeah, we loved it when we came here, but we didn't realize how different it would be to our own culture, you know. Yeah, I lived with a family for two weeks, my friend's family and, you know, I had a blast, but I was like, ooh, all right, ready to go. But anyway, all right, I'm intrigued to hear about Bali.

Yeah, so Bali is great for the digital nomads. It's also a good idea, just like Spain, if you're really liking the quality of life and you're interested in living in Asia and you kind of just want to live somewhere that's beautiful all the time. Bali is great. They do have work permits, although even worse in Spain, the job market doesn't really pay that well. And they haven't really internationalized their corporate space. So a lot of expats that live in Bali are entrepreneurs. And it's quite easy to become an entrepreneur in Bali. The requirements are not so stringent.

The cost of living is quite low. So even if you are entrepreneur and you're not making a lot of money, you can still live a really, really great life on a very low income. They have pretty good Wi-Fi. Great Wi-Fi. Yeah, great Wi-Fi, which is big in Asia, I think. Yeah, yeah. So how much would we need to live?

a month say? Yeah, if you want to live comfortably, I would say between 1.5k to 2.5K, so that's, yeah, 1,500 to 2,500 per month if you want to live really comfortably and be able to travel throughout throughout Asia. I think that's enough. Yeah, I'm headed there at the end of August with some friends, and to be honest, I don't know if I'm going to leave, like, from everything that I hear. I hear a lot of people end up not leaving just because. Yeah, I've heard that story as well. I've heard that story so many times. I've never been there.

Luckily, and maybe that's why I'm still an afternoon. But I hope to go there one day and I hope to be able to experience the greatness of Bali. I'm trying to go towards the time that I moved to Singapore because it's so close. But it's a great place to be an online entrepreneur. Is there a time limit about, like do we have to leave the country and come back for any sort of visa requirement? do you know? That's a great question. It depends on the visa you get. So if you're just coming in on a tourist visa, then you need to leave after, I think it's every 90 days, and then return, and then it restarts your

tourist visa. But if you apply for a long-term residency status, then you can stay for the duration of your visa. Okay. Where else are we going? So I included Singapore on this list because I thought it would be a great country that's a combine, you know, experiencing what it's like to live in a really, really great country in Asia and also to continue to progress in your career without having to go the entrepreneur route. So, you know, if you're the average doing, you're working in financial finance or management, banking, maybe, or real estate or any of these kind of jobs, Singapore is a great option to get international exposure and be able to take that experience back home. And the reason why is because it's so international. There's a lot of expats there.

So a lot of the work that you're doing will be for global companies or you'll be working with people of their similar backgrounds, which makes it easier. And then you can take that experience and say, I have international experience, but it's not so far removed from American culture that you can't take your experience back home. So how can we find a job in Singapore? I think the biggest thing in finding a job is looking in your network and not only in the people that you know, but the people who these people can connect you to. So I talk a lot about, in my webinars, about the six degrees of separation. You know, you're always six people away, maximum six people away from the person that you want to talk to, right? So reach out into your network and figure out who can connect you to what job. And I always tell people, like, if you don't have anyone in your network, talk to me.

And I can try and connect you to my network. And that goes the same for anyone who's listening as well. I think also LinkedIn has great portfolio of jobs available in Singapore. There's a couple of online websites, online resources that people can use. So, for example, Indy.com also has good jobs in Singapore, monster.com, but make sure you're going to the Singapore version of these websites to find the local jobs. Yeah, so I would use your network and I would really use the internet and figure out which are the recruiters that, are top in Singapore, what top job sites are there, and use those to connect you. Yeah, and that's a good tip to use the country's version of whatever site you need. Exactly. One of the things that I want

to add is that Singapore is quite global and quite diverse in terms of having expats from all of the world. So it helps when trying to apply for jobs because you can keep your resume pretty standard. And it's quite easy to get a work permit, unlike other countries that have a quota or have a really rigorous process for some companies. It's quite easy. What happens is when you usually get, typically get a job, and this includes Singapore as well, your company will apply for your work permit for you. So you actually don't have to do any of the heavy lifting apart from sending copies of your passport information and any documentation that they may need. But your company will do the heavy lifting and you can just kind of wait a little bit. It takes about anywhere between

three to six weeks usually to get it back. But yeah, I would rely on your company to provide this for you. I wouldn't try and go ahead and get it yourself. And the reason why is because your work permit a lot of times is tied to the company that you work for. And so they have to prove that they need in this country in order to be able to do a certain function. So when we're applying for these jobs, could you just touch on how CDs and resumes differ by country and what we should be mindful of? Yeah, definitely. So make sure you're doing a little bit of research on how your resume should look. So, for example, in certain countries, a picture on your resume is required.

In other countries, if you put a picture on your resume, it's going right in the garbage. So, yeah, just be mindful of those kind of things. And even in terms of the culture of the country you're moving to, so, for example, in the Netherlands, it's pretty straightforward. In your resume, you want to show what you've done. So you want to highlight maybe the projects that you worked on that were successful, that relate to the job that you're applying for. versus in the U.S. where a lot of it has to do with your qualifications and your education experience.

I think that's focused on very heavily in the U.S. and less so in the Netherlands and even in Europe in general. In Asia, especially in Tokyo or in Japan, it needs to be quite organized and quite concise, quite chronological from like the last state of employment all the way up until when you start an employment. and it needs to look organized and look kind of like everyone else's resume. So there's really no rigor room for creativity or for color or anything like that where some other countries, you know, they don't really care. So, yeah, I would do a little bit of research on the country that you want to move to and what their requirements or what the standard is in having a resume and applying for jobs. Yeah, it's so interesting.

I was talking to a German friend of mine. So they've got the photo requirement as well. But then also, you know, you're supposed to put whether you are married, where you were born. And she even, and the past, I guess it was common to put like what your family does, what your siblings do. And I just thought that's the most discriminatory thing. I have a herd. So if you come from like a bad family or, you know, I just, I don't know, I didn't like that idea at all. Yeah, some countries can have really, really crazy, really crazy requirements.

And I think in the Netherlands, it's actually quite the opposite. They really don't even, like a lot of times when you go to recruiters in the Netherlands, they'll even take your name off of the application to avoid any kind of, you know, innate discrimination against you. So it's really just your work experience in what you've done, whereas countries like you're saying in, you know, in Germany are quite detail. and they want to know everything about you before you even get a chance to show that you're actually skilled at this job, right? It goes to show what you need to do to prepare

to apply for jobs around the world. And I think one tip that I will give is make sure you connect yourself to the company or the country. So for example, for yourself, if you are applying for a job in Italy, for example, if this was years ago, then you might put an Italian address on your resume

or you might show that, hey, I have Italian citizenship. even if you don't have any work experience in the country, try and show some sort of connection between yourself and the country that you want to move to because they're getting applications from inside the country, other people who have lived there before, you know what I mean? And so you really want to make sure that you can demonstrate some sort of connection to help make yourself a more attractive international candidate. Did we cover all the countries that you wanted to talk about, or did we miss any? I think France. Okay. Oh, yes. Let's talk about France.

Yeah, so France is actually really cool place. And I think I put it on this list because I have a lot of clients and people who are interested in moving to Paris a lot. And I think that I took a poll in a Facebook group and most people, most of the women wanted to move to Paris. I think it's like this dream, this kind of dream romanticized expat place. So I put it on here. And even me, I wish, like if I could go back, I would have done a study abroad in Paris. So it's something that's dear to my heart. And I think it's a great place to be in terms of getting a feel and what it's like to live in Europe.

There's always a lot to do. It's also really cool in terms of its location because you have, you know, the French Riviera, you have access to Amsterdam to Brussels. It's easy to get back to North America from Paris. So it's a really great city. And there's definitely options in terms of work permit that you can get from, you know, a company that wants to sponsor your visa. and they also have something called a long-term residency visa for entrepreneurs. So basically you can apply to live and work in France as well. So if I have my own online business, I can just go there and apply for this long-term residency program, and it should be fine.

You need to apply in your country of residence. So you would need to apply within the U.S. And you need to apply through your local council. And then what happens is they will provide you. with a visa for you to enter the country. And within three months of you entering the country, then you need to register your business. You need to register your business.

You need to provide some documentation. And then you will be given the residency permit to live and have your own business in the country. So you sort of touched on this. But what are our first steps to finding the documentation requirements for the country we want to go to? And then are there people we can hire

to just navigate this bureaucracy? Definitely. So take flight offers a research service where we offer country comparisons. So we'll take a look at this information for you. If you tell me, for example, I want to move to France, Spain or Berlin, and I need to know what I need to do as an entrepreneur or what my options are in terms of employment. We can do that research for you. And I've done that a ton of times of clients, just kind of helping them to understand and navigate. So for example, I had a client who wanted to move to London as a lawyer. And she didn't know. know where to start. And so we really dug into the details and figured out the exact process for her on what she needed to get done. She was American. She was American. She was American, Nigerian. And so she had kind of dual passports. And she had passed the U.S. bar, or not the U.S. bar, sorry, the Illinois bar. And she wanted to know could she work in London with, you know, that designation or did she need to pass the bar in the U.K.? Or what have you? And so we really figured out what the stuff. That's where that she needed to take to get from Chicago to London and mapped out a process to help get her there on everything that she needed to do.

So we can definitely help with that. Otherwise, I would literally, and this is going to sound so silly, but I would type in how to get a job in X country. And there's a lot of information out there. Don't get me wrong in saying that it's that easy. But if you can find the right resource, they will help. It will literally show you step by step on how to get there. It's going to take a little bit of digging, a little bit of sifting through the information that's old or incorrect, but there's ways around it. Internations does a great job at highlighting what it's like to live in countries, but also providing a starting point for information on how to get a work permit, how to get an entrepreneur visa in these countries.

And also, a lot of these countries have their own expat site. So for example, in the Netherlands, we have IMX, or sorry, I am X, we have I am Amsterdam, which is everything about living in the Netherlands as a foreigner. And it shows you the exact process on how to get a job here, how to get a freelance visa and all of that information. Yes. So there's information out there. But as you said, like the important thing is to make sure it's up to date because these requirements can change all the time. Exactly. And if you can't be bothered, you can just. just contact Linnae and she will help you out. I plan on in the future posting more documents on country specific things.

And I want to make sure that because I'm giving information to the public that's accurate and more streamlined. So I'm really trying to help put that information out there as much as I can. I'm going to start with Amsterdam. Okay. I don't know if we have time, but I wanted to add the bonus country that I had looked at and it's actually Bermuda. So I just wanted to mention Bermuda and highlight it because it's one of those places that are close enough to the U.S.

So it doesn't feel like you're too far away from home, but it's a completely different world. And yeah, it's it's you can get a whole different cultural experience. And also, you know, for the average Joe, it's also just like Singapore, a great way to build up your experience because there's a lot of American companies that are based there. And you can work in insurance, management, uh, tourism. You know, and it's quite easy to get a work permit in the country. And also, you can make a lot of money because it's so expensive. Salaries are really high. So if, you know, you want to go and, you know, get a roommate and try and save up for a while,

you can save a lot of money if you get like a one or two year contract. Well, you're blowing my mind. It never would have occurred to me to go to Bermuda for the period. And it's, yeah, it's a really good place for career. And I think that the type of jobs there are, it's not, you don't have to be a rocket scientist. You know, you can have a very broad skill set. You can be an accountant. For example, we have Deloitte, PWC is there, KPMG are there.

There's a lot of American insurance companies, hedge funds, you know, and yeah, it's a great place. It's super close to the east coast of the U.S. It's less than two hours from New York. Quite easy to get a work permit. The weather is amazing. And, yeah, you can, and I said this already. but you can really make a lot of money. And so, sorry, you mentioned the work permit, but what's the visa requirement?

So it's very similar to countries around the world. Basically, your job has to sponsor your visa. So they're basically going to immigration saying, hey, we need to bring this person in because there's no one in the country that can do the job. Can you help us? And then you're given the visa and you're allowed to take the job. And I think now the visa is, I'm not sure, I think it's one to three years. that you can get the visa for and then you get it renewed,

but it's not difficult to get it renewed at all. My stepmom, she's Australian. She's been getting her visa renewed for the last like 17 years. So it's quite an easy process. And so Bermuda is still a UK colony. Does that mean that people from the UK can just go to Bermuda, no problem and just start looking for a job there if they want to? It doesn't.

And I think that's quite selfish. because I'm a remedian and I can go to the UK, I can go anywhere in Europe, you know, because I have EU citizenship. However, UK citizens, they don't have Bermudian citizenship. And so unfortunately it means that they have to go through the work permit process as well. But like I mentioned, it's quite easy. It's not anything that's too complicated or difficult. And there's a lot of opportunities there for different kinds of roles as the economy continues

to grow. And so does the job market. So it's not too challenging. Well, there you go, UK people. If Brexit ruins everything, you can go to Bermuda. Yeah, exactly. And the weather's amazing. Much better than in the UK. Thanks for adding that one. Yeah, I definitely didn't want to forget about it. And yeah, what a nice surprise. Yeah, it's one of those hidden gems, you know? Like, if you know about it, you know, but if you don't, like, it's really cool to learn about it because, yeah, I think it's, it can be a really cool experience for a lot of Americans. So, Lennie, this has been a fun conversation. Thanks for sharing all this great info.

Where can we learn more about you, expat lunch pad? Thanks. So you can follow me on a follow take, you can follow take flight on Instagram at at take flight expat or follow us on Facebook at take flight life or you can check out our website. It's takeflightlife.com. There's a bunch of great resources on there that are somewhere for free. There's also. some great blog posts that have a lot of information on that's going to help your experience moving abroad. Very cool. Thanks so much, Lennie.

Thanks so much. If you're interested in signing it for one of Lennie's free webinars on how to land a job abroad, head on over to her website, takeflightlife.com. She's got another one coming up very soon. If you like this podcast, please subscribe if you haven't already and tell a friend about it. This is the best way to grow the show. And that's all for now. Thanks for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot?

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