What’s Inside:
- Why “remote” on a job ad doesn’t mean you can work from Lisbon. Target remote-first companies, and ask early.
- Where to look beyond the big job boards. Specialist boards plus a shortlist of 20 companies you’d genuinely love to work for.
- Why applying and waiting isn’t a strategy. How Danielle found 4 opportunities without sending a single application.
- This Week’s Remote Roles. Real remote roles for Senior Professionals.
Hey,
If you’ve sent application after application for remote jobs and haven’t heard anything back, I want you to know, it’s probably not you. It’s how you’re searching.
I know how deflating that silence gets. You start rewriting your resume at midnight and wondering if you’re too senior, not senior enough, or just invisible. Most of the time, none of that is the problem.
I’m Cepee, founder of She Hit Refresh, a community that has helped more than 24,000 women figure out their move abroad. After 10 years of living in Europe, I can tell you the visa usually isn’t the hardest part. Finding a job that lets you work abroad is.
I hear it in our community all the time. Someone has the country picked, the visa requirements bookmarked, maybe even a list of apartments with balconies saved. Then they hit the job part and everything stalls.
Here are the three biggest mistakes I see:
1. You’re searching for remote jobs instead of remote-first companies
One of our community members, Danielle had her visa pathway for Spain figured out. She even had a remote job. There was just one problem… her employer wouldn’t let her work from abroad.
Her job was remote… but only in the US.
That’s a gut punch I’ve watched more than a few women go through.
A listing that says “remote” doesn’t mean you can work from Lisbon or Mexico City. Many remote roles come with location restrictions or US time zone requirements that rule out taking the job abroad.
It usually comes down to paperwork, not trust. Employing someone in another country can mean dealing with that country’s tax rules, employment law and payroll, and plenty of companies would rather say no than figure it out.
The better move is to target remote-first companies that already have a culture of letting employees work from different time zones.
How do you spot them?
Look for team pages with people spread across several countries, careers pages that mention “work from anywhere” or list the countries they hire in, and job ads that ask for a few hours of time zone overlap rather than naming a single city or state.
And ask early. Find out whether working from abroad is actually on the table before you’re three interviews deep and already in love with the role.
2. You’re only searching the big job boards
The big job boards are where everyone else is looking. Target specialist boards like EU Remote Jobs. Others worth bookmarking include We Work Remotely, Working Nomads and Remotive, and many let you filter for roles by location/region.
But don’t rely on job boards alone. Start identifying the companies you want to work for and build relationships with the people inside them.
Make a shortlist of 20 or so companies you’d genuinely love to work for. Follow them on LinkedIn, find the person who’d likely be your manager, and engage with what they post before you ever ask for anything. When a role opens up, you’re not a stranger in a pile of 500 applications. You’re someone they already recognize.
3. You’re applying and waiting
Submitting an application and hoping for the best isn’t a strategy. The people getting hired are positioning themselves through a LinkedIn profile recruiters can find, networking, introductions, and referrals.
Networking only works if you do it properly, though. Michelle sees the same pattern over and over: a copy-paste connection request, or a message that opens with “here’s my experience,” when what the person on the other end really wants to know is whether you can help with the problem they’re dealing with right now. One short, specific message that shows you’ve done your homework on their company will get further than ten generic ones.
Your LinkedIn profile matters too. Recruiters search it like a database, so your headline should say what you do and the kind of role you want, not just “Open to opportunities.”
That’s how Danielle did it. After working with Michelle, she got serious about networking, landed a role that qualified her for Spain’s Digital Nomad Visa, and made it to Madrid.
In her words: “I was able to find 4 opportunities and none were applications, all were through networking.”
Not one of those four came from hitting “apply.”
This Week's Remote Roles
🎯 Fully Remote Jobs (No "Fake Remote" Here):
Where Michelle and I Can Help
Landing a job you can take abroad takes more than applying to anything labeled “remote.” You need to know where to look and how to get noticed by the right employers. The good news? None of that requires you to be more qualified. It requires a different approach.
That’s exactly what Michelle and I are working on together in The Remote Work Bootcamp, a live, hands-on 4-week program (4 workshops and 4 Review & Regroup sessions). With Michelle’s guidance, you’ll:
✅ Identify remote roles and companies that fit your skills and your goal of living abroad
✅ Strengthen your resume, applications, and LinkedIn profile to stand out to employers
✅ Learn how to make connections and get referrals instead of relying solely on job boards
✅ Put what you’re learning into action each week, with live feedback and support
🎁 Michelle will help you with the job. And I’ll be joining you for a bonus live Move Abroad Q&A, where you can ask me anything about visas, choosing where to live, scouting trips, housing, or whatever else is keeping you stuck.
Between the two of us, you’ll have the job side and the move side covered, which is the combination most people end up piecing together on their own from Reddit threads at 1 a.m.
It starts Monday, November 16 at 8:30 PM ET. We’re keeping the group small, with a maximum of 30 women. That’s on purpose, so you get real feedback on your own profile and applications instead of sitting in a webinar with hundreds of people. Doors close Thursday, November 12.
See you inside,
Cepee
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