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Comment by jondubois | Hacker News Reader

I left Australia with the aim of relocating to Europe permanently and I traveled around Europe for a couple of months while staying at AirBnBs and working freelance for a US company (remotely); then for about 6 months I lived in Moscow (Russia) but the work started drying up (and I didn't have much savings left at that point).

I was running out of money and couldn't find a job as a developer in Moscow due to language barriers (also, developers don't get paid very well over there) - I tried to apply for jobs in London from Moscow but recruiters were ignoring my resume (probably because I was in Russia and didn't have a UK phone number). So I decided to fly to London and rent various AirBnBs (changing every week or so) while desperately applying for jobs and attending interviews. Thankfully my risky strategy worked out in the end and I managed to get a decent job and found an apartment in London.

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You could have just purchased a UK phone number, couldn’t you?

This would would only have helped me to get past the initial resume screening stage; but the face-to-face interviews are more important. I had to do a lot of face-to-face interviews in order to actually get a job so doing it all remotely while pretending to be a local would probably not have worked out. I did manage to line up a few interviews the week before moving to London; I was generally up front about my situation with recruiters (except for the running out of cash part).

Also, the prospect of ending up homeless in Russia without speaking the language was much more terrifying than being homeless in London; at least I would know how to beg in English lol. So I had a strong incentive to move even though I knew that my situation would become a race against time.

I am surprised you didn't pitch it as a vacation. For example: When they ask... saying "I took a 3-month sabbatical after completing my last contract and am currently traveling extensively. I will be back in London in two weeks after I finish my vacation. However, I am very interested in the role, and would love to do as much of the interview process as possible from here".

I never meet anyone from my actual company until 7 months after being hired... So I guess that just seems normal to me...

> Also, the prospect of ending up homeless in Russia without speaking the language was much more terrifying than being homeless in London;

Isn't that the kind of situation that you can turn up to the Aust consulate and say "Need ticket home!", which they'll generally make happen (for Aust citizens, in actual need).

It's hard to access most services in the UK without proof of a UK address

This ^ .

When I visited the UK (as a tourist), I walked into some phone company's store and walked out 10 mins later with a pay-as-you-go sim card and a UK number, no address or proof of anything other than "I have enough cash for this" needed.

The company could still figure out that he can't attend an on site interview and he's in Russia.

By the way, Russia is a particularly bad choice. Russians are not permitted to work in London, it's outside of Europe and there is no immigration agreement. The resume won't survive the first pass from HR.

I don't think that's true. In my experience there are many Russians moving to London for software positions. The parent is also not Russian from what I understand.

The company could sponsor a working VISA. It takes a fair amount of paperwork but it's doable.

Remember that you're competing against 300 million Europeans who can move to and work in London overnight. You better have a great profile to be worth the hassle. Forget about low level roles and smaller companies.

Let's ignore for a minute that the parent was not Russian. Having a Russian number is a red flag that the candidate may be abroad and not have the right to work in the UK. It's definitely screened out by HR.

Why do you capitalise ‘VISA’? What do you think it’s an acronym for? It’s just an English word.

Russians are not permitted to work in London

London is full of employed Russians so your information is perhaps outdated.

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