How to Move Abroad: Your Guide to Start Living Abroad

Jaksot

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  I Had to Interview for My Own Job When I Transferred Countries. Here's Why 14.09.2026 14min

  When I transferred my job from Vienna to Zurich within the same company, I still had to apply for it. And interview for it. Because Switzerland considered it a new position — and before my company could give it to me, they had to prove to Swiss authorities that no local candidate could do what I do.For my own job. That I was already doing.This week I'm talking about the legal reality of international hiring that almost nobody explains clearly — why employers in most European countries are required to demonstrate they couldn't find a local candidate before they can hire you, what that process actually looks like, and why this is the real reason you keep getting passed over and it has nothing to do with your qualifications.Also: what actually works when the playing field isn't level.
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  Same Word. Completely Different Game. What Nobody Tells You About Job Hunting Abroad. 07.09.2026 11min

  When you hear the word football you think Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady. The rest of the world hears it and thinks Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Same word. Completely different game.And this is the most accurate description of what is happening in your international job search right now.You have been doing everything right — the resume, the cover letter, the applications, the follow ups. That's football. That's the game you know. But the moment you decided to land a job abroad you walked onto a FOOTBALL pitch in full pads and a helmet and wondered why everyone was looking at you like that.This week I'm talking about why the American job search playbook fails internationally — what's actually happening on the other side of your application, why the portal was never the point, and what showing up in the wrong uniform is costing you before anyone has even read your resume.This is not a talent problem. It's a translation problem.
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  You've Applied to Hundreds of Jobs Abroad and Heard Nothing. Here's Why 31.08.2026 19min

  You've applied to a lot of jobs. Maybe hundreds. And you keep hearing nothing, or you get to the final round and they hire the local candidate, and you're starting to wonder what's wrong with you.Nothing is wrong with you. Your experience is not the problem.Your strategy is the problem. And that is actually the best possible news because strategy can be fixed.This week I'm starting a new arc focused entirely on landing a job abroad — and we're starting with mindset because none of the tactical stuff works if the foundational beliefs are wrong. Why the job search strategy that works at home is actively working against you abroad. What is actually happening on the other end of your application. And the one frame shift that changes everything about how you approach this.
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  Just because you CAN get by in English doesn't mean you should... 24.08.2026 17min

  When I moved to Switzerland I didn't speak German. And I was fine. I worked for a global company, English was the working language, I could do my job completely competently without it.And then I moved to Vienna. And I had a direct report who didn't feel comfortable speaking English. And suddenly I had to manage someone... in German. And that changed everything about how I learned.This week I'm talking about the language barrier and your career abroad. The three levels of language need and which one applies to you. Why Foreign Fridays at the office moved the needle in a way Duolingo never did. And why getting by in English is not the same as being able to actually grow in a country where the real conversations happen in another language.
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  The Dragon, the Lake, the Maze: What Harry Potter Gets Right About Moving Abroad 17.08.2026 14min

  My daughter and I are reading Harry Potter right now. Goblet of Fire specifically. And somewhere between the dragon and the lake and the maze I realized ... this is exactly what moving abroad feels like.Quick note upfront: JK Rowling has said and done things I don't agree with and won't pretend otherwise. The story belongs to the readers now. So we're talking about the story.This week I'm mapping the Triwizard Tournament onto the move abroad process. The dragon: the obstacle you didn't fully see coming that you have to get through with what you have. The lake: going somewhere cold and dark and full of things trying to stop you to get back to something that matters. The maze: the middle phase where the path keeps changing and nothing is where you expected it to be.And the cup. And the portkey. And why what's on the other side of it is the beginning of the best part of your story
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  Moving Abroad Is a 10K. Here's What the Training Actually Looks Like 11.08.2026 17min

  Nobody goes from the couch to running 10 kilometers without training. It doesn't matter how motivated you are, how badly you want it, or how expensive your shoes are. The distance requires training. The training takes time. And the time is not optional.Moving abroad is exactly the same.This week I'm using running — actual running, the specific experience of sitting in the driveway wondering if you just go, the first kilometer feeling great, kilometer two where you want to die — to talk about what the move abroad process actually looks like from the inside. Why you're not behind. Why the messy middle is supposed to feel like this. And why the days you don't want to train are the most important days to show up anyway.Also: the fueling piece. Because you cannot run a 10K on no sleep and pure adrenaline and neither can you plan a move abroad that way.
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  The Honest Debrief: 12+ years, Here's What I'd Do Differently in my Move Abroad 03.08.2026 21min

  Twelve years in and three moves later, I'm going back to 2013 — the Switzerland move, the one that started it all — and telling you exactly what I'd do differently.The good stuff first: negotiating to keep my job across an ocean, moving the cats the right way, and doing a scouting trip to find our apartment before we arrived. All of it worth it.And then the honest part. The queen size sleigh bed that didn't fit. The cookie sheets that didn't fit the oven. The $2,000 we had in the bank when we needed three months of rent as a deposit. The rental deposit insurance I wish someone had told me existed. And the apartment in what turned out to be a revolving door building where we never really got to know our neighbors.This one's unscripted, off the cuff, and probably the most useful episode I've recorded in a while.
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  You Can't Read Your Way Into Being Ready to Move Abroad 30.07.2026 16min

  I cannot swim. I know the theory. I've watched people do it my entire life. I could explain the mechanics to you in detail.And if you threw me in a pool right now the outcome would not be good.This week I'm talking about why moving abroad is the same — why you cannot read or research your way into being ready for something you can only learn by doing. Why the not knowing yet is not the problem. Why the falling down on the ice is not failure, it's the process. And why my daughter being at hockey camp this week made me think about all of this in a way I needed to say out loud.Also: why you don't have to figure any of this out alone, and what support in this process actually looks like.
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  Stop Trusting Google. Here's What It's Getting Wrong About Your Move Abroad 20.07.2026 19min

  You've been googling moving abroad for weeks. Maybe months. And the information you've found is — some of it useful, some of it outdated, and some of it confidently, specifically wrong in ways that are sending your planning in the wrong direction.This week I'm going through the biggest things Google gets wrong about moving abroad. The money number that doesn't apply to you. The digital nomad visa obsession. The Schengen confusion. The backwards order of operations. The you stop paying US taxes when you leave myth that could actually get you in legal trouble.Google is a starting point. This episode is the correction.Instagram: @iammistelle
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  True Crime, Cold Coffee, and Why Nobody Talks About the Middle 15.07.2026 11min

  I've restarted this episode three times. I've made coffee I didn't drink. I've listened to approximately four true crime podcasts this week and I know more about cases in rural Ohio than I do about my own content plan.And I'm guessing you have a version of this too. Not about a podcast. About the move. The research you've been doing. The applications you've been sending. The thing you've been working toward that hasn't quite shown up back yet.This week I'm talking about the in-between. The hardest part that nobody names. The place where you've committed in your heart but the rest of your life hasn't caught up yet. Where the motivation has quietly left the building and you're going through the motions on a good day and not even that on a bad one.I don't have a tidy solution today. I'm still in it. But I've got something brewing that I think is going to help. Stay tuned.Also: send me your true crime podcast recommendations immediately. I'm almost out of episodes and it's urgent
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  I Miss Being Good at Things: The Competence Grief of Moving Abroad 06.07.2026 20min

  I am, in English, reasonably funny. Quick. Articulate. I can read a room.In German, even after years, I am a flattened version of myself. I can express the basic version of an idea. I cannot do nuance. The jokes don't translate. And in social situations I go quiet — not because I have less to say, but because the gap between what I want to say and what I'm capable of saying is genuinely embarrassing.This week I'm talking about something I call competence grief ... the real, disorienting loss that comes from being good at things and then suddenly being a beginner again as an adult. The language piece, the cultural piece, the identity piece. Why it's harder than the visa paperwork in some ways. And why it's temporary, even when it doesn't feel like it.
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  Stop Hitting Apply on LinkedIn. Here's What Actually Gets You a Job Abroad 29.06.2026 15min

  You've optimized your LinkedIn profile. You have the right keywords, the right headline, the right summary. You're applying to listings that match your experience. You're posting content to stay visible.And nothing is happening.This week I'm telling you why. LinkedIn is not a job hunting platform — it's social media for people who are at work. And the difference between those two things matters enormously when you're trying to get a job in another country as a foreign applicant hitting apply from six thousand miles away.What LinkedIn is actually good for. What it's specifically bad at. And what actually gets you a job abroad — which is almost never the apply button.Free networking resource
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  The Privilege Conversation Nobody in the Move Abroad Space Is Having 22.06.2026 14min

  Moving abroad is a privilege. I'm going to say that clearly and then spend the whole episode explaining what I mean by it — because I don't mean what you might think I mean.I moved to Switzerland with less than $2,000 in the bank. I also had a relocation package, a transferable job, a university education, and a US passport. Both of those things were true at the same time. And I think that's actually the more honest version of this conversation than either extreme — not only rich people can move abroad, and also not everyone can move abroad if they just want it badly enough.This week I'm talking about who actually has access to this option and who doesn't, why the person who chooses to relocate across an ocean and the person who flees conflict are not having the same experience, and what being aware of your privilege actually means for how you show up when you get there.This is the uncomfortable one. I think you're ready for it.
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  You've Been Googling the Wrong Words for Moving Abroad. Here's What They Actually Mean 15.06.2026 22min

  You've been using visa, permit, and residency like they mean the same thing. They don't. And it's sending your research in the wrong direction.This week I'm walking through the vocabulary of moving abroad — not in a glossary kind of way, just in a these words matter and here's why kind of way. Visa vs. permit. Temporary vs. permanent residency. Citizenship vs. naturalization. Schengen vs. EU. Domicile. Leave to remain. All of it.Because the more fluent you get in this language the clearer your planning becomes. And right now a lot of you are googling the wrong thing and wondering why nothing makes sense.
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  Unscripted: What's it really like to live abroad? 08.06.2026 12min

  In this episode, I'm just chatting about what it's really like to live abroad and what I miss most about the US. There's no task on this one... just me and you sharing how it actually feels to live abroad.
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  What Healthcare Actually Looks Like When You Move Abroad 01.06.2026 17min

  I had cancer at thirty. I've navigated healthcare in two countries with that history, including a high-risk pregnancy in Switzerland that cost me nothing beyond my regular insurance premium.This week I'm talking about what healthcare in Europe actually looks like — how most of Europe's systems work for legal residents, what makes Switzerland different, whether doctors speak English, and what to do about the gap between leaving your American coverage and getting onto a new system.Also: if you've been telling yourself you can't move abroad because of your health situation — please listen to this one before you make that call. It might not be the barrier you think it is.
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  You Left America. Your Vote Still Counts 25.05.2026 13min

  Here's the thing nobody says clearly enough: moving abroad is not opting out. You still file US taxes. You still carry that passport and get the face when someone finds out you're American. You still feel the dollar losing value in your actual bank account. You are still affected by what happens there.This week I'm making the case for why your vote matters more from abroad than you might think ... and why five million Americans living outside the US not voting is one of the most quietly consequential political facts nobody talks about.FVAP.gov — official government resource for overseas votersDemocrats AbroadRepublicans Overseas
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  American Moving Abroad? The IRS Is Coming With You. Here's What That Means 18.05.2026 23min

  Nobody wants to talk about taxes. Until the IRS sends them a letter, at which point everybody wants to talk about taxes very urgently.This week I'm giving you the heads up before that happens. The basics of what Americans abroad actually need to know about US taxes — why you still have to file even when you live somewhere else, why you probably won't owe anything, what FBAR is and why the penalties for missing it are genuinely alarming, and what to do about your state taxes before you leave.This is not tax advice. I am not a tax professional and I will tell you approximately forty times in this episode to hire one. But this is the awareness conversation that nobody is having clearly enough in the move abroad space and you deserve to know this stuff before it becomes a problem.Important disclaimer: This episode is general awareness only. Please consult a qualified expat tax professional for advice specific to your situation.
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  Going Back to School Abroad at 30, 40, or 50: The Moving Abroad Visa Strategy Nobody Talks About 11.05.2026 14min

  Someone I know just got accepted into a Master's program in France. She's in her thirties. She's moving in September. And she is not doing this because she couldn't think of anything else — she's doing it because it is one of the smartest moves I've seen someone make in a long time.This week I'm making the case for the student visa as a legitimate, strategic, completely underrated pathway for adults who want to move abroad. We're talking about what a student visa actually gives you, why earning a local degree dramatically changes your job prospects in that country, why you are not too old for this, and the practical things you need to research if you want to take this seriously.Also: why the nineteen year old with the lanyard who lives in your imagination is not relevant to this conversation and needs to be evicted immediately.
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  You've Done Everything Right. So Why Aren't You Moving Abroad Yet? 04.05.2026 13min

  This one is for the person who has been doing the work. Really doing it — hiring coaches, rewriting the resume, applying and applying and applying — and still not moving.This week I'm talking about what's actually happening when the job-first strategy isn't working, why the problem is sometimes structural and not personal, and the questions worth sitting with honestly when you've been at this long enough that the effort and the results have completely stopped matching.Also: the thing career coaches often don't say, why being on the ground changes everything, and why your first move doesn't have to be your forever move.This is not a pep talk. It's a real conversation with someone who has been doing everything right and deserves an honest answer about why it might not be working.