How to move your career abroad, says digital nomad who’s been to 13 countries

Kamylle Mourao’s life and career has taken her around the world: She’s originally from Brazil and has lived in Peru, Mexico, Portugal and Spain.

Her day-to-day is all about helping workers on the move, too: She works as the global mobility lead at Deel, a global HR and payroll company, where she develops and expands the business’s operations in 43 countries and counting.

Mourao’s nomadic career may strike a chord with many U.S. job-seekers who, seeing a cooling hiring market, are expanding their search overseas.

The number of American workers hired by international companies grew 62% last year, according to a global hiring report from Deel. They’re primarily moving to Portugal, Spain and the U.K., where many expats say they’re highly satisfied with their personal, financial, social and work lives abroad.

Here, Mourao and Masha Sutherlin, Deel’s head of immigration, share their best advice for those curious about moving their careers and lives overseas.

First, if you work for a global company, see what relocation programs already exist, Sutherlin says.

You might be eligible for a rotational exchange program where you spend some time in a partner office overseas. For something more permanent, you could make a case to transfer abroad, or apply to an internal job that would take you to a new country.

Find out if your company offers full relocation help, which would include a stipend to cover moving costs and help with finding housing.

If a program doesn’t already exist and you want to go abroad on your own, you may be able to work out an arrangement with your employer where they sponsor your visa but leave the moving costs and logistics up to you.

If an opportunity doesn’t already exist, you could also try creating one.

That’s what Mourao did. She started working at Deel in 2022 as a digital nomad in Portugal and “living in the clouds traveling the world,” she says.

Seeing that her work involves expanding the business to the 120-plus countries where Deel has clients, she wanted to put its mobility products to the test.

Mourao worked with her boss to create an arrangement where she can work as a digital nomad and relocate to new markets in order to help the business expand. She’s since visited more than a dozen countries, including France, Egypt, Singapore and others. “Each new country and region that I need to focus on opening creates the opportunity to move abroad either short- or long-term,” she says.

Mourao currently has a digital nomad visa in Portugal and continues to travel around the world. She’s also already thinking of the next country where she’ll apply for a digital nomad visa by September this year: The United Arab Emirates and Japan are both at the top of her list.

When pitching a new location to her boss, Mourao says she highlights the benefits of being there. For example, while in Portugal, she’s in a central time zone that makes it easy to communicate with colleagues in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. She meets colleagues in-person when she visits a new region, and she ensures she’s compliant with her work contract where she’s fully responsible for liabilities on tax-related issues.

“It’s important to have a clear plan in mind, an idea of the costs vs. benefits to your employer, think ahead to address compliance and risks, and have data to back up your suggested plan,” she says.

As you start brainstorming ways to make moves, Sutherlin suggests connecting with colleagues and your network about how they’ve moved abroad for assignments. Ask: How did they seek out or create their own opportunities? Was it worth it? What challenges and benefits have they experienced?

Sutherlin often gets LinkedIn requests from people who want to ask about her own experience moving for work. Sometimes, those conversations turn into job opportunities.

“Most of these opportunities happen if you’re actively looking for ways to meaningfully connect with people,” she says.

Seeking genuine connection shows you’re curious and can take initiative, she says, even if it feels like a long shot. “If you’re scared to approach me but you do it anyway, I’m thinking, wow, I want to talk to you.”

In any hiring or transfer conversations, lean on your previous experience working internationally, whether it was for a study abroad program in college or if you regularly work with colleagues in global offices. Most of all, express enthusiasm for the chance to work in a new culture and why you’re excited to bring a new perspective to the table.

In addition to curiosity and initiative, Sutherlin says she looks to hire people who have an open mind about global cultures.

For someone who may relocate to a new environment, “I’m looking for someone curious enough about the world to not assume Middle East is scary, or that Europe is all about taking holidays, or that [living in] the U.S. is going to be easy because it’s such a rich country,” Sutherlin says. “Be curious and open to learning constantly.”

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