Feeling Lost?Why Strategic Job Search (Not + Applications) Lands High-Income Jobs Abroad

We live in an era where AI is practically conquering everything. There is no industry, no sector, and no role that doesn't feel somehow involved in this revolution. But, at the same time, especially when we talk about our jobs, we feel somehow threatened by something that seems able to substitute us anytime.

So, at this point, what should you do when you realize that significant changes are happening in your company? Maybe you fear that AI will replace you faster than you expected, or you're worried about layoffs and feel your job will no longer even be relevant five years from now. Caught up in all this uncertainty, what do you generally do? You start sending resumes everywhere, in panic.

But when you lack clarity on what job role can be both well-paying and truly fulfilling, and you don’t position yourself in a way that truly does you justice…rejections pile up, and you feel completely lost.

My question for you is: are you really sure that doing "more" by applying without a targeted strategy is something that is genuinely helping you achieve your career goals?

• How are you presenting yourself to recruiters and hiring teams?
• Do you truly believe you are showcasing yourself as the best possible candidate for the specific problems you've identified in the job advertisement? Think about it.

The Myth Of The "Smarter" Application: Why "More" is Pointless

I perfectly understand why sending more applications seems like the better choice, the "smarter" choice: we are all familiar with the (outdated) idea that it's just a "numbers game". As a former recruiter, I know this is where the situation is very different from what you imagine.

My clients come to me after they have sent a lot of applications, but then got very few interviews, and many of those interviews don't make it to the final stage, and therefore, there are no offers.

When I talk to these people:

• There are no major red flags in their experience.
• They don't have big issues with communication.
• They are smart people, often with quite a remarkable work history, having worked for famous international companies, and having had opportunities to engage in activities with a significant impact.

But still, when they apply and get to the interview stage, something is missing. They don't know what it is and start thinking they are the real problem.

The Blind Spot Of Experience: Why Your True Value Isn't Seen

Before I became a recruiter, I also sent many applications. But while I was sending them, I wasn't realizing:

• The real way I was telling my story.
• The way I was failing to highlightwhat I CONCRETELY did, basically diminishing myself and my positioning as the best solution to the SPECIFIC problems they were facing. Problems I was more than capable of solving (but not enough self-aware to explain in a meaningful way!).

These problems are clear in the job description. Especially if you can read between the lines, but often, as a candidate, it’s not easy to differentiate what’s absolutely necessary from what’s welcome but not disqualifying.

When I became a recruiter and had the opportunity to review my own OLD resumes through an insider’s eyes, and examine thousands of international resumes every year, I realized how often people are not used to highlighting their true value, which is a very normal thing in many cultures.

Before I became a recruiter, I had the feeling that it was the hiring teams' fault for not being able to understand or appreciate my experience. I felt that companies were looking for something impossible, or that I wasn't qualified enough, or that I was applying for positions that weren't suitable for me, perhaps. I felt defeated.

Sometimes it seemed so logical that I was the perfect person, and I just had so much resentment towards them for not giving me an opportunity. I often got angry because I thought: "Ok, I don't have this skill, but I can learn it quickly" without understanding the real dynamics of the selection process and what hiring managers truly wanted and WHY. This is something I got to understand only later, through my work in talent acquisition, and thousands of collaborations with hiring managers, department directors, and colleagues all over the world.

I experienced first-hand how demoralising it feels to stay stuck in an unfulfilling job or with our limiting beliefs. It ruins your career, takes away your confidence, and seeps into your personal life, too. But I’ve also learnt that we don’t have to settle: with the right strategy, that new chapter abroad is possible.

The Secret: Beyond The "Shopping List": Craft a Narrative That Solves Problems

If you have already wasted your limited free time on a chaotic and confusing job search or sent quite a few random ChatGPT-generated job applications, sending more is extremely unlikely to land you a top job abroad, unfortunately. To make yourself noticeable to the hiring teams through your CV, the way you interview, or how you negotiate your salary, you have to get serious about landing a well-paying and fulfilling role from a top global company, starting with a CV that doesn’t look like a shopping list. Your CV should show a narrative that positions you as the best possible answer to solve that specific list of challenges explained in the job advertisement (even if your past job titles are different).

What I often see in "shopping list" resumes:

"I worked in cross-functional teams, I was involved in several projects, I executed various strategies". Pretty generic.

This does not give any recruiter a concrete idea of the value you brought.

These are simply tasks that are a normal part of your day. There are no details. It’s like creating a profile on a dating app, stating your gender and location ONLY. It’s fair to assume that you breathe and that you are a person…like everyone else. Why should they contact you? And by the way…what kind of people would contact you, knowing only your gender and that you breathe?

You get my point. What makes you…you? Top companies have high standards and need motivated people able to demonstrate their skills.

If you have to explain to me WHAT you achieved today, you don't start by telling me that you washed your face or how you walked or biked to work. You tell me IMPORTANT things. You explain that you had a meeting where, for example, you changed an important process to allow the client to purchase your service more easily. That is something I am interested in knowing: how you helped someone and what they achieved because of you, for example. This gets me thinking: you did it for them, you can do it for my company too, as I have the same challenge (as an example).

The secret is not to tell a series of meaningless tasks.

The secret is to rethink your story, focusing only on those elements that objectively and undeniably position you as the person capable of solving the biggest problems that the company you are applying to is facing in that position/ department/ with those types of clients, etc.

You don't have to pretend to be someone you're not during interviews (or go ahead and do it - get yet another job you’ll want to run away from in 10 days, your choice). You can and should be your authentic self! However, you need to know how to effectively articulate your value.

Practical Example: Why AI-Generated Applications Fall Short

Let me also give you the example of a client. This client is a very capable person with an interesting professional history that involves international experience, different skills, a classic T-shape (she has knowledge across different areas and industries and gets energised by solving complex problems, with strong motivation and interpersonal skills), and she faced multiple situations that her last company had never faced before. A person of great value, as you might imagine. But…

When she talked about her experience, she could not succeed in her applications because, looking at her resume, it was entirely AI-generated and painted her as millions of other professionals with buzzwords and cryptic definitions. There was no clear context that instantly made recruiters understand the level of complexity she was managing.

Being a humble person by nature, she couldn't "sell herself" and truly show the CONCRETE results she had achieved, despite:

• Excellent client feedback.
• Bringing TANGIBLE great benefits to the company, overdelivering on multiple fronts.
• Acquiring skills that (if mentioned and explained) would have positioned her as someone who can OBVIOUSLY do even more.

She had already proven she could work at the level of the role she wanted, but not having that specific job title already, and having difficulty quantifying without feeling like she was trying to brag, her resume was not working in her favour.

What we did together: we decided to focus carefully and honestly only on the industries, causes, and types of work that genuinely interest her. At that point, she started getting more responses to her applications, interviews, and opportunities to do something she truly cares about.

Your New Chapter IS Possible. Ready To make It Happen?

If you too feel like you're in this situation, where you can't truly change your career narrative with the desired job in mind and position yourself as the best solution for the recruiter and hiring manager who are reading you, you need a clear path forward.

Through a career coaching plan or focused session, I can transfer to you the knowledge I gained working as an insider for global companies and having thousands of conversations with candidates and hiring managers. I can help you regain that self-confidence and the ability to tell your career story by giving it the right relevance for the job you want.

Stop feeling unfulfilled and lost! Book a free introductory call to get to know how I can offer you the immediate help you need to find clarity on your profitable career direction and the strategy to land a high-income, fulfilling job abroad faster and more confidently. Or book right away one of the 4 one-off sessions I offer to work on a specific problem only. Make your 2026 the year of that career change in Europe, you have been dreaming of for so long!