I started my journey to move from the US to Europe over a year ago, and I started out a pretty high point. I found that through my family’s heritage I could actually obtain Hungarian citizenship, and through months of paperwork and waiting managed to successfully do so.

So that’s pretty much it. I thought to myself. Because the biggest hurdle companies face is whether it’s worth it to sponsor a visa of someone when they could just find a local candidate. I thought that the moment I could proudly say I was citizen of an EU country that would allow me to work in (most) countries, things would get easier.

But I have never been more wrong in my life. I’m a fresh out of college IT worker that has 4 years of work experience and 3 certifications under my belt, and I have managed to get exactly 2 interviews and maybe 20-30 real human responses in about 5 months despite hundreds of applications. And it’s not like I am thinking high and mighty of myself and looking at jobs that I want. I’ve applied to the lowest paying helpdesk roles up to the ones that I barely have any overlapping skills. I have revised my resume 2-3 times, had professionals look at it during a resume workshop at college… I just get nothing. Some seem to think that I am asking for sponsorship or relocation benefits despite the fact that it is boldly written at the top of my resume, and I always make sure to include it in my cover letter.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there something I should be doing besides trolling LinkedIn and other job sites for roles? I don’t know if this is a rant post or advice post. I am just so sick of getting ghosted or looking for that dreaded “unfortunately” email in my inbox every morning.