I moved from Russia to Sweden, then to the Netherlands as a software engineer.

Interesting thing about my situation - I don't have any degree.

Before even looking for a job, I had to do research about work permit rules in different countries in respect to bachelor degree.

The problem is that I couldn't ask for any help on the Internet for two reasons. First, there were very few "smart dropouts" looking for a job abroad. Second, very strong perception in society that university degree is solid, reliable and universal proof of qualification (and that's wrong, having a degree from noname university often tells absolutely nothing about qualification). Usually, I got useless answers like this: sorry, but Europe is out of the question, nobody needs uneducated people.

Obvious choices like US couldn't work for me since they have stupid H1B visa system. According to stupid logic of H1B, even if you get decent job offer from Google, you are not eligible for H1B visa without degree or 12 years of documentary proven relevant experience.

For months, I thought it's not possible to go anywhere in the first world without a degree.

In 2014, I dismissed popular beliefs that it's almost impossible to relocate without a degree. At that time, I decided to directly contact several immigration authorities about work visa requirements - Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Sweden.

In Hong Kong, they said it's theoretically possible. At that point, I realized that I still have a chance.

In the Netherlands, Immigration and Naturalisation Service confirmed that degree is not a requirement for highly-skilled work permit. And this was starting point to actually look for a job in the Netherlands.

I looked for a job mainly here:

https://stackoverflow.com/jobs?sort=i&q=c%2B%2B&l=Netherland...

Additionally, I found my ex-colleagues in LinkedIn who work in Europe. I significantly improved my LinkedIn profile by explaining what I actually did at my previous jobs. Also, I added lots of recruiters to my LinkedIn network. Gradually, my profile became relevant and I started appearing in searches more often.

There were some very useful recruiters (mainly from London), who gave me valuable advices about my CV. If you have a lot of recruiters in your network, then you have a good chance to have a few of them, who understand your non-standard situation (i.e. not having any degree) and who are willing to spend their time giving you advices and recommend you to employers.

What I found is that mediocre companies tended to care much more about degree, than top companies. For example, Google, Facebook and Amazon really don't care about your degree unless it's Standford, MIT or something like this.

It was a long story how I failed lots of interviews because of cultural fit, ability to explain well what you thinking during coding round etc. I won't cover it here.

Eventually, I moved to Sweden first, worked for two companies there, then I moved to the Netherlands (thanks for 30% tax rulling for expats, I love it!).

Here is my LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/eldar-gaynetdinov-a0564b61/

May be I should help those university dropouts who want to relocate to different country.