How did you become an expat?

[DrRisotto]

I'm interested. I don't have family anywhere abroad and want to hear how people moved. If with work, what do you do? How did you arrange that?
TIA x

Company move. I applied for a role in the European version of what I had been doing in the UK. Moved to Rotterdam. Proper company expat deal. Packed up everything we owned in the UK and moved. Stayed 5 years. DCs went to the local school and became bilingual.

Moved back on company repat deal to do the global version of what I had been doing in Europe. Hated the commute and eventually took redundancy.

Living abroad was a great experience. Glad we did it but financially was a bit of a disaster. Left the UK and sold up just before property rises shot up and bought in the Netherlands just at the end of their property price boom. Moved back to the UK and DH became an electrician just as the UK property market went into a slump.

If I had my time again I would do it again but make some decisions differently.

Moved abroad for the first time on my own at age 16 as an exchange student, got the travel bug.

Came back home for a year but couldn't readjust back so right before turning 18 I moved back to the country I did my exchange in, then went to the US for a little while, then Italy and after that I decided to go further and did a WHV in Oz for
a year before moving to Spain for another two years until I got a job opportunity in the Carribean and left for a couple of months. Now I am living in Germany, I like it here (though the weather is awful) but I am pretty sure I will end up settling in Spain.

I am only in my twenties though and have no children at charge so all those moves were "easy" and quite straightforward for me and I have no doubt that I will be moving around a bit more before I finally settle somewhere (if ever).

Thanks for your replies everyone. I would dearly love to move abroad for a few years but have no idea how i'm going to get there. No kids but work for the NHS so no prospect of being moved by a company. DH works for a big corporation but they don't move people as they can just hire the staff they need abroad, if you want to move you do it on your own dime with worse terms and conditions (as the UK tends to get get better pay/annual leave/pension etc).

I could make myself a career abroad but it would take time so we would need DH to move with a job. No idea how he could find one abroad though.

Are either of you looking for jobs on expat boards?
have you got your social media profiles set up to market yourselves abroad?

OH wanted to work for one of the big tech companies, so he applied and then we transferred to California

Do you mean like a forum like mn but for expats? I wasn't aware they existed.

Bought a tiny old cortijo in southern Spain for holiday use. Loved being there so much, despite it being very basic, decided to give up our careers, (effectively retiring early without the financial benefits) and take our son to live permanently. Loved it, bought a bigger house, moved my dad over. Stayed 8 years until DS went to university in UK. Now divide our time between UK and Spain. DS now MFL teacher in UK.

How did you afford it?

DrRisotto - lived on savings and some of the cash from our UK house sale. Renovated the house we bought and sold it to fund our return.