Everyone has an opinion on how to move to the UK, the US, or Canada. There are a thousand guides on visas, cost of living, and “how to land a remote job before you even land.” Our own 20 proven job search strategies and roundup of the best job search websites cover the general playbook well. What almost nobody talks about is what happens after you’ve already relocated somewhere smaller — somewhere without a huge Nigerian community, without an established pipeline of “how I got hired” stories, without a job board built specifically for people like you.
I relocated to Cape Verde. Not the UK. Not the US. A small, Portuguese-speaking island nation off the coast of West Africa that most relocation guides don’t even mention. Here’s what job searching actually looked like once I got here — not the polished version, the real one.
The Assumption I Had to Unlearn
Before moving, I assumed job searching abroad would look roughly the same everywhere: build a good CV, submit it, wait for a call. I even prepared mine in European CV standard format, thinking that alone would carry weight.
It didn’t. In Praia, walking your CV in person to a company still matters more than any polished document. And having someone already inside the company matters more than the CV itself.
What Actually Got Me Hired
My first stop was Sonasa Security. I didn’t walk in blind — a friend of mine already worked there, and he spoke a little Creole. Having him with me made the difference between being just another CV on a desk and being someone the company could actually place a face to.
That alone didn’t get me hired on the spot, though. From Sonasa, I went to Seamac Security next. The HR person rejected me immediately — not because of my experience, not because of my CV, but because I couldn’t speak Creole. No interview, no second look. Just a straightforward no.
I tried a third company, Sentelima Security. This time it wasn’t language — the HR told me plainly they weren’t accepting anyone at the moment. I remember feeling genuinely low walking out of that one. You do everything “right” on paper and still hit a wall that has nothing to do with your qualifications.
So I went back to Sonasa and kept checking in. Not once. Repeatedly, over months. Eventually, my friend — the one who’d walked in with me the first time — got the opportunity to travel to Portugal for work. When he made that move, he helped switch me into his position. That’s how I actually got my security job at Sonasa: four months of searching in Praia, and in the end, the opening came through the same relationship that got me in the door the first time.
Key things that mattered more than I expected:
- Having someone already working inside the company, even briefly, opened doors a CV alone never could
- Persistence — checking back with Sonasa repeatedly over months, not just once
- Being physically present and known to HR, not just a submitted document
Things that mattered less than the standard advice suggests:
- A European-standard CV format, while professional, didn’t move the needle on its own
- Formal qualifications without local language ability
The Language Factor Nobody Prepares You For
This is the part most relocation guides skip entirely. Two separate companies — Seamac and Sentelima — were not shy about language being the deciding factor. But the moment that stuck with me most was at Supricav Security. Their HR didn’t reject me outright. Instead, she told me directly: they already had my documents on file, and I should go learn enough Creole and come back when I was confident enough for another interview.
That was honest, even generous, feedback most companies won’t bother giving you. It also confirmed something no relocation blog had told me before I moved: in a small, tight-knit local market like Cape Verde, functional Creole isn’t a “nice to have.” For many employers, it’s the actual gate you have to pass through before your experience even gets considered.
What the Job Market Actually Looks Like From the Inside
Generic relocation content will tell you a country’s overall unemployment rate, but that tells you almost nothing about what job-hunting for a specific role actually feels like day to day. From what I went through directly in the security industry in Praia:
- Security and service-sector roles are realistically open to foreigners, but competition for the limited openings is real and immediate
- Companies lean heavily on personal networks and referrals over open applications — walking in with someone already employed there carries real weight
- Rejections are often blunt and language-based rather than experience-based, and companies will tell you so directly if you ask
What I’d Tell Someone Considering the Same Move
If you’re thinking about relocating somewhere off the well-worn “japa” path, here’s the honest advice I wish I’d had:
- Don’t expect the job search playbook to transfer. What works for landing a UK or US role does not automatically work for landing a role in a small, tight local market like Praia.
- Build local relationships before you need them. My path to Sonasa existed entirely because of one friend who was already inside. Without that connection, I don’t know how much longer the search would have taken.
- Take language seriously before you arrive, not after. Two rejections and one “come back when you’re ready” all came down to Creole. If I’d arrived with even basic functional Creole, the first few months could have looked very different.
- Expect the timeline to stretch. It took me four months of active searching in Praia to land steady work — and that was after I’d already prioritized sorting out my residency permit in my first six months, which pushed the job search further out than I initially planned.
- Persistence with one company can outperform applying to many. Checking back with Sonasa repeatedly, rather than treating the rejection as final, is ultimately what got me the position.
Why This Matters Beyond Cape Verde
This isn’t really a Cape Verde story. It’s a story about what happens when you relocate somewhere the internet hasn’t already mapped out for you. If you’re considering a move to a country that isn’t on the standard “top relocation destinations” lists, the real lesson is this: relationships, language, and patience matter more than any resume template ever will.
For the fundamentals that do transfer no matter where you land, our guide on how to job search while still employed is worth reading before you make the move, not after.
Have you relocated somewhere off the beaten path and job-hunted from scratch once you got there? I’d love to hear what your experience looked like.
