In an effort to keep this fairly general so that it will help others in similar situations, here's an outline.

I'm currently looking for a job outside of the country I'm living in. I've done this before (almost 10 years ago) and found that the lack of contacts and not having permanent residency status hindered my job search. To top it all off, I've just finished a long stint at university, so I don't have much full time experience on my resume.

I've seen a number of posts recently about recent graduates looking for work, and most of it seems to boil down to building a network, either online or, better yet, in real life.

To those who have successfully sought work in another country, what advice do you have regarding:

- Finding a job in an environment where you have few to no contacts.

- Making contacts in a place that it may not be practical to go often (or even more than once).

- Convincing companies that it's worth taking on a foreigner (with all the paperwork and uncertainty which this entails).

- Showing that you've got the skills to do a job without years of full-time experience to back it up.

I'd also welcome advice on my specific situation, so here are the gory details in bullet form:

- Australian.

- Lives in Spain.

- Just completed a PhD in computational number theory.

- Studied computer science and worked as programmer before that.

- Looking for software / research "industry" job.

- Have lots of part time experience (web and mobile apps).

- Looking in USA (north-west coast) or Germany.

- Have social media, but few professional contacts.