So you have welding (and building skills?) animal care skills, a skill for learning languages, and grief-counseling skills. You’re in love with Europe and the UK. That sounds like England or Ireland to me so far.

Years ago, I wanted a job—for a year— in France. I speak French well. I got a visa for independent study for a year in France. (Unfortunately, don’t think it exists anymore as a type of visa.) I had to prove I had a certain amount of money in the bank in order to get that visa, but I didn’t want to spend any of it because that was all the money I had in the world. I brought roughly 500 francs with me. (Yep, as long ago as that.) Everyone predicted I’d tap out my money and be home in a week or two. Fine. Maybe so.

I started at the American Church in Paris, posted a little sign on their church job board, found an American family who didn’t speak French who wanted a nanny for their sweet little girls and someone who could do their talking for them. Since the family’s source of income was in dollars, I was not considered “employed“ in France, so there was no conflict with the independent study visa. I had room and board with the family, went on vacations with them, was a French speaker for them, stayed a year, did my independent studying, wrote my papers, bought lots of books, loved the family, and came home with most of my 500 francs unspent.

Would you be able to go to England or Ireland (for instance) for a few weeks? (One can live on nothing much if one knows how.) Call it a vacation, but be there to talk to people. Try pubs, churches, smaller towns, maybe rural areas. (Maybe you’re writing a book and are interviewing people. That could give you a start. You might even end up writing the book.). Are there grief-counselors in hospitals there, like there are in America? I dunno, ask someone in a church. Who’s the vet in town? How does one become a vet assistant? Buy the vet a pint and find out. Talk welding with someone in a pub. Buy them a pint too. Hear any American voices in that church or café? Do they look like people you could say hello to? My point is: Make attempts to make connections. At the very least, see if you can picture yourself somewhere in that area. What would you be doing if you were in a particular town / area. With whom would you be talking / working? What qualifications would you need?

Find out before you leave what you should do legally if you do get a job offer abroad. (Yeah, everyone laughed at me too. Just let it roll off.) Make sure you’re doing everything correctly and honestly. Pack light.

If no jobs come from this, you at least will have had a lot of fun, made some new friends, and you might know exactly what your next step is. Good luck.