> Let's say, hypothetically, I to quit my job at IBM NZ and work on a couple of > open source projects full time, Wicket being one of them and Maven another, > while I travelled around the world... > We have a tradition in NZ called and OE - > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_experience
I tried that in Australia. Been there for about 5 months, 3 of which I lived in Melbourne trying to get a job. I didn't succeed in getting one because I was ill prepared. The market was bad at that time, I didn't have that much experience yet, and I didn't have much of a position for temp jobs. Oh, and I didn't have a laptop either at that time. I did however have a good time, and don't feel sorry for trying :-) I think the way to do it is to start out as an independent contractor and go from there. Build up your network, and when the chance is there, do gigs abroad. These times where open source is huge, everyone hooked up on the internet and stuff makes things easier as well. It would be a good idea to start a project that displays your skills (see e.g. Wicket RAD/ webbeans, databinder or any of the wicket-stuff projects), work on your blog, see if you can give talks, etc. FWIW, if I were an independent (and single!) contractor, I'd try to divide my time between awesome beaches and the coolest cities around the world. But that's up to you :-) Eelco
