The experience was always there. We helped Irish employers see it.

Before moving to Ireland, Laura had built a successful career in digital marketing. She had six years of experience working for a large company in Brazil, where she developed valuable expertise in campaigns, content, digital channels and working within a complex corporate environment.

However, like many international professionals, Laura's first job in Ireland was outside her field. She began working as a waitress to support herself while adapting to a new country. What was initially meant to be temporary continued for three years.

The longer Laura remained away from marketing, the harder it became to return. Recruiters saw her recent hospitality experience before they saw the marketing professional behind it.

Laura had not lost her skills or ambition. She needed a better way to make her experience visible, relevant and credible to employers in Ireland.

Laura's challenge was not a lack of experience. It was how her career story appeared to someone seeing it for the first time.

A traditional CV could show where she had worked, but it could not fully communicate her creativity, marketing knowledge or professional potential. We needed to help employers see beyond her current position.

Instead of trying to hide the three years she had spent in hospitality, we helped Laura explain that period confidently. Working as a waitress demonstrated her resilience, adaptability, communication skills and ability to build a life in a new country. At the same time, we brought her digital marketing experience back to the centre of her professional identity.

The message was clear: Laura was not trying to become a marketer. She was an experienced marketer preparing to return to her field.

To help Laura stand out, we developed more than a CV and LinkedIn profile. We created a complete collection of career assets that allowed employers to understand her experience in different ways.

A website portfolio

We built Laura a professional website portfolio where she could present her marketing experience visually. The website included selected projects, campaigns, skills and examples of her work. Each project was presented with context, showing the objective, Laura's contribution and the result wherever this information was available.

This gave recruiters and hiring managers something more engaging than another application document. It also helped Laura demonstrate that, despite working outside marketing, she remained capable, informed and serious about returning to the profession.

A video CV

We also created a short video CV that allowed Laura to introduce herself in a more personal and memorable way. The video helped employers see her communication skills, confidence, personality and motivation. It gave Laura an opportunity to explain her international career journey positively, without allowing the employment gap in marketing to define her.

The objective was not to replace her CV. It was to give the right employers another reason to remember her.

A career snapshot

We developed a concise visual snapshot of Laura's career, bringing her most relevant experience, skills, achievements and target direction together in one place. The snapshot could be shared during networking conversations, after applications and with people who offered to introduce her to someone in the industry.

While her CV provided the full detail, the career snapshot made her value easy to understand in less than a minute.

Laura's CV was rebuilt for digital marketing opportunities in Ireland. We moved the focus away from a chronological explanation of the previous three years and towards the evidence that supported her next role.

Her six years of marketing experience, campaign knowledge, digital skills and work within a large Brazilian company became the foundation of her professional positioning.

We also updated her LinkedIn profile so that it supported the same message. Her headline, About section, experience and skills were aligned with the roles she wanted, not simply the job she was doing at the time.

Laura's hospitality experience remained part of her journey, but it no longer dominated how employers perceived her.

Better career materials were only one part of the strategy.

Laura had been applying for jobs, but she needed to become more selective and intentional. Through personalised 1:1 training, we helped her understand how recruitment worked in Ireland and how to build a stronger application process. She learned how to:

• Identify roles that genuinely matched her experience
• Recognise the employer's priorities in a job description
• Tailor the most important sections of her CV
• Select the best portfolio projects for each opportunity
• Use her video CV and career snapshot strategically
• Apply through the right channels
• Follow up professionally after submitting an application
• Communicate her career transition with confidence

The focus was no longer on sending as many applications as possible. It was on making every suitable application stronger.

Networking was a major part of Laura's strategy.

We helped her identify recruiters, digital marketing professionals, hiring managers and people working inside her target companies. She learned how to approach them naturally, start relevant conversations and build relationships without immediately asking for a job.

Her portfolio, video CV and career snapshot made these conversations more effective. When someone asked about her background, Laura had professional materials that could quickly demonstrate what she was capable of.

This transformed networking from an uncomfortable request for help into a way of sharing her work, learning about the market and becoming visible to the right people.

After three years outside her field, Laura had started to question whether Irish employers would still value her marketing experience.

The coaching process helped her understand that her career had not disappeared. She simply needed to communicate it in a way that made sense to the local market. Through 1:1 preparation and regular reviews, she became more confident explaining:

• Why she had worked in hospitality after moving to Ireland
• What she had learned from rebuilding her life in another country
• Why she was ready to return to digital marketing
• How her experience in Brazil could benefit an Irish employer
• What she could contribute from the beginning

Instead of apologising for her career journey, Laura learned how to own it.

Laura secured a digital marketing position in Ireland in two months, returning to the profession she had spent years building in Brazil.

Her breakthrough did not come from pretending that the previous three years had not happened. It came from presenting the complete story in the right way.

Her Brazilian experience demonstrated her marketing expertise. Her time in Irish hospitality demonstrated resilience, adaptability and local work experience. Her portfolio, video CV and career snapshot made her abilities visible. Her application and networking strategy helped those materials reach the right people.

Laura did not need another generic CV. She needed a strategy that could change how employers perceived her. HULA helped her combine:

• Clear professional positioning
• A CV created for the Irish market
• An optimised LinkedIn profile
• A professional website portfolio
• A personalised video CV
• A visual career snapshot
• Strategic job-application training
• Targeted networking
• Regular reviews and 1:1 support

This is how HULA helps international professionals stand out. We look beyond the most recent job title to understand the person's complete experience, potential and goals. We then combine career intelligence, creative professional materials and human coaching to help employers see what a traditional application may overlook.