The journey from deciding to move abroad as a student to gaining the right to stay permanently has been described as a long tunnel. One of the most challenging turning points along this journey is when edu-immigrants (EduIms) attempt to secure permanent employment upon graduation from host country universities. In this qualitative study, we explore the career stories of 29 highly skilled EduIms who have undertaken the transition from student to permanent employee. Informed by the intelligent careers framework, we identify the career competencies our participants developed as they navigated this transition. Our findings suggest that one competency can be leveraged to develop other competencies, which build on each other over time. Also, we show how enacting intelligent careers required our participants to address the host country's macro-context constraints and facilitators that played significant roles in securing their permanent employment. Our findings inform practitioners interested in improving the career prospects of EduIms and in benefiting from a pool of highly qualified candidates.

从作为学生决定移居国外到获得永久居留权的过程被描述为一条漫长的隧道。这段旅程中最具挑战性的转折点之一是教育移民 (EduIms) 试图在东道国大学毕业后获得永久性就业。在这项定性研究中，我们探索了 29 名高技能 EduIm 的职业故事，他们已经从学生转变为正式员工。在智能职业框架的指导下，我们确定了参与者在这一转变过程中发展的职业能力。我们的研究结果表明，可以利用一种能力来发展其他能力，随着时间的推移，这些能力会相互依存。此外，我们展示了如何制定智能职业要求我们的参与者解决东道国的问题 的宏观环境制约因素和促进因素在确保他们的长期就业方面发挥了重要作用。我们的研究结果为有兴趣改善 EduIm 的职业前景并希望从高素质候选人中受益的从业者提供信息。