Have You Considered A Career Move Abroad?
Within the last few months, I’ve worked with clients from different professional backgrounds and geographical locations, including recent expats in Portugal, Hong Kong, and Montreal. As I speak with more clients interested in travel and working abroad, the thought often comes with excitement for adventure, exposure to a new culture, and overwhelming thoughts of achieving such a daunting goal.
Understand how living abroad can help your career. India Martin, a Forbes Councils Member, says, ” When I look at the most successful leaders in my organizations, they all had one thing in common aside from core competencies required of all senior leaders. They all had experience living and working outside of their country of origin. Sure, there are some leaders who hadn’t, and working abroad wasn’t the only pattern. Still, I found it was a pretty key differentiation in businesses that need leaders who were at the very least bi-culturally competent.”
If a career move abroad is something that you’ve been interested in, here are a few ways to get started.
Look at multinational companies.
When a company has offices in several global locations, that’s an excellent opportunity for you to explore overseas job opportunities. Expat employees get plenty of experience working with different cultures while also managing the stresses of assimilating themselves and their families to a new country.
Reflect on primary objectives.
Consider your main goals by understanding your timeframe, initial steps, interests, and needs. This can help you establish a strategy and provide you with a guide for moving forward. Are you interested in traveling, exploring a new country and culture, transitioning into a different lifestyle, or developing a new skill?
Learn the local language.
If the position doesn’t require you to be bilingual, find ways to have a grasp on the local language. You can join expat communities but move towards developing local contacts through universities, churches, and social groups.
Restructure your resume.
Are you climbing the ladder or transitioning to another one? Either way, restructure your resume to fit your career goals, including your location, transferrable skills, signature strengths, remote work experience, proficient languages, and more.
Check out work opportunities.
Suppose you don’t work for a global company. In that case, you can certainly do a job search on LinkedIn with the specific geographical location that you are looking for, or you can explore overseas opportunities by visiting one of the following websites.
- CEO Worldwide-https://www.ceo-worldwide.com/
- Easy Expat- https://www.easyexpat.com/
- Indeed Worldwide – https://www.indeed.com/worldwide
Once you’ve been offered a position, understand what’s inside an international compensation package, including relocation costs, schooling for any children, health insurance, retirement, spousal assistance, housing allowances, and repatriation.
For guidance with resume writing, career marketing documents, overseas compensation package negotiations, and more visit us at https://www.msantiagogroup.com/.
