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Millions of people around the world dream of a new, more fulfilling life by moving abroad. Unfortunately, only a small percentage ever makes it happen.
So what is stopping the rest?
For most, I imagine, it is money. After all, if you are rich enough to live where you want, and can come and go at will, then the world is your oyster.
Most of us are not in that liberating position. Instead, we have to find a way to fund this dream life overseas.
Which is where the challenges start. Questions crop up like …
- Am I eligible for a working visa?
- Will my qualifications be recognised?
- What job can I get?
- How much will it pay?
- Can I get my business idea off the ground?
- What hoops will I have to jump through?
- Is there local demand?
There can be so much uncertainty about making your relocation financially viable that I think many people just give up on the idea.
Seems a shame, doesn’t it?
If any of this has happened to you then Megan Fitzgerald, an expat career and personal branding coach, would love to hear from you. She is conducting a poll of current and aspiring expats to find the answer to an intriguing question: what is the biggest obstacle to building a successful career abroad?
The poll’s findings will reveal the most common problems people face, and hopefully offer some useful insights into how to overcome them.
To take part in the poll go to http://linkd.in/i9pnWY.
Tags: business, career, coach, dream, expat, financial, job, life, live, money, Moving Abroad, overseas, pay, qualification, relocation, rich, success, visa, work, world
What are your biggest worries about moving abroad?
Is it finding or settling in to a new job? Making your retirement savings stretch far enough to provide a decent quality of life? Having a healthcare system that is up to scratch? Getting your children into good schools?
According to Expat Experience[1], the latest report in HSBC’s Expat Explorer series, the top concerns keeping expats awake at night prior to relocating are:
- Being able to re-establish a social life (41%)
- Feeling lonely, and missing friends and family (34%)
The survey also found these worries affected female expats significantly more than men.
Meanwhile, missing family and friends is a particularly big concern for expats based in Australia (49%) and Canada (46%) – not surprising, since the majority were from the UK originally, and so the distances involved make regular face-to-face contact difficult.
Overcoming concerns
Such emotive issues have an obvious link – if you are worried about establishing a social life in your new destination then you are more likely to miss the existing network of family and friends you have back home.
On the flip side, if you can form strong friendships and develop a bustling (and satisfying) social life once you move abroad then you are less likely to be lonely and dwell on what you have left behind.
In short, once you land in your new location you have to make a concerted effort to get out, meet people, make friends and take advantage of whatever exciting lifestyle opportunities the country has to offer.
It’s not always easy to do. Sometimes you may have to force yourself to step out of your comfort zones. But the success of your expat venture depends on it.
[1] Expat Experience is the second of three reports from HSBC’s 2010 Expat Explorer research series,
http://www.offshore.hsbc.com/1/2/international/expat/expat-survey/expat-experience-report-2010
Tags: Abroad, Australia, Canada, Children, country, destination, expat, Expat Experience, Expat Explorer, family, female, friend, healthcare, home, HSBC, job, lifestyle, location, lonely, men, move, moving, quality of life, Retirement, School, social, survey, UK, worries
For any parent contemplating a move abroad, picking a location that offers their children a better quality of life now, and good opportunities for the future, will be a prime consideration.
On those criteria, the UK government’s newly-announced plan to increase university tuition fees has to be a black mark.
Under the policy, universities in England can charge as much as £9,000 per year in tuition fees – a steep rise from the £3,290 at present.
With the government having slashed funding for universities in its October Spending Review, it means many students are set to bear most of the cost of their courses. And that is in addition to the living expenses they already have to pay.
Some, inevitably, will be put off from attending university at all. Those that do go will either need affluent parents able to finance their education, or face a pile of debt at graduation.
Spanish Lessons
The comparative cost of university was a hot topic with some English friends we have just seen on a recent trip back to our former home in Spain.
Their daughter is due to finish her baccalaureate next summer, and is now weighing her options. If she were to go to the local university in Spain her parents would only have to pay for her books – approximately €1,000 a year. Back in the UK, by contrast, they could not afford to give their daughter the advantages a university qualification brings.
Mind you, there is a flipside: the countries’ relative job opportunities.
With unemployment soaring to over 20%, there is a big question as to what career prospects she would have in Spain post-graduation.
Tags: career, Children, debt, England, fee, Finance, government, job, location, move abroad, School, Spain, Spanish, student, tuition, UK, unemployment, university
Finding a way to finance your life overseas is one of the biggest challenges facing prospective expats.
How can you earn the money necessary to give you the lifestyle you crave? Do you plan to transfer within your existing company, or apply for new jobs? Would you like to set up your own business, or offer services as some form of freelance contractor?
For anyone confronting these issues it is well worth seeking the advice of a professional, someone who can help clarify your ideas and guide you in the right career direction.
One such person is CNNMoney.com-featured career coach Megan Fitzgerald, the founder of Career By Choice. An expat herself, with over 15 years experience in career and business development, Megan specialises in helping current and aspiring expatriate professionals and entrepreneurs to build a satisfying career or business that allows them to get the most out of their life abroad.
Megan has just interviewed me on the pros and cons of moving overseas for her website. You can check out the resulting article, Expat Success Tips: Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Choice of Becoming an Expat, at http://bit.ly/cIOjNw.
Hope you find it interesting.
Tags: Abroad, business, career, Career By Choice, CNN, coach, company, entrepreneur, expat, Finance, job, life overseas, lifestyle, Megan Fitzgerald, moving, professional, should I stay or should I go, success, transfer
At a wedding last week I got talking to a doctor within the UK’s National Health Service who is about to relocate to New Zealand.
She will be joining the thousands of doctors and nurses who have left the UK in the last decade to practice in the Antipodes. Many have gone willingly. Disenchanted by the NHS, they are eager to take up positions on the other side of the world that will be relatively better paid, and offer the lifestyle benefits that come from living in Australia or New Zealand.
The doctor I spoke to is moving for similar reasons: she can’t find a job pursuing her specialism in England, but has the chance to do so if she goes abroad. And as she has family in New Zealand already it makes the relocation that much easier.
Nevertheless, she hopes it will only be temporary, and that within five years she’ll be back in the UK, which is where she said she really wants to be.
It makes for a tricky choice – stay at home and compromise your chosen career path, or leave the country and the life you know for a better job and its future prospects.
And it is not just medics in the UK grappling with this quandary. Many people in many professions in many countries around the world face similar dilemmas.
Which would you prioritise?
Tags: Antipodes, Australia, career, country, doctor, England, family, home, job, life, Moving Abroad, National Health Service, New Zealand, profession, relocation, UK, Wedding
So, you want to move abroad?
Times were when the best option for many people was to get posted overseas by their employer – you got to experience life in a new country but without the risk of leaving your job. Oftentimes it was a great way to ascend the career ladder too.
However, the global recession has seen many companies cut back on the number and generosity of their international assignment programmes. Moreover, a foreign posting is no longer a surefire career progression path.
As a 2009 report by the IESE Business School at the University of Navarra[i] noted: “Expatriates have extremely high expectations, largely due to the considerable demands required of them. However, companies cannot guarantee that there will be a vacancy to match these expectations upon their return, say in three to five years’ time.” The report added, “In general, repatriated employees hold positions similar to what they held prior to leaving.”
With the advent of the Internet, mobile communications, videoconferencing and the like though, a myriad of income-earning possibilities have opened up for the budding expatriate.
For such technologies are giving people the freedom to become independent freelancers/contractors or small-scale entrepreneurs, selling their products and services from wherever they happen to be, to customers across the world. Better still, such work opportunities are portable. And that makes moving abroad – and even multiple relocations – a whole lot easier.
For more on portable career possibilities take a look at Megan Fitzgerald’s excellent article on the topic, at http://jobsearch.about.com/od/careerdevelopment/a/portablecareers.htm. For more information on how to start a portable career or business you can also check out her website at www.careerbychoice.com.
In addition, I recommend reading Jo Parfitt’s seminal book, A Career in Your Suitcase, which includes a wealth of advice on creating a portable career.
It could offer you a whole new gateway to the world.
[i] Expatriation: More Than Just Knowing Languages, José R. Pin Arboledas, P. García-Lombardía, IESE Business School – University of Navarra, http://insight.iese.edu/doc.aspx?id=1006&ar=20&idioma=2
Tags: career, country, employer, expatriate, Foreign, global, international assignment, internet, job, move abroad, overseas, portable, relocation, repatriated, technologies, world
I saw with sadness that Sydney Pollack died earlier in the week. Not that I knew him to feel a sense of personal loss. Rather it was a sadness stemming from the passing of someone who made such a wonderful contribution to the world of film.
Coincidentally I had watched Michael Clayton, which Pollack produced and acted in, only the night before. The story follows the struggles of two men, the eponymous hero (played by George Clooney) and his colleague, lawyer Arthur Edens, who are caught up in a class-action lawsuit against an agrochemical production company. Both feel trapped in their current situations. Both desperately want to change their lives, to make them better, to be the people they want to be.
It seems a fitting testament to Pollack. While he may not have had the public status of the likes of a Clooney or Spielberg, in the industry he was a highly-regarded and influential director and producer. And as George Clooney’s tribute put it: “Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better.”
Could any of us hope for a better eulogy? To feel perhaps we’ve contributed in some small way to making the world a better place, to have pursued our dreams and ideals in our careers and lives, and to have brought some happiness to the people around us along the way.
So think about what it is that you truly want for your life. What would make you feel happy and fulfilled? Perhaps it’s that move abroad you’ve been dreaming about. Or a new job. Whatever it is, now is the time to shoot for it. Sure it may take a struggle, but aren’t the rewards worth fighting for? After all, it is your life.
Tags: Abroad, change, Clooney, dreams, job, life, Pollack
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