relocation

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What’s your biggest obstacle to building a successful career abroad?

March 31, 2011 in Dream Lifestyle, Working Abroad by Paul Allen | No comments

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.

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Career Abroad or Life at Home?

August 5, 2010 in Working Abroad by Paul Allen | No comments

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?

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Van Gogh: The Expat Extraordinaire

April 19, 2010 in Expat Advantages by Paul Allen | No comments

There may not be many, but being a journalist does have its occasional advantages … as I found last week when I was invited to a private viewing of the Van Gogh exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

The exhibition, The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters, which finished yesterday, has been hugely popular. Unfortunately, it meant the queues to get in during normal opening hours were over three hours long at times. And the crowds inside made it difficult to view the paintings, drawings and letters that were on display, according to a friend who went last month.

So the invitation to a press party and private viewing – organised by the exhibition’s sponsor The Bank of New York Mellon – was too good an opportunity to miss. Having the space and time to amble around uninterrupted, reading the inscriptions and admiring the paintings in close detail, was a real delight (not to mention the free cava and canapés).

Of particular interest was the insight the exhibition gave into Van Gogh the expatriate. His formative years as an artist in the Netherlands produced a series of dark and dour paintings drawn from the people and landscapes around him. However, once Van Gogh moved to Paris colour began to infuse his palette. At last he was at the centre of the artistic world, and the influence of the Impressionists, and pointillists such as Georges Seurat, is visibly evident in his development as a painter.

But it was Van Gogh’s relocation south, and the inspiration he found in sun-blessed Provence, that marks the real turning point in his career. It is from this period that his most famous paintings date: Bedroom in Arles, Irises, Cypresses, The Starry Night, Cafe Terrace and the Sunflowers series.

Unfortunately, this time in Provence also saw a pronounced deterioration in Van Gogh’s mental health, an illness that led to his eventual suicide.

On second thoughts, perhaps a life in the sun isn’t such a great idea after all!

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The Beauty of a Portable Career

March 19, 2010 in Working Abrod by Paul Allen | No comments

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

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