Supercharge your career with an overseas gig

Hi,
Very usefull info.
Cheers!
CV Creator

I have had 7 international assignments and jobs. Upon my last return, I tried to find a new job in the USA, with absolutley zero response. Repatriation after a successfully completed international job is a joke. All my major contacts were laid off or quit, so I knew no one at any of the firms. HR was hopeless in assisting. If you take an international job, just assume your career with that firm is over, if you spent more than a couple years overseas.

I just returned from 5 years in Asia – China and Vietnam. I also think this article painted too rosy a picture about the boost to your career.

Most people who don’t go abroad say the same thing – “Wow, you must be so marketable”. But in reality, what is described in the comments above it true – most companies do a terrible job repatriating, you lose your network in the US (which is invaluable to getting high level jobs) and companies worry you are out of touch while spending those years out there.

I myself had to change companies when I returned to the US. I doubt I’ll consider another jaunt abroad.

I have not worked overseas but I was in an on-line college class with a woman from Singapore. She was in the health and beauty profession who’s parent company HQ was in the US. She related to me that “whitening” or skin bleaching was a big trend in Singapore and the surrounding region and that a US rep was on her way to train staff etc. Well the US rep shows up with this monumental tan to the confusion of the local staff wondering how ‘in touch’ HQ was with the product and the region.

At the senior level, an american will be treated abroad ( especially asia and middle east) as god – car, diver, large fully furnished house, return tix every yr, all paid for by the company.

When americans come home from that treatment, they often find it very difficult to re-adjust to the american landscape due to the enormous downgrade that being in a america brings ( i.e. you certainly wont be treated as god as were overseas – unless you are CEO). This significant downgrade in lifestyle has major repercussions of the employee and family. As a result, they ofter ask their boss “when are you sending me back?”

I have personally not had any bussiness assignment overseas but have travelled extensively and interracted with and learned from people with varying background and behaviour patterns. The fact that every business is going global or will soon be pushed into the global business arena, any foreign experience will be a big career buster for the individual. It is a no-brainer that the more you know about the global village, the better your understanding of other cultures and the bigger your experience will be as compared to anyone who has done it all only in the US.

One of the best ways to prepare is early: study at least one foreign language intensively (not just the 101 class) at university.On the other hand, while working 29+ years at company X, I saw repatriates from overseas (who had originally been promised a big career boost as a carrot) promptly fired or shunted to the going-nowhere track.

Annie here — You raise a good point. Before accepting an overseas assignment, it’s probably a good idea to take a look around the company to see what has happened to others when they returned. If going abroad didn’t help their careers, it’s unlikely to help yours either.

I spent 6 years working for a mult-national U.S. corporation in Shanghai. Here is what I learned:

1- If you go with a spouse or significant other, and your relationship has some kind of crack in it, the stress of living overseas will likely split you up. I saw it happen to about 20-30% of the other couples I knew when I was there. This seems to be especially true in Asia where young women are very interested in foreign men.
2- MANY people quit their jobs when they move back to the U.S. That is because they are treated as burdens of re-integration into their old companies. Paradoxically these same people, because they have international experience, tend to be more sought after by other companies. I will say, though, that I do not think the advantage of overseas experience has nearly the dramatic effect on one’s career as this article seems to suggest.

Annie, thank you for doing this article! I’ve been thinking about looking for a job in Asia and didn’t really know where to start. This article is a great way to start my job search. Perhaps you can do an article on how or where we can search for jobs overseas. thank you.

There can be adownside to international experience. My wife and I came back to the US after 6 years in Europe working at the international level. We found it hard to get back into the workforce due to a mentality that can be summarized as “You cannot understand the US or regional business if you have been focused on international”.

I’ve worked abroad for the better part of 20 years. There are trade-offs. Advantages include a great opportunity to contribute and make influential decisions in companies early in your career -especially in developing countries/markets; the fulfillment of seeing companies and markets quickly evolve and thrive; competitive benefits; good lifestyle due to the US dollar’s historical strength and the proximity to vacation destinations, the opportunity to really understand a new culture as no short vacation allows.

However, repatriating after a foreign assignment may not necessarily make you a more attractive candidate in the U.S., particularly in areas such as digital or marketing management. This is because a) you lose touch with your US-network of colleagues b) many US based companies perceive themselves to be cutting edge in just about every area -from technology to mass marketing-, failing to see the relevance of experience abroad. I’d argue that creativity, innovation often arise more easily out of necessity in foreign contexts,preparing you to be a sharper, more flexible problem solver; certain technologies leapfrog ahead of the US and present opportunities to lead rather than lag the US (GSM mobile phone technology, for example). c) Paradoxically, US companies suffer from jingoism despite having the most global brands in the world; companies look askance at the value of understanding foreign cultures because the focus is on the word “foreign”, rather than “culture”.