Have you ever thought about working in another country? If yes, that is great. You are in the right track to improve your personal brand and move your career to the next level. If not, you really should start thinking about this.
Working in another country expands your vision. It helps you see everything from a different perspective. Also, you learn new cultures and more importantly you learn different business cultures. For example; I went to Japan 3 years ago and visited many corporations in Japan and saw that Japanese business culture is completely different than the US business culture. Japanese business culture gives importance to seniority whereas US business culture gives importance to performance. Europe’s work culture is different than the US work culture as well. European companies give more importance to hierarchy in the workplace compared to companies operating in the US. Learning these differences, working in different environments and living in different countries really shape your personality and make you a much stronger and global person. Moreover, learning these cultural differences help you a lot when you are working with other countries. Most importantly when you improve your personality, your personal brand grows along with it.
If you are convinced on the benefits of working in another country, keep on reading. I will share the strategies about how to find a job in another country.
Most of the global corporations have programs where you can move to another country and work in that country for the same corporation for a designated period of time. This time frame generally changes from 3 months up to 2 years. Definitely use this advantage and apply to these programs. However, if you don’t work in a global corporation or if your company does not have a program like this and you still would like to work in another country, below are the tips you need to keep in mind for finding a job in another country.
1) Know your work authorization rights in the country you want to work in. Most countries have temporary work visas. You don’t need an attorney to figure this out. You can look at the consulate’s website or use a search engine.
2) Try volunteer programs, non-profit organizations or other government programs. For example; Peace Corps has a program where you can teach English abroad or Doctors without Borders have programs where you can volunteer abroad.
3) Connect with people you know who worked in another country before and ask them to introduce you to his/her coworkers abroad so that you can get in touch with them directly and ask for their advice/help for finding a job.
4) Learn about the hiring culture of that country. In some countries networking is much more effective than applying a job online.
5) Learn about the resume formats. Most of the countries do not use a resume and instead they use a document called CV (Curriculum Vitae). CV is a longer document compared to a resume. It can be up-to 4-5 pages long. Also, keep in mind that in some other countries, such as European countries, unlike the US they expect you to list your age, gender and marital status in your CV.
