With the allure or returning to their motherland for a while and showing off to their friends how well they have done by coming to the US many clients come to me seeking advice on an Ex-Pat assignment from their company. Their intent is also to explore long-term opportunities in their motherland to finally settle and perhaps retire once they get the taste of the work-life there. Expat temptations go beyond returning back for a stint just to their home country; it can be a stint in any geography where your company needs trusted resources to carry out its operations.
With the recent flurry of ex-pat activity and my working with clients dealing with this situation I decided to write my experience in this blog. I am sure many readers of this blog will have their own perspectives, both first-hand and after seeing their friends going through such an experience. So, please feel free to augment this blog by providing your generous comments, so others can benefit from your perspective.
The perspective I have gleaned from my client experiences is more focused on those involved with technology work (hands-on development managers in software and product-development space). But, many of the learnings are more general and can apply to anyone going on an expat assignment. Here are some of the factors that you may want to consider before jumping into an expat assignment:
Be Selfish:
1.Some consider an expat assignment as a rsum builderit can be! You must consider your career arc so far and how an expat assignment will enhance your rsum. If the scales tip on the side of the benefit to your company more than benefits to you then you may want to reconsider why you want to pursue this avenue at this juncture.
2.Consider the impact on the entire family, not just on you. If you have a working spouse and kids in schools in which they are well settled uprooting this can have serious long-term effects that you will suffer for years to come. Some companies allow coaching services and transition resources for your spouse to find employment while keeping it all together in your new place of work in another country. This may provide some relief.
3.Consider the financial fallout after all the taxes and obligations are met. Each country has its own thresholds and limits for how taxes are structured. IRS has its limits on how the income in other countries is counted toward what you have to declare in the US. So, be careful in getting the right advice when you consider the long-term financial fallout of an expat assignment.
4.Many companies in the oil & gas industry provide very lucrative incentives for postings in other countries such as Angola (a war-torn country) and some African geographies. Some of these geographies, however, are not as safe, especially for families to move into. So, do not just be lured by the attractive financial incentives of an expat move; consider the welfare of all concerned.
5.Talk to others, who have recently come back from expat assignments in the very countries that you are pursuing. This way youll have a first-hand knowledge of the experience.
Career first:
The main reason for taking on an expat assignment is to improve your rsum for bettering your station and your prospects for future employment:
1.Ask your management why they chose you for this expat assignment. If their response is, We could not find anyone else so you are our last resort, then consider asking for specific outcomes stemming from this assignments that directly benefit your career and other factors. For example, asking for a title that elevates your status and letting you keep that tile (or even a higher one) after coming back can be an important factor in how you leverage this chance to improve your career.
2.Be clear about what is expected in your assignment and how you will be measured. Also, how long such an assignment will be required and what will be available to you when you return. All these factors are important in making the right decision.
3.If you are engaged in deep technology areas being in a different country can cause you to lose touch with the latest development in fast-moving technologies. If you are a hands-on technologist coming back to the US after several years being away can cause you to be out of date.
4.Management practices (HR practices in general) are different in different countries. So, if you are being sent overseas to build a team and ramp-up its operations to deliver ongoing products or projects then you may not have the same freedom to move/hire/promote/fire people in your team, which can seriously throttle your leadership power. This can be a factor in how your success is viewed and measured when your stint is over.
5.Make sure you have a strong support available from here when you go on an expat assignment. Nothing is worse than going to a remote land and finding that you are on your own!
6.Make an agreement to frequently visit your US office and keep in touch with what is going on to keep yourself up-to-date of office politics. Frequent changes can make you out-of-date in how you are able to connect with the existing structure in your organization.
7.Allow enough time to ramp-up in a new country. This takes much longer than anyone expects, so use this runway to manage your expectations.
An expat assignment can be a boon to your career, but before you blindly jump in make sure you have considered some of these factors to protect yourself, your family life, your finances, and your career!
Good luck!
| About Author | |
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Dilip has distinguished himself as LinkedIn’s #1 career coach from among a global pool of over 1,000 peers ever since LinkedIn started ranking them professionally (LinkedIn selected 23 categories of professionals for this ranking and published this ranking from 2006 until 2012). Having worked with over 6,000 clients from all walks of professions and having worked with nearly the entire spectrum of age groups—from high-school graduates about to enter college to those in their 70s, not knowing what to do with their retirement—Dilip has developed a unique approach to bringing meaning to their professional and personal lives. Dilip’s professional success lies in his ability to codify what he has learned in his own varied life (he has changed careers four times and is currently in his fifth) and from those of his clients, and to apply the essence of that learning to each coaching situation. After getting his B.Tech. (Honors) from IIT-Bombay and Master’s in electrical engineering(MSEE) from Stanford University, Dilip worked at various organizations, starting as an individual contributor and then progressing to head an engineering organization of a division of a high-tech company, with $2B in sales, in California’s Silicon Valley. His current interest in coaching resulted from his career experiences spanning nearly four decades, at four very diverse organizations–and industries, including a major conglomerate in India, and from what it takes to re-invent oneself time and again, especially after a lay-off and with constraints that are beyond your control. During the 45-plus years since his graduation, Dilip has reinvented himself time and again to explore new career horizons. When he left the corporate world, as head of engineering of a technology company, he started his own technology consulting business, helping high-tech and biotech companies streamline their product development processes. Dilip’s third career was working as a marketing consultant helping Fortune-500 companies dramatically improve their sales, based on a novel concept. It is during this work that Dilip realized that the greatest challenge most corporations face is available leadership resources and effectiveness; too many followers looking up to rudderless leadership. Dilip then decided to work with corporations helping them understand the leadership process and how to increase leadership effectiveness at every level. Soon afterwards, when the job-market tanked in Silicon Valley in 2001, Dilip changed his career track yet again and decided to work initially with many high-tech refugees, who wanted expert guidance in their reinvention and reemployment. Quickly, Dilip expanded his practice to help professionals from all walks of life. Now in his fifth career, Dilip works with professionals in the Silicon Valley and around the world helping with reinvention to get their dream jobs or vocations. As a career counselor and life coach, Dilip’s focus has been career transitions for professionals at all levels and engaging them in a purposeful pursuit. Working with them, he has developed many groundbreaking approaches to career transition that are now published in five books, his weekly blogs, and hundreds of articles. He has worked with those looking for a change in their careers–re-invention–and jobs at levels ranging from CEOs to hospital orderlies. He has developed numerous seminars and workshops to complement his individual coaching for helping others with making career and life transitions. Dilip’s central theme in his practice is to help clients discover their latent genius and then build a value proposition around it to articulate a strong verbal brand. Throughout this journey, Dilip has come up with many groundbreaking practices such as an Inductive Résumé and the Genius Extraction Tool. Dilip owns two patents, has two publications in the Harvard Business Review and has led a CEO roundtable for Chief Executive on Customer Loyalty. Both Amazon and B&N list numerous reviews on his five books. Dilip is also listed in Who’s Who, has appeared several times on CNN Headline News/Comcast Local Edition, as well as in the San Francisco Chronicle in its career columns. Dilip is a contributing writer to several publications. Dilip is a sought-after speaker at public and private forums on jobs, careers, leadership challenges, and how to be an effective leader. |
Website: http://dilipsaraf.com/?p=2586
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