Expat Partners: Three Tips and Challenges to Turn Career Gloom to Career Innovation and Reinvention
It isn’t unusual to see articles referring to foreign assignments as “the graveyard of career ambition” for Expat Partners. Certainly an international relocation can bring challenges in this respect, but, we would argue that it doesn’t have to signal the END of all career ambition.
We were delighted to read similar views had been expressed by women living in the United Arab Emirates in research conducted by the ExpatWoman.com. One quote demonstrated this optimism..
The research mirrored to a certain extent what we found in our 2012 research “Career Choice and the Accompanying Partner”. Some partners were enthused by the opportunities for reinvention and new starts following relocation. However, this was not true for everyone. The negative impact of successive relocations being clear in this quote:
Of course different circumstances and environments create different challenges. Where work permits are not available then the challenge to conventional routes of employment are obvious. However we encourage the partner who wants to work to say “never say never”… there are ways and means when coupled with determination and an open mind.
What we find so often when talking to expat partners, both male and female is that it doesn’t take long out of the workforce for doubt and diminishing self-belief to set in. Yet so many are highly qualified professionals with impressive track records not to mention a wealth of new skills that have been developed through the relocation experience itself. Yet because they are not in their former corporate role they neglect to see how relocating abroad can possibly have enhanced their skill set at all.
But BOY does it do just that!
TIP ONE: If you’ve been living abroad for a while think about the skills listed in the box above. Identify when you have used these different skills. We look at this list of skills and feel that many of them are very pertinent to many corporate roles.
CHALLENGE: Create a list of pertinent skills that you have or are developing due to relocation abroad. For each skill add examples of when that skill has been used. You will be amazed at how this forces you to notice the learning that is gained from a relocation experience.
The subject of self-belief and attributable skills was a topical question for us this past week as we worked with a group of expat partners on our THRIVE programme. In it we dig deep into the area of their skills, strengths and achievements as understanding these and gaining real clarity about these really forms the basis for making decisions about what they will do next.
What we see as we talk to greater numbers of expat partners is that they have a huge range of skills, strengths and achievements that they don’t remember or even recognise.
TIP TWO: Think back to past roles both paid and unpaid. What did you achieve in those roles? Tricky? I know, it’s tough to talk about what we do well. So much easier to talk about our mistake and failings. Well, none of that here!
CHALLENGE: Write TWO achievements about which you are really proud and share them in the comments section of this blog. Then CONTINUE and write, for yourself, about your achievements in the past three years! You can go further back if you like.
Next we believe we need to focus on where we excel, what we love to do, what energises us. In short we should focus on our strengths and on our potential. As a strengths practitioner for the Realise 2 strengths assessment I am an HUGE advocate of their model in which strengths fall into two categories; Realised strengths, the ones we know about, use and as a result perform well when using AND unrealized strengths; those that we possess, but don’t use that often, perhaps due to circumstance, perhaps because we are stuck in a rut. We all have hidden potential strengths and skills that can be developed, polished and shown to the world, what are yours?
CHALLENGE: Identify two of your unrealized strengths to develop.
Do you need help to identify your skills and strengths and plan your route to career/life fulfilment abroad. We will be running our next THRIVE programme in September. You can pre-register HERE. No commitment needed now, we are just collecting names of interested potential participants. We will be in touch with more details over the summer.
We were delighted to read similar views had been expressed by women living in the United Arab Emirates in research conducted by the ExpatWoman.com. One quote demonstrated this optimism..
“I haven’t been able to follow my career path, but I can go in different ways and maybe this will turn out to be a good thing”.This research found that 48% of women moving to the United Arab Emirates felt that it had helped them to explore their talents in new ways.
Ref: Women & Work In the United Arab Emirates, An ExpatWoman Market Watch White Paper 2014.
The research mirrored to a certain extent what we found in our 2012 research “Career Choice and the Accompanying Partner”. Some partners were enthused by the opportunities for reinvention and new starts following relocation. However, this was not true for everyone. The negative impact of successive relocations being clear in this quote:
“there is no more career – period. What skills I had 16 years ago are simply obsolete, the market has moved on. I anticipate another move in 5 – 6 years so I find the effort to find a job here simply not worth it”The ExpatWoman.com research also found that 29% of women felt that relocation had restricted their potential or held them back.
Of course different circumstances and environments create different challenges. Where work permits are not available then the challenge to conventional routes of employment are obvious. However we encourage the partner who wants to work to say “never say never”… there are ways and means when coupled with determination and an open mind.
What we find so often when talking to expat partners, both male and female is that it doesn’t take long out of the workforce for doubt and diminishing self-belief to set in. Yet so many are highly qualified professionals with impressive track records not to mention a wealth of new skills that have been developed through the relocation experience itself. Yet because they are not in their former corporate role they neglect to see how relocating abroad can possibly have enhanced their skill set at all.
But BOY does it do just that!
The skills and strengths that are desired for successful assignment are: Empathy and emotional intelligence, an open mind, proactive and positive mental attitudes, flexibility, cultural awareness and cross cultural communication skills, tolerance, initiative, sociability, resilience, self-awareness, team spirit and respect for people of different values and beliefs and of course a sense of humour - :)
Our three tips and challenges to turn career gloom into career inspiration and reinvention.
TIP ONE: If you’ve been living abroad for a while think about the skills listed in the box above. Identify when you have used these different skills. We look at this list of skills and feel that many of them are very pertinent to many corporate roles.CHALLENGE: Create a list of pertinent skills that you have or are developing due to relocation abroad. For each skill add examples of when that skill has been used. You will be amazed at how this forces you to notice the learning that is gained from a relocation experience.
The subject of self-belief and attributable skills was a topical question for us this past week as we worked with a group of expat partners on our THRIVE programme. In it we dig deep into the area of their skills, strengths and achievements as understanding these and gaining real clarity about these really forms the basis for making decisions about what they will do next.
What we see as we talk to greater numbers of expat partners is that they have a huge range of skills, strengths and achievements that they don’t remember or even recognise.
TIP TWO: Think back to past roles both paid and unpaid. What did you achieve in those roles? Tricky? I know, it’s tough to talk about what we do well. So much easier to talk about our mistake and failings. Well, none of that here!
CHALLENGE: Write TWO achievements about which you are really proud and share them in the comments section of this blog. Then CONTINUE and write, for yourself, about your achievements in the past three years! You can go further back if you like.
Next we believe we need to focus on where we excel, what we love to do, what energises us. In short we should focus on our strengths and on our potential. As a strengths practitioner for the Realise 2 strengths assessment I am an HUGE advocate of their model in which strengths fall into two categories; Realised strengths, the ones we know about, use and as a result perform well when using AND unrealized strengths; those that we possess, but don’t use that often, perhaps due to circumstance, perhaps because we are stuck in a rut. We all have hidden potential strengths and skills that can be developed, polished and shown to the world, what are yours?
TIP THREE: Go to www.cappeu.com, click on Realise 2 and take the strengths assessment and identify your realized and unrealized strengths."I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time.” -- Anna Freud
CHALLENGE: Identify two of your unrealized strengths to develop.
Do you need help to identify your skills and strengths and plan your route to career/life fulfilment abroad. We will be running our next THRIVE programme in September. You can pre-register HERE. No commitment needed now, we are just collecting names of interested potential participants. We will be in touch with more details over the summer.
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