Expatriate Career Strategies

Career Strategies for First-Time Expatriates

For executives, one key to company leadership positions remains a successful overseas assignment. Organizations rely on managers to conduct all over the world. First time expatriates need know that the potential effects, both positive and negative, of overseas assignment are enormous, both professionally and personally.

Executives considering their first expatriate assignment can reduce their career and personal risks with thorough preparation. There are four factors that are especially critical to a successful assignment abroad, for both the company and the expatriate:

• Cross-cultural preparation that emphasizes flexibility and adaptability.
• A company approved plan for upward career opportunities, with emphasis on what is planned on return from abroad.
• An expatriate package that properly supports employee needs.
• Attention to the needs of spouses/partners and family.

Cross-Cultural Preparation

Proper cross-cultural preparation helps to relieve two concerns for the first-time expatriate. The new country will impose culture shock and often increase the difficulty of intra company communication. Cross cultural training programs are offered by the most progressive employees.

Whether or not your company has a formal cross-cultural training program, it's clearly an advantage to become familiar with your host country's history, customs, and etiquette, before you go. For a general rule of thumb, focus on positive aspects of the host country and rarely mention the better things of your home country. It is very easy to offend host country nationals without intending to do so.

No matter how complete your cross-cultural preparation or how many times you have visited your host country, there is still a difference between theory and reality. When you finally begin living and working abroad the common trait shared by successful expatriates is their ability to be flexible and adaptable. You will not be effective and happy in your assignment if you do not assimilate as much as possible into the new culture. You can not afford, financially or professionally to recreate your home country lifestyle.

Successful expatriates are able to put aside preconceptions about work and relationships. They quickly recognize and adapt to new cultural customs. The leadership style that made you successful in your home country may not work as well somewhere else. Business culture varies by country, so sensitivity to different ways of achieving goals is essential. Consider this knowledge a type of life insurance.

Working knowledge of the host country language helps enormously in expatriate assignments. Even though currently English is the language of business, the English speaker should try to learn some of the host country's language. Such knowledge contributes significantly to establishing good relationships with staff and business partners.

Expatriate Career Development

The majority of expatriates originate from the company's home country. Often candidate expatriates are reluctant to go abroad, because of the considerable professional and personal risks.

To address professional needs, an executive needs to ask some hard questions before accepting a foreign assignment, particularly about what going abroad will mean for your future career with the company. Although your immersion in a foreign business culture can increase your value to a company's global operations, it can also lead you to a career backwater. Going abroad requires that you strategically manage your career, by making sure you are not out of sight and out of mind, particularly as the head office hires new people who don't know you.

Expatriates often return home to find their companies are not prepared to place them in a suitable position. As a result, most returned expatriates leave their companies in about two years. Another company reaps the benefits of the employee's overseas experience, not the company that sent the employee abroad. If you are prepared to switch companies, an expatriate assignment still is often the shortest path to a senior leadership position.

The Expatriate Package

Regardless of the global scope of your employer, the human resource department might not have much of an international mindset. It is critical to make sure that the agreed expatriate package meets your personal financial and quality of life goals. This is especially important in the areas of life insurance, international health insurance and international medical insurance.The best packages even include international travel insurance to guard against baggage lost in transit and other perils. Don't forget you will spend some time back in the original home country, make sure your medical insurance covers you back home as well.As well make sure your family health insurancecoverage covers being overseas. If you are already overseas you can check on the Internet with companies dealing in health insurance online.

Relocation Assistance

A good relocation company in your host country can take care of many details that would cost you time and money to find out for yourself. Relocation experts can take care of moving your personal possessions to your host country, negotiate a real estate lease, obtain necessary residency permits for yourself and your family, and help you with getting utility service.

Compensation Package

Your salary needs careful consideration. The simple logistics of how you will be paid can cause you stress and frustration. Understand which currency you will receive as compensation, and whether your company will protect you from exchange rate fluctuations and tax disparities. Banking regulations in your host country are another important consideration.

Allowances

The costs of sending an expatriate on a foreign assignment can easily equal the employee's salary. Allowances for housing, children's education, visits back home, expatriate clubs, a car and sometimes a driver, are just some of the additional costs a company might cover to keep an expatriate safe, happy and financially whole. Large companies are more likely to offer these benefits than a smaller firm. If your company has no allowance policy, you might want to negotiate a package that meets your priorities.

Health Care

Another critical issue is health care coverage for yourself and your family. Your health care coverage abroad should cover your health and prescription medication needs satisfactorily, including the option to return to your home country for major problems as well as annual check-ups. If your company's health care policy does not extend to an overseas stay, you will need special coverage.

Financial Support

You should find a tax attorney who can appropriately handle your multinational tax obligations. Make clear who covers these fees and costs.

Coming Home: Repatriation Issues

After several years abroad in a successful foreign posting, the expatriate and accompanying family members now face a new challenge: coming home. Repatriation causes its own issues for the employee and the family, because even if circumstances at home haven't changed that much, expatriates now view them with a new perspective.

While reverse culture shock will probably not be as dramatic as the initial introduction to the host country, expatriates and families should expect some initial difficulty in adjusting to home life.

For the employee, the critical issue is whether he or she is still relevant to the company back home. Too often, a company does little to incorporate the expatriate's experience and knowledge gains. As mentioned earlier, taking an overseas assignment to boost your career may mean taking a senior position with another company. If you prepare yourself for this possibility, your career can maximize on your experiences abroad.