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Working abroad benefits

The experiences you come back with and the payback in all other forms will definitely make it worth it.

Working aboard is a wonderfully exhilarating idea for most people. The majority of us think about it at some point or other but perhaps only as a whim. For others, though, it is a long-term dream to spend a year abroad or even move abroad on a more permanent basis in order to nurture a career.

If you are willing to put in the effort needed, your goal can be achieved. As long as considerable thought and research is put into the planning stage you should be prepared for the work involved and the cultural differences you can expect, and you can start enjoying the experience you have wanted to have for oh so many years! Check out our feature ‘Working abroad - is it an option?’ to find out what you need to do in order to get a job abroad with advice on preparations, visas and the like.

There are many reasons behind people’s motives for working abroad. It can vary from wanting to travel to improving a skill set or going for a big salary. You should be aware however, that big salaries don’t come for free, and a big pay packet may accompany jobs in difficult and even dangerous terrain and locations. 

Some choose international work for the adventure aspect. You’ve heard the stories of friends who’ve taught English in Japan or au paired in America and you want some stories of your own. When living in a new country even normally mundane tasks like food shopping can take on a sense of adventure, and this is all part of the fun.

You will come back with more than just exciting tales to tell though. From experiencing a different culture; both in a social and working environment, you will get a better global perspective enabling you to better relate to people from other cultures in the future. Career growth is another aspect that can come from international work, as is self-understanding. Having the courage to leave most of what you know behind and start fresh in a new country will help to show you what you are capable of and will give you a new level of self confidence.

It is true that there is a lot of preparation involved in these kinds of trips, but the experiences you come back with and the payback in all other forms will definitely make it worth it. “There’s a lot of variety, in terms of scenery, people and working environment,” explains Workthing.com’s Editor Helen Beckett. “Someone specialising in oil and gas, for example, can be in the North Sea one half of the year, and West Africa the next. Similarly the change of culture and diverse mix of people you meet from location to location can be very horizon expanding,” she adds.

Of course, you will have to find the right time for you to travel.  It is true that it is much easier to travel whilst you are young; your lifestyle is probably more fitting for upping and moving to a foreign country. If you get the chance make the trip whilst you are dependant-free as you will be able to accommodate living and working aboard and possibly doing unsocial hours much easier. If, however, you do have others to consider, you don’t need to give up on your dream.  For this situation you just need to think more carefully about where you plan to travel to, and also accommodation and possibly schooling for your family and children.

For engineers, you can get many new opportunities from working abroad. As well as having grown within yourself from your social experiences, you are likely to gain many useful work-based skills from your time in another country. “Working abroad can be a fantastic opportunity to gain experience that is just not possible on the home front, and this is particularly true of engineers,” explains Beckett. “ The anti-social location and working hours of working offshore on an oil rig for example may open up opportunities of gaining management experience or improving technical skills. Extreme geographies of specific regions may also enable engineers to flesh out theory with practical experience.”  Depending on where you go, you may also be able to add fluent foreign language skills to your CV, all thanks to spending time with the locals and making the effort to speak in their tongue.

If you’re planning to stay abroad for a specific period of time, and then return to your home country, working overseas can be a great training ground for getting valuable project management experience etc and may well help you in your job search when you return home. “However it is important to remember that all potential employers are interested in what you have achieved as an engineer during your spell abroad and what you are qualified to do, rather than in what you’d like to do next,” notes Beckett.

So there you go. If you’ve ever had the urge to make that trip, just do it!  You’ll come back having grown as a person and as an employee, and you’re career can only benefit from that. If having read this has given you the motivation to make the dream a reality, now’s the time to check out our other articles for advice on how to put things into action. Good luck and enjoy!

With thanks to Work thing.