Working abroad?

Randy Marsh · 4 Jan 2009 at 16:59

Hi folks,

Just thought I'd pose the question of working abroad on here as I know there's a few of you who work in the IT Sector or live/work abroad.

I'm coming up to the end of a 2 year graduate scheme with an IT multinational where I've been working as a Business Analyst. I understand that there's opportunities to move internally with your company abroad - but I'm not sure what the protocol for this is? Is it more a case of the company putting the idea to you or can it be initiated by yourself?

The other alternative I was thinking about was to sign up with a recruitment firm and see whether they can help me out at all. I actually had an offer from a recruitment consultant a few weeks ago for a job in Spain (only requiring English) with another IT multinational but the job wasn't an area I wanted to go into.

Any tips / experiences would be appreciated. Cheers.

mr.bond · 4 Jan 2009 at 17:19

IMO, you'll be limited to countries where you at least have an average grasp of their home language. I've worked in a few places (all be it short projects with my parent company) and not everyone speaks english (which I'm assuming you are).

Have you considered a country which uses English as it's first language? Or indeed learning a language in a country which you'd be intrested in working in?

There's some nice places in the world (better than England, again IMHO and depending on what you want from you're working life) like Australia, for me anyhow

Be wary of recruitment firms offering jobs abroad. I don't see why a person coming out of a graduate position would be offered a job in Spain who's (again I'm assuming) is a none spanish speaker (even though they say 'english only') when they'll be plenty there to fill these positions. What is your trade exactly?

Oops, trade mentioned, ignore that question

Tunney · 4 Jan 2009 at 17:19

Do you have an internal jobs board? You might be able to apply for something through that. Either that or you could talk to your line manager.

Just be wary of recruitment consultants. They're useful but take everything they say with a pinch of salt.

[DOD]Asprilla · 4 Jan 2009 at 17:36

If you're a BA then comms is an vital part of what you do so I'd echo what everyone else has said about language.

I'm a BA now, but I used to work in Germany as a Marketing Analyst for HP. German wasn't required for the role, but I needed lessons whilst I was out there.

Randy Marsh · 4 Jan 2009 at 18:12

Ideally I would be looking for a role where English was the primary language, but then I have no issues with learning the local language while I'm abroad. I was quite interested in the Spanish role I was offered (it was working for CSC in a Service Centre they have there where English would suffice) but alas the role was not really for me. I would have been happy to learn Spanish regardless as I would want to integrate into whatever country I live in.

We do have internal job boards at the company I work for... there is literally hundreds of jobs listed in regions all over the World. However, part of the reason I was asking here was that I don't really know how to initiate the whole process, and the HR team we have at my local office aren't really too sure themselves!

I agree that communication is going to be a barrier in my field, as BA's are meant to be client facing and therefore being restricted to one language isn't going to help my cause. However, I have had some fellow graduate mates from my company go to Abu Dhabi and Singapore who only speak English so I think I may be able to overcome this obstacle.