CHAPTER 2
CAREER CONSIDERATIONS
IS THIS A GOOD CAREER MOVE?
| Upon being offered a foreign assignment, no doubt your first thoughts concern how accepting or declining this offer will affect your career. There are many factors to consider in making this assessment. Is the position perceived in the company as a vertical move up the corporate ladder or a horizontal one? If it is horizontal, will the time you spend out of the country (and out of the competitive race in the home office) cause you to lose competitive advantage for future promotion? If you work in a highly technical field and will be abroad for a significant period of time, will you be able to stay current in your technical area of expertise or might you fall |
Will your career be enhanced or reduced while
you are out of the boss's eye? |
| behind? Will it hurt your future in the company to refuse this assignment? Perhaps you do not foresee a long-term future with this company, international assignment or not. In that case, will accepting this assignment enhance your career elsewhere after it's over? Discussing these questions with a trusted co-worker or mentor with long-term experience in your company can be very helpful. It would also be extremely valuable to talk to employees who have expat experience with your company. If you are replacing someone else abroad, speaking to that person might prove highly valuable. | |
WILL YOU BE SUCCESSFUL?
Clearly, whether undertaking a foreign assignment turns out to be a good
career move or not depends to a large degree on how successful you are
once there. Be warned that not all assignments are successful. It is
estimated that 20 to 25 percent of all foreign assignments ultimately
fail. According to most experts, a "failed foreign assignment" is
defined as: 1) An employee who returns to the US much sooner than
initially anticipated; and/or 2) An expatriate who failed to meet the
goals and objectives of the company. A considerable number of companies
will select an employee for an international assignment based solely on
the employee's career development, with the idea that the next logical
step in that employee's career is going abroad. However, that doesn't
necessarily guarantee that the employee is going to succeed in a foreign
culture. Consider the following percentages, provided by the Business
Council for International Understanding, of expatriates who return to
the US prematurely from a foreign assignment: London 18 percent,
Brussels 27 percent, Tokyo 36 percent, and Saudi Arabia 68 percent.
Why do a substantial percentage of US professionals fail to succeed in
their overseas assignments? Is there a pattern of circumstances that
inevitably contribute to this failure? Some surveys indicate that many
of these failures were not linked to deficiencies in technical and
vocational skills, but rather were the direct result of cultural or
family-related difficulties. If I were to present a best-case scenario
for choosing the right person for the right job overseas, I would look
beyond technical or managerial expertise to other important factors such
as education, family expectations, and motivations.
If you have been offered this assignment, no doubt you have been
perceived by your company as highly proficient at your job. However, it
is in your best interest to consider the possibility that although you
are successful in the States, you may not have the personality,
motivation, or family situation that will be likely to spell success for
you abroad. To send you abroad, your company will incur costs up to
three times your base salary. Choosing to accept the offered assignment
and then failing at it will certainly cost your career more than would
deferring the assignment to someone else. Thus, it is very important to
your future that beyond deciding whether accepting this assignment is a
good career move, you also make a careful assessment of your
personality, personal motivations, and family circumstances to determine
whether you are likely to be a successful expat. It is vital that you
be strictly honest with yourself in this process.
Consider whether you possess such personality traits as flexibility,
adaptability to change, self-reliance, and resourcefulness in the face
of emergency. Consider, too, your ability to learn foreign languages
and to adjust your communication style to new conditions. Are you
comfortable in strange surroundings? Consider, too, your motivations
for accepting the position. How much does the prospect of living and
working in a strange culture appeal to you? It would probably be a
mistake to accept the assignment only for the money or possible career
advancement-if the adventure itself is not appealing to you, then the
frustrations and difficulties are likely to far outweigh extra money or
future gain. If you are married, it is critical that you include your
partner in the decision. Without your partner's full support in this
venture, success will be elusive. If you have children, obviously their
needs must also be considered (see the chapter on Family Matters for
more about family issues).
WILL THE COMPANY PROVIDE THE SUPPORT YOU NEED FOR SUCCESS?
As you consider this move, be sure to look carefully at the support you
can expect to receive from your company while abroad. Your success or
failure on the assignment will depend to a very large extent on how well
your company prepares and supports you while abroad. Make no mistake
that living in a foreign country is challenging at best, and the more
help you get from your company, the better will be your experience.
Talk to company employees who have already gone abroad with your company
and ask them how supportive the company was for them. Obviously, a
significant portion of the support you will receive from your company
will be covered in the compensation package you negotiate. Many of
these considerations are covered in Chapter 7. However, there are
certainly other aspects of company support to assess. Consider some of
the following issues:
· How many employees does your company support abroad? How long has
the
company been taking care of employees overseas? A company with a
significant number of employees abroad, especially if it has had some
years to develop a time-tested support structure, is apt to offer you
the best support.
· How much help will you get from your company in preparing for your
life in a foreign culture? Will you be offered cultural and/or language
classes or other forms of preparation for your life in the new country?
Will your spouse be able to attend as well? Will the company help you
find housing and schools in your new location? Will it help you sell
your house in the States should you decide to do that? Will the company
assist you in dealing with taxation and other financial issues in the
host country?
· What is the company's commitment to its international agenda? Are
managers and executives in the home office tuned in to global issues?
How many of them have had expat experience? Are expat assignments like
yours part of a well-planned global strategy? The more important the
company considers its overseas operations, the more resources it will be
willing to devote to your overseas office (and you), and the more
important your work will be to the company.
· Is the assignment you are being offered structured in a way to foster
success? Are your objectives and responsibilities clearly defined as
well as the performance criteria by which you will be evaluated? Is
there a clear chain of command, and well-established reporting
protocol? For communications back to the home office, will you have the
use of state-of-the-art technology (for example, phone, fax, modem,
Internet, video conferencing)?
· How well does the company reintegrate returning expats? Does it do
a
good job of taking advantage of their newly acquired skills and
experience when they return?
WILL IT BE DIFFICULT FOR A WOMAN TO SUCCEED OVERSEAS?
Given the fact that women in business often face obstacles due to
gender, and the fact that this situation is often even greater in other
cultures, perhaps additional attention needs to be paid to the special
concerns of women considering foreign assignments. While interviewing
women working in the international job market, I often received the
interesting response, "You're not a woman. How would you understand my
problem?" This is a very good question and serves as the basis for this
section. The more time spent by women in the workplace, the more they
find that they aren't unique and face the same issues as men. I am not
referring to women pioneers in this chapter. Women pioneers, those
going into a company or country for the first time where there has been
no woman before, face circumstances different from those that follow. I
am focusing here on the woman who is not the first one in, but following
those who have cleared the way.
The country where you are going has its culture in place and has had for
many years. The manner in which women are treated is part of that
culture. You will not change it and must adapt to it to make your
posting a successful one. Your company should not place you in an
assignment where your chances of success are more difficult because
you're a woman-unless you know beforehand and go in with your eyes
open. The question you should ask yourself is, "Do I have an even
chance for success?"
Do your homework and determine the potential obstacles, if any, of this
assignment. Consider the culture of the country and its acceptance of
women; the culture of the company and its acceptance and promotion of
women; role reversal problems of the trailing partner; problems
regarding your children adapting, etc. Interestingly, I've seen women
who've been more successful in a foreign assignment than they were "back
home." So, it's difficult to lump women into a single category as
international employees. It is all individual-some will take to it like
a duck to water and others will experience nothing short of disaster.
The adage "one woman's tea is another woman's poison" bodes well for
women working offshore.
I recently read an article giving women advice on how to be successful
when working abroad. Ironically, the publication covered points that
should also be considered by men who want to be successful. An
interesting piece of research was done by a woman in California 15 years
ago regarding the ways and styles in which women handle conflict. She
observed the different ways women approach combat as compared to men.
Boys were found to be more physical and direct in settling their
differences from an early age through the teen-age years, whereas girls
in the same age bracket were less physical, more maneuvering, and less
confrontational. Would the study be the same today with women
participating in just about every physical sport and activity? These
habits, early learned, follow through to later years and behavior in
life and business. The abilities that got you up the corporate ladder
this far will probably be those that also carry you overseas. Common
sense and adaptability are good characteristics for success wherever you
are.
Men from other countries often get their ideas about women from watching
American TV and movies. Many men in foreign countries find it strange
that women are business executives. Regarding cultural differences in
attitudes about sexual harassment, it is often considered a compliment
in some countries if a man makes a pass at a woman. If this happens to
you, weigh all the facts along with the country's culture before you
consider it an insult.
Safety is a major concern for women everywhere. Again, do your homework
and get input from your company on how to be safe. It's common sense
that a woman wouldn't travel alone on the subway in New York, the Tube
in London, or the Metro in Paris late in the evening.
As mentioned earlier, the problems that separate men and women in
business and culture become more narrow at home and abroad as women make
their impact on today's business. Women are in the pipeline (education,
government, and business) and are here to stay.
