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You may have contacted Sonali over the
internet and got valuable advice on job hunting. Sonali is an expert on Job
hunting and career solutions.
For the past seven years she
has helped jobseekers by sharing her job market expertise absolutely free of
cost. We have invited her to share her expertise with you through Jobnet
Magazine.
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Sonali is a Career
Consultant with valuable experience in the Indian job market. |
Working
Abroad
Sonali says....
The most important factor that
influences our choice of jobs is the location.
How many of us have refused even great jobs because of either the place of
posting, or, what we perceive as inconvenient commuting.
Be it commuting daily, or relocating to a different city or country, our
decisions are usually always based on personal factors. Notice how some
people travel daily for hours to reach their work place, while some people
will refuse a job if it involves traveling for twenty minutes? Some people
always have their bags packed for ready relocation, while some stick in one
place. And there are people who globe-trot all the time without hesitation.
As a jobseeker, if you are considering working abroad and relocating to a
new country, what you need is a quick lesson on the most important factor -
Geography.
Geography
Please forget what they taught you in school and, for the moment, resist the
temptation to reach out for an atlas. The world for the jobseeker has a
different geography.
Keep these three points in mind
* The world is one planet only... minus water (unless you are in the
shipping industry).
* Commuting time is always calculated on the basis of time and distance
between home and office, irrespective of any place anywhere.
* Distance is a perception. It may take less time to travel from Kolkata to
Bangkok than it takes to commute from one point in Kolkata to another during
rush hour.
* Distance from your relatives is relative. You may find cheaper to call
your mother in Bangalore from USA than from Delhi.
* Countries look and feel different -- once you go there. Usually, they do
not look like the picture postcard or movie you saw them in. Neither will
they turn out to be like what someone who lives there tells you.
The next step is to check out your thinking on these basics.
Ethnic
We have a tendency towards preconceived notions.
For example, for a north Indian, in south India you get only idli, sambhar
and dosas and not real mughlai tandoori chicken. Or, in a country like
Austria, you will not get idlis, sambhar or mughlai tandoori chicken. We
have a list of preconceived notions for everything – people, food, dress,
weather… however accurate it is, it clouds our judgment and influences our
decision making.
Do not get confused with either ethnic or authentic. Both mean nothing. We
carry or create our worlds wherever we go. For example, if you go to a
traditional Indian household either in New York or Nagpur, you will be
getting the same feelings, smells and sights, with few variations.
What is important here is that one has to stop and consider what counts. You
may decide that salary considerations are more important than the local
food. Or, that, the weather problems can be discounted if there is provision
for air conditioning in your perks.
Fears
We must also be ready to justify our fears. What are they covering up for?
Are we afraid of taking risks? Giving up our
comfortable ruts and routines? Competing with locals at work?
Make a checklist of your fears - vegetarianism, education for your kids,
disruption of Indian values, bad weather, robbery, language problems, racial
discrimination, social prejudice, inter-race marriage possibilities for your
children or prejudice towards skin color – yours or theirs...
You will have to admit to yourself about how much of your fears are actually
your prejudices and vise versa, and what are the solutions. I admit I have a
very great prejudice about prejudice. I feel that anyone who pursues a
career should keep an open mind about relocation.
Attitude
Relocation, however scary it may seem, opens your perceptions, changes your
attitudes and creates new avenues. The experience of taking such a risk may
or may not be pleasant, or even fruitful, but it is worse for a ship to
never experience a sailing beyond it’s harbor.
Let me share this with you.
My father was working for the Indian Railways when I was born. When I was
around 11 years old he got a promotion which required him to relocate from
Calcutta to Delhi. No one in my family wanted to relocate anywhere. I
remember the main worry then was a change in my educational system. Could I
cope with modern Maths and Hindi?
I landed up in Delhi and, in spite of failing miserably in Hindi, I managed
to pass H.Sc. with extremely respectable marks. (Of course, not respectable
today, where 99 percent reigns). Then, our family got its next bombshell. My
father got a great offer in Lagos (Nigeria). New fears emerged, because
Africa for my family was straight from movies like Hatari – full of animals
and great safaris. It was a tough decision, but our family relocated. It
opened up new avenues. My sister got into an advanced coursed in textile
technology in Lagos. I had just finished my graduation in India and I joined
them. I traveled across the globe (I consider that my best education). Then
my father got a job with the World Bank in USA. That was even more
challenging.
We have to overcome our fears.
Careers always have to be improved at every step. That translates into
taking risks, making new choices and converting the unpalatable into the
palatable. My father always claimed that each relocation of his was his
greatest career enhancer.
Your attitude towards relocation is very crucial for making it a successful
career move.
Stop whining and just focus on how to improve your career. Nothing else is
as important.
Working abroad
Working in a foreign country sounds like an exotic adventure to many
jobseekers world wide. And, more and more, Indians are venturing to work in
foreign countries in all kinds of professions, be it labor or white collar
jobs. In fact, as the popular saying goes, there is no place on earth where
you won’t bump into an Indian.
Relocating to a foreign country holds many challenges. There are new
orientations and new perspectives to be coped with, along with a whole new
set of new problems. But that should not stop you from making it into a
happy and satisfying life experience.
So before you pack your bags, do a reality check on
yourself.
Have you seriously considered all the pros and cons of working abroad?
Sometimes the sheer excitement may sweep you but, have you taken the
practical considerations into account?
Firstly your motive for relocation must be
considered.
If it is money, then a mere calculation will not do. Converting dollars into
rupees does not mean anything at all, even if the figures make you feel
rich. Your real income has to be calculated in terms of the cost of living
and your savings, very much the same way as it is supposed to be done -- you
now have the handicap of really not knowing with precision all the cost
factors involved.
If it is for a better lifestyle, remember that better a lifestyle has to be
defined in real terms Take for example– better schooling for your child
would require you not only the school fees but maybe the child’s eligibility
or adaptability in the new scholastic system. Also the quality of your
lifestyle is going to be dependent on your salary level and the existing
cost of living in that country.
Better career prospects is a vague concept.
Most professionals make the mistake of believing that working in a foreign
country is good for improving one’s market value. Ask yourself – What will
happen if I want to change my job to a new one in this foreign country? How
will I go about it? What will I get?
Also ask yourself what will happen if I return to India? Which type of jobs
will be available for me? What salary can I expect? Will my experience in a
foreign country count? Will the gap in working in India be detrimental?
If a high salary is your only motive, then you must take into account these
two considerations – firstly, are you going to retire soon on your savings
from this job? Secondly, are you planning to pursue your career? If you are,
then the career enhancement and growth value of your job has to be taken
seriously. What direction is my career going to move if I take this decision
and choice must be the ultimate mantra of every professional.
The next step is taking your family members into
account.
If you will be taking your family with you than you have so many aspects to
examine –
Cultural shock is a very real phenomenon. Settling in a new place, which is
totally unfamiliar, can cause symptoms of isolation, loneliness, anxiety,
depression which can add to your problems of adjustment.
Settling in can be made much easier, if you know someone who can familiarize
you with the new place or simply give support.
Many companies give social and financial support to help their employees to
settle in a foreign location. It helps. Simple jobs like finding
accommodation, new curtains or buying a car can be bewildering experience in
a new country.
Learn the local language. It is not impossible even, if it is
Swahili. Don’t say you can’t because even babies learn languages. You don’t
have to be good. Broken sentences will do. Learn enough to understand and
communicate. It will improve the quality of your life abroad enormously. It
will help to make you better liked and it would be an asset at your
workplace.
I have great admiration for my friend, a gynecologist -- wherever she went
she learnt the local language - Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and Arabic. And, as a
surgeon, she is extremely popular with her colleagues as well as her
patients. Language creates a friendliness and empathy that is unbeatable.
Have a positive attitude. Towards yourself, your job, the place and the
local people. It will help you to succeed wherever you are.
Regards SONALI
Copyright © 2007, Jobnet magazine
Republication or
dissemination of the contents of this article are expressly prohibited
without the written consent of the publishers of Jobnet magazine. |
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