Landing a Job in the International Job Market

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Row of international flags So you’ve decided to look beyond the borders of your mother country to look for an exciting new job in some exotic locale. But how do you go about finding a job overseas and ensure that you will be satisfied enough to justify the expense and effort? The first and easiest answer to this question is simple: narrow your list down. With all of the talk about a shrinking planet you may be tempted to believe it. But rest assured, the world is bigreally big. And there are opportunities everywhere.

With that in mind, before deciding on where you want to move, you should focus your efforts on figuring out just what you want to do once you get there. If you have a general idea of the part of the world in which you want to live, learn about the local industries, emerging or otherwise, to keep your search narrowed and realistic. Once you determine who has the jobs you want, you can more easily pinpoint your country of choice. When you’ve narrowed down what and where you can get down to the nitty-gritty of job searching.

Just as there are regional and local job boards within individual countries, so are there for multinational jobs and they will typically allow you to aggregate jobs by location. You can also investigate countries of interest on the Internet and search their internal job boards or even just collect contacts for future employment inquiries. You may also consider going ahead and sending a resume to see what type of response you receive. Stepping out into the international job market is inherently risky; so, the more chances you take, the more potential nibbles you may receive on your proverbial fish hook.

Since your international job search is naturally long distance, you will probably not have the opportunity to interview in person. So making a video resume and taking advantage of video interviews will be your best (and only) chance to make an impression upon an employer. Additionally, if you are applying for a non-English speaking job, you can use your video time to showcase your language proficiency. Simply writing in a resume that you speak multiple languages is one thing, but proving it in a video resume or interview is proof positive and bound to leave a positive impression (if you are genuinely proficient, that is).

The idea of starting a new life and career abroad is an exciting and reachable goal. But there are several additional considerations to keep in mind as opposed to job seeking within your domestic market. Keep your search as narrow as possible in order to keep your goals manageable, take risks and reach out to employers that interests you, and use technology to your advantage by creating a video resume and participating in virtual interviews. In these ways you can allow an employer to get a real taste of your unique personality and you may even get to show off your language skills.

 

By Joshua Bjerke