Success Tips for Expat & International Careers

Expat Careers: Personal Branding and the Benefits to the Expat

It is disheartening to find so many people misinformed about what personal branding really is. Rather than seeing it as an authentic, effective and satisfying path to professional success through the use of a person's unique value to meet the needs of their target audience, some describe it as glorified marketing.

Personal branding is not about constructing an image that will appeal those you want to hire you as a professional or business owner. It's about unearthing and communicating the unique combination of qualities, abilities and strengths that make you exceptional.

This combination allows us to offer value that no one else in the world can offer in quite the way we offer it. This unique value will help you naturally stand out from them competition and attract those who need what you offer most.

Those that dismiss personal branding as just another expression for marketing oneself may miss out on the incredible benefits that personal branding has to offer.  Regardless of what people believe it to be, the results that the process of personal branding creates cannot be denied.

People will take action when they see clear benefits from the results of those actions. Here are just some of the benefits you'll gain from personal branding:

• Increase your confidence by understanding yourself better

• Increase your visibility and presence in the global marketplace

• Create a clear focus for your business or career abroad

• Differentiate yourself from your competition wherever you are in the world

• Increase your income – specialized expertise warrants higher fees

• Thrive during economic downturns

• Attract quality clients or employers who will truly benefit from your expertise

• Know who you are meant to work with and what you do best - and make choices accordingly

• Establish goals aligned with your unique promise of value – and reach them faster 

 

EXPAT CAREER AND BUSINESS SUCCESS TIP: Are you an expat looking to build a career or business to support your life abroad?  Make a list of all of the ways understanding your unique value and communicating it to the right audiences will support you in your job search and career management overseas. Make every item on your list personal and be sure to extend your list beyond the items listed above. Now make a list of all of the possible consequences of positioning yourself as just another well-qualified candidate in the global market place. After comparing these two lists, what is the next right thing you can do to help realize your goals for living and working overseas? Do that.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  career by choice can help you...become an expat and experience a global lifestyle ~ explore international career options and find work abroad ~ understand your Brand DNA and how you perform at your best ~ clarify your personal brand so you can stand out and be sought after for top jobs overseas ~ develop marketing tools and strategies to communicate your unique expertise in a compelling way ~ strengthen your online reputation to attract employers and secure international jobs ~ become highly visible, recognized and well compensated for the value you create ~ overcome challenges and grow as a leader on international assignments ~ leverage social media to build your global online network ~ develop a global mindset ~ find an international career coach and experienced guide ~ conduct an international job search ~ optimize your choices and discover success abroad on your terms by being your best self. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Controlling your Digital Dirt

You can’t completely control what information is out there online. And once that information is out there, in some cases, it is there for good. However, there are some steps you can take to make sure that information online is supporting your professional reputation and personal brand.

• Google yourself and see what you find. Be aware of what a prospective employer or client will find if they do an Internet search.

 

• Remove any unflattering online photos or information you may have posted in a personal profile, personal blog or social networking site such as MySpace, Friendster and Facebook.

 

• Ask friends and family to be aware of how their comments or photos of you on their blog or website (as well as other sites they may post on) could be seen by a prospective employer or client. If they have posted an undesirable comment or a photo about you on their personal blog or site, they might be willing to remove it.

 

• Monitor comments made by others on your personal blog and remove any that portray you in a negative light.

 

• Block the option to allow for comments on your personal blog if comments become a problem.

 

• Pay attention to the posts you make on blogs or other sites. Once this information is posted, most of the time it cannot be taken back.

 

• Regularly monitor your online presence by Googling yourself to see what you find.

• If you discover that incorrect information has been posted about you online, contact the source to remedy the situation.

But what about the information that is already out there?

 
If the source or site owner is unwilling to remove undesirable information, there are four things you can do to make it more difficult for your digital dirt to be found.

• Get out there and post information! Update online profiles. Post on blogs aligned with your professional interests and personal brand. Search engines pick up the most recent information posted online first, so the more new and positive information is out there the less likely the negative will be found.

• Generate new online profiles at professional networking sites like LinkedIn.

 

• Start a blog. Having a blog is a great way to get lots of good information about you and your unique promise of value on the Internet – and quickly! More in future posts on using blogs to promote your personal brand and generate new career and business possibilities.

 

• If you have a blog, link to other blogs or websites that are aligned with your professional identity or personal brand. Search engines pick up on sites with more links, so the more links, the better.

Managing your digital dirt can be an investment in time and energy, but one that can make a significant difference to your professional success.

What will you do to control your digital dirt today?

Successful Global Living and Working requires Cultural Awareness

There is a great deal of research regarding cross-cultural understanding and its importance in successfully transitioning to a new country. 

Understanding your own cultural identity, as well as those of the people in the country in which you are living or working, can help you to create more positive and successful personal and professional interactions.

If you are planning to move or have recently moved to a new country, an excellent resource you may want to take a look at is cultureactive.

Cultureactive is a web-based cultural database of information about thinking patterns of all of the world’s major cultures.  National cultural profiles are organized into categories, such as values and core beliefs, concept of space and time, communication patterns, body language, gender issues, and manners and taboos.

Cultureactive provides several self-assessments that will generate your own cultural profile and identify your knowledge of and beliefs about over 50 cultures.  It also measures how well you would perform in a series of cross-cultural situations.

If you are an expatriate, do you know how your cultural identity is different from the one in which you live? How could this knowledge help your global living and working experience? 

Do you have Digital Dirt?

Digital dirt is any information about you on the Internet that does not support your desired personal or professional reputation.

Today there are so many ways that personal information can end up on the Internet. Social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster, and Facebook, and personal web sites and blogs are two of the primary ways people can be found online.

Having your interests, personal experiences, photos or views on the world online won’t necessarily hurt you. They can actually work to support a well-rounded, on-brand online identity.

But an extremely opinionated comment or a less than flattering photo can be quite damaging to a prospective employer’s or client’s view of a person. As mentioned in a previous post, prospective employers and clients often consider what information they find online when making their hiring and buying decisions.

Comments that a person leaves on a blog, as well as comments other people make on a person’s personal blog, can also be discovered if someone is doing an Internet search on an individual.

Being aware of digital dirt and taking action to control it are an important part of managing your professional reputation and personal brand.

Do you have digital dirt that needs cleaning up?

Personal Branding for Personal Success

I was happy to see that the 360 Reach Personal Brand Assessment I use with my clients was highlighted in a recent Time Magazine article. The assessment is a powerful tool that gives you a focused portrait of your professional reputation - one that is invaluable for ongoing professional development.

It was interesting to learn about new ways people are using personal branding to enhance their lives. The article discusses how personal branding has helped recent graduates find jobs and more established entrepreneurs increase revenue, but also shares how a 67 year old grandmother has used it to increase responses to her personal ads!

How are you using your personal brand to increase your personal or professional success?