Success Tips for Expat & International Careers

World's Best Places to be an Expat

A recent article in Forbes.com reported on the results of a recent HSBC Bank International study that surveyed 2155 expats about their quality of life.  A list of the top ten places to be an expat was created from the results of that survey, using several criteria including duration of stay, opportunities to earn and save, level of luxury in the lifestyle and the price of accommodations.

Singapore was number one on the list, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the US tied for second place. Belgium and Hong Kong were the next top rated living destinations for expats.

The study showed that Hong Kong, India and UAE (UAE has no income tax) are good picks for those who want to earn and save, but tend to have shorter term stays. Opportunities for more luxurious lifestyles in Europe and the US keep expats there for more extended periods of time.

Expat Networking 2.0: Expat Expert on Facebook for Business

Recently I happened to find Scottish-Canadian expat Mari Smith on one of my favorite microblogging tools Twitter. Mary is a Relationship Marketing Specialist who has used Facebook to build her wildly successful business that supports her mobile lifestyle. Currently Mari and her husband are traveling around the US with a RV! After connecting with Mari on Facebook, she kindly agreed to share a little about herself and her expertise on Facebook:

• Mari, can you tell us a little bit about your life as an expat living a mobile lifestyle?

Sure. I consider myself fortunate to have “triple nationality.” :) I was born in Canada to Scottish parents; lived in Edinburgh for twenty years and have been in San Diego, California since 1999. In the summer of 2007, my husband and I finally sold our family home after a long wait and decided to just throw caution to the wind: we sold off all our furniture, put a few things in storage and bought a big motorhome to travel the country for as long as we enjoy the mobile lifestyle. We just celebrated a full year on the road! It’s a fantastic lifestyle. The only downside is finding strong internet signals. Oh, and we call it our mobile marriage bootcamp. Ha!

Expat Networking: Keep your Network Global While Staying Local

In a recent blog post, Jason Alba of Jibberjobber responded to a question from a blog commenter, "How do you network with groups that are far away?"

Jason gave five great suggestions, including:
1) network locally anyway 
2) search Google and Yahoo groups,
3) look on LinkedIn, and 
4 and 5) contact group organizers and big networkers in your new target market by phone.
(Please visit his post for more on his suggestions, as well as his blog in general as it's a great career management resource). 

Given most of my expat clients are looking for jobs in other countries or building portable businesses and marketing their services well beyond their local market, most of them are using "far away" or transnational networking strategies as part of their larger career or business development plan.  Which strategy is best depends on a person's goals, but here are five more ways to build your network outside of your local community:

Ethnic and Expat Entrepreneurs: A Competitive Advantage?

Recently I was contacted by Adeline Wielputz, a Franco-German graduate student doing research on ethnic entrepreneurs via one of my online networks.  Currently she is exploring how highly skilled ethnic entrepreneurs have used their ethnic (or expat) status as a competitive advantage in building successful businesses.

As I think this is an important topic for research, I was happy to be interviewed. I have shared a short interview with Adeline below to perhaps inspire other ethnic entrepreneurs to contribute to her work. If you do fit Adeline's research candidate description below, I urge you to make contact with her immediately.

• Adeline, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Hi, my name is Adeline Wielputz and I’m Franco-German. I grew up in Germany but went to France for my bachelor studies in International Business. Right now I'm a graduate student in MSc Business Administration at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and I'm writing on my master thesis 'Ethnic Entrepreneurship and Innovation'.

• What inspired you to choose the topic ‘Ethnic Entrepreneurship and Innovation’ for your masters thesis?

I was inspired to write about ethnic entrepreneurship for two reasons. First, I have lots of international friends and some of them plan to get self-employed soon. Second, I consider to get self-employed on the medium term. After graduation I want to gain some work experience and then start-up my own business. Moreover, up to now ethnic entrepreneurship has been treated in the literature under the aspects of immigrant entrepreneurs who face difficulties in their host countries to find an employment and are therefore pushed into self-employment to make their living. My wish is to investigate these aspects as well as extend the current literature by looking at highly skilled ethnic entrepreneurs.

Expat Networking 2.0: Facebook Helps You Build your Personal and Professional Network Worldwide

Many expats tell me they think Facebook is a place where 20 year old kids hang out and they don't know why they would join. Others have told me that they are curious about it, but haven't the foggiest idea of how to get started.

Although Facebook did start out as a network for college kids, it has since grown to over 70 million users worldwide. This means that for the expat looking to work or operate in the global marketplace, Facebook is a powerful vehicle for connecting with others anywhere in the world. It's also a great vehicle for keeping in touch with family, as well as friends and colleagues from former experiences in other countries.

For those unfamiliar with how Facebook works, there is a great resource I can recommend that explains what Facebook really is, why you should get involved, and how to go about doing so. It's called I'm on Facebook--Now What???

The book is goes through the basics of how to set up your profile, how to join groups and how you can connect with others. It identifies some of the more useful applications and methods for using Facebook for both professionals and business owners. And it underscores the importance of watching what information goes up on your page so that your online brand or professional reputation is not damaged through inappropriate photos, videos, information or language. I really like that there are action items at the end of every chapter to get you applying the things that you are learning about immediately.