Expat & International Careers: An Expat Woman Overcoming Obstacles to Build a Career Abroad

Congratulations to Hilary Corna - the winner of the recent Expat Women's Career Success Abroad contest.

For this contest I'd asked expat women who'd faced challenges and overcame them to build a career abroad to write and submit a story sharing their tale so that others might learn from it.

Hilary's story stood out as one that would inspire expat women to take some the courageous steps that she did to find professional success abroad. Here is Hilary's story: 

ONE WHITE FACE

 “I hope you realize you’re the one white face in the company,” one of Toyota’s top management said to me. 

Upon graduation from college in 2007, I sold my only asset — a 1995 Jeep Wrangler — and bought a one-way ticket to Singapore. Absent an actual job, I was on the road to fulfill my pipe dream of beginning my career in Asia.

An afternoon swim led to a serendipitous encounter with a top Toyota executive, who after one interview improbably offered me a position with the company. I was soon branded by one of the big bosses as their “one white face”, a notion that would underscore the theme of my life and work overseas. 

Young, female, and American, I worked as the only Caucasian in the two hundred and fifty person office for three years conducting Kaizen process improvements in automotive dealerships in the Philippines, India and other Asian countries. The company of Toyota, the automotive industry and the operations profession were all masculine run. I had everything against me.

Living the luxurious lifestyle of Singapore, I’d become an expatriate. My friends were from around the world. I found myself at dinners where you heard French, Japanese, English, and Hindi around the table. A couple siblings visited and I felt proud to share my Asia with them. 

The first year into my job, we held a birthday party for a colleague. After the celebration, I returned to my desk to continue working when my boss approached me and asked that I “help the other women clean up the room.” When I looked around, all of the men were back to work but my female colleagues were cleaning the conference room where the party was held. My jaw dropped, scared of what other gender challenges I would be faced with.

However, I was the minority in the company and couldn’t force my ideas onto it. I began to adapt and blend in. I cut my hair short, common of my colleagues, and let my died-blonde hair grow out. In the dealerships, I wore flat shoes, slacks and button-up shirts with no makeup or jewelry. I stood out enough already and didn't want my appearance to cause attention and affect my job. 

Through these efforts and my work, I was able to earn the trust of my colleagues and use my gender advantageously. My bosses included me in meetings as a median to ease high tension situations. As a woman, colleagues felt open and comfortable to share information with me, which I could then use to improve our job.

One call home, my mother said to me, “Don’t speak to me like an idiot.” I didn’t realize that I’d begun to spoken slower and with simpler vocabulary. I learned to cross my legs at my ankles instead of thighs, to suppress my loud laugh, and control my Italian hands while speaking in presentations. I developed an accent that merged British English’s mate with American’s y’all and Japanese’s -san. My identity was changing. I’d become less of the one white face. 

My job required me to travel two to three weeks a month, though, so the dealerships became my workplace and the hotels, my home. In the Philippines, I became so close friends with my driver that he brought me to tears one day when he asked me permission to name his little girl after me. My bosses and colleagues became my best friends. Weeks passed without seeing a white person.  

Meanwhile, I was growing apart from friends and family. I confused their difficulty in relating to me with disinterest, and struggled to not take it personally. Keeping up with their everyday lives became more challenging because of the time zones and no longer sharing experiences together. 

Friends stopped inviting me to events. They’d say, “we assumed you were out of town.” When I did get to go out with friends, I was either bidding farewell to a friend or welcoming another. I longed for deeper relationships. I felt alone, hiding behind my successes to keep me comfortable at night.  

In the beginning, the journey of finding and succeeding at a job in Asia was exciting. Halfway through, I felt frustrated unsure how to fit into both my life abroad and life at home. And just as I was learning how do well and to blend in at work, I found myself desiring something more. I realized my original goal of succeeding in my career was dependent upon the success in my personal life.

My upcoming book, One White Face, tells this story of my development as a young professional and global citizen. I thought I moved to Asia to succeed in an international career but realized that I wasn’t just discovering Asia—I was discovering myself.

 

Grazie mille to Hilary for sharing your story that hopefully has inspired other young women to take that first bold step towards working abroad! 

For those who want to order Hilary's book due out on the first of September, you can find out more details on her blog: www.onewhiteface.com. 

* * * * * *

As winner of the Expat Women's Career Success Abroad contest, Hilary will be receiving a copy of the book, "Expat Women: Confessions - 50 Answers to Your Real-Life Questions about Living Abroad" by Andrea Martins and Victoria Hepworth. 

This book is a resource that every expat woman should own. It covers practically every aspect of an expat woman's life abroad: settling in, raising children, relationships, and dealing with the emotional side of things and repatriation.  There is a great section on careers which addresses the challenges many expat professional women face: becoming an "accompanying spouse", building a new career abroad, "bored and lonely" at a job abroad, work-life balance, getting respect at work and starting a portable career. For those of you interested in learning more, you can download a free sample of the book at the Expat Women website.

 

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