Success Tips for Expat & International Careers

Expat & International Careers: Your Brand DNA is Critical to your Career Success Abroad

In today's competitive global marketplace, you cannot afford to not set yourself up for success or jeopardize your performance with poor role and environment choices. Being able to compete with top talent requires demonstrating a history of results that comes with performing well at work.

Given the investment an expat makes to move to a new country is usually not a small one, and the fact that we spend at least a third of our waking hours in our jobs, (un)knowingly putting yourself at a disadvantage at work is unwise and tragic in my opinion.

By positioning yourself using your true strengths and unique qualities - what I like to call your Brand DNA - for best fit roles and environments, you will naturally stand out in a highly qualified global talent pool. Your true strengths and unique style will help you develop a compelling, differentiated message of value that will make you the candidate of choice for the right opportunities - opportunities that will allow you to leverage your true strengths and succeed by being your best self.

 

Expat and International Careers: Personal Branding is the Key to Expat and International Career Success

In today’s dynamic, competitive, global marketplace where employers are seeking out talent across the globe, we must be visible to right decision makers so when those choice projects and job opportunities come up we are well positioned to secure them. 

This is why personal branding is what any current or aspiring expat should be using to guide their career management or international job search.

My recent article in the Expat Career Column on Expat Focus, a top online resource for all aspects of expat life, describes numerous other benefits of using personal branding to drive your international career plan, including:

Expat & International Careers: Latest Issue of The Personal Branding Magazine is Out!

I received an advance copy of Volume 5, Issue 1 of the Personal Branding Magazine from Dan Schawbel and his team at the magazine - this month's issue is a great read and highly recommended.

This issue features interviews with Brooke Burke, Justin Haplern, Jim Craig (Olympic Gold Medalist), Barbara Corcoran (ABC's Shark Tank), Ali Brown, Adam Bryant (NY Times Columnist), and Peter Shankman (HARO).

As some might consider me an evangelist when it comes to the importance of expats building their personal brand and online identity for career or business abroad, it's no surprise that I'm recommending every current and aspiring expat to download this month's free Personal Branding Magazine Sample Issue (10 articles). 

If you find the reading the sample valuable, then I encourage you to purchase the fully paid issue (22 articles) as well.

This issue is focused on using your brand to unlock financial opportunities and beat your competition. The cover story is about Brooke Burke who leveraged her modeling career to start her company, Baboosh Baby, which allowed her to "monetize" and further reap returns from her investment in building a strong brand.

EXPAT CAREER & BUSINESS SUCCESS TIP: Download the Personal Branding Magazine Sample Issue and learn more about the power of building your personal brand online for expat career and business success abroad. 

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Expat & International Careers: When Was Your Last Brand, Career & Job Search Check Up?

I'm a member of the Career Collective, a group of top career coaches and resume and CV writers who blog monthly on a designated topic for careerists and job seekers. This month's topic is "Mid-year Job Search Check up". Our Twitter hashtag is #careercollective. Here's my contribution to this month's topic.

WHEN WAS YOUR LAST CHECK UP?

Doing regular check ups for your personal brand, career management and job search is important. First and foremost, check ups allow you to see what is working and what is not.  You can make adjustments and stop wasting time with things that are not supporting your brand, career or job search goals.

Secondly, taking the time to revisit your strategy and goals based on current accomplishments is also critical for being able to successfully search out and capitalize on opportunties when they arise. Depending on how much time and energy you are dedicating to your brand building, career management and/or job search, your strategic plan can remain much the same or change almost entirely.

I recommend doing check ups quarterly for your personal brand and career management and monthly or even biweekly for someone in active job search. If you have not done one before, starting off with a biannual check up for brand building and career management is still a good start.

I invite you to create a brand, career and/or job search health checklist. Once it's done it's important to define what "health" means to you. Definitions can vary wildly. Being very specific allows you to accurately measure and assess progress in your pursuit of career health and job search success.

Some of the questions you could include:

Expat Careers & Businesses: Personal Brand Attributes of the Most Successful CAN be Nurtured

Entrepreneurs are the source of most job creation, economic growth and innovation in the world. They are critical players in the global economy and their role in generating prosperity and growth across the globe continues to increase. 

Ernst & Young, founders of the prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year Program, realized that there was no universal definition of entrepreneurship or a definitive list of traits and behaviors of the world's most successful entrepreneurial leaders. They decided to use current research, in-depth interviews with winners of Entrepreneur of the Year Program, and a survey of 685 entrepreneurs worldwide to build a model and remedy that problem.

The results of their work - a look at the personal brand attributes and skills of successful entrepreneurial leaders from around the world - is a report entitled, "Nature or nurture? Decoding the DNA of the entrepreneur".