Posted by Sean at Goinglobal on October 6, 2011
If you are looking for work in international locations, you will need to know how to showcase your skills and achievements in a manner that is familiar to an overseas employer or manager. Translating your experience also applies when you are looking for a job in your home country but are changing career paths or industry.
Translate your Resume/CV
It might be tempting to copy and paste your resume or CV into an online translator tool but this can be a risky approach if you aren’t familiar with the target foreign language. Find a native speaker who can review and comment on the initial translation. It is very likely that what you thought your were saying in your resume has been interpreted differently than you intended.
You can also look at hiring an translation service but consider looking to make a connection with someone from the culture or country you are looking to work in. Making a new contact is an excellent opportunity to learn more about another culture and give you some practice in appreciating another point of view when it comes to discussing work experience.
Provide an interpretation of your skills
Depending on the management and work cultural of any country, your achievements need to be seen as offering a “good fit” for a company or organization. As part of your research into the culture of an overseas work environment, take some time to consider what is valued.
For example, you might have exception entrepreneurial talent and multiple skills to work independently on a project to bring it to completion and success. However, if a local culture views team collaboration as a critical element for an organization’s success, your ability to function more independently might be perceived as disruptive rather than an advantage. In this scenario, you might alter the description on your resume to mention how your entrepreneurial abilities include establishing strong relationships that ensured success for your efforts as well as your colleagues or partners.
Recognize how your skills relate to other job roles
If you have previous experience from a job or training while completing a degree, you can also consider how to translate that experience into skills that apply to other job roles. The skills categories on O*NET offer a user-friendly way to look for skills descriptions and then match them to related job descriptions.
Once you have a better understanding of how your skills relate to other jobs, it can be easier to modify your resume or CV to become more tailored to job opportunities you find online.
Improve your ability to use other languages
If you are interested in working outside your home country foreign language skills are usually beneficial, and in some cases, required.
For international development and nonprofit work overseas, language skills are critical as the project work typically occurs in locations where the host country languages are the only ones spoken by residents. In an article on Devex entitled “Foreign Language Skills in International Development: What’s in Demand” (login required), the author describes the variety languages that have seen a growing demand for capable speakers for both development work and humanitarian relief.
You can learn more about resumes and CVs for international destinations on Going Global’s website.
The Goinglobal.com team is comprised of individuals representing many different nationalities who all have one experience in common—we have all lived and worked outside of our home countries. Goinglobal.com is committed to providing “grassroots intelligence” through our team of in-country researchers.
Posted by Olga at Going Global on April 21, 2011
Jim Key - Director of Global Marketing at Intrax Internships Abroad
Today’s guest post is brought to you by Jim Key, Director of Global Marketing at Intrax Internships Abroad. Last year, Jim took us through the international job searching funnel starting by preparing for a job abroad, researching potential employers and turning those findings into potential interviews. Now that you know the process, it’s time to narrow down your focus and chose your industry. In this guest post, Jim will teach you about the fascinating world of entrepreneurship and what you can expect working in that field.
In last fall’s series of guest blog posts, we went through how to find an internship overseas and turn it into a job. This winter and spring we will look at a few different categories and why you might consider them for an international internship.
Photo courtesy of Jim Key
Our second category is Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs start businesses in industries ranging from high tech, consulting, freelance marketing work, HR placement & outsourcing, to any other industry you can imagine. I’ve met entrepreneurs who manage art galleries, who produce & distribute wine, and who run incubators (office complexes)…for other entrepreneurs. I’ve also met quite a few who have created and run social enterprises, which are for-profit businesses with a social mission.
So what do entrepreneurs do?
Students often think in terms of majors – is entrepreneurship more like management or accounting or finance or marketing or management information systems? Entrepreneurship is pretty much all of the above, but faster and more unpredictable because entrepreneurship is business in its rawest essence. While an intern in finance or marketing with a large organization may look for a harmonious stream of projects related to that one function, an entrepreneur (and by extension, the intern) can expect a more staccato flow of operations, sales, marketing, product development, crisis management, HR, program execution, finance, and a few more things to be determined on the fly. Students are often taught to think in terms of a Fortune 500 company – an organization that grew from the chaos of a few people working out of a garage to a mature company with a brand, a recognized logo, an office building or a campus as a headquarters, and unique departments for the different functions staffed in proportion to the amount of workflow of each function: Product Development, Engineering, Manufacturing, New Business Sales, Account Management, Marketing, Finance/Accounting, IT, HR, etc. When there are 3 or 8 or even 20 people, everyone does everything and the flow of work is often driven by specific events – a product launch, a large customer’s needs, or a conference that brings together most of your target market. For example, last time I saw one tech startup in the UK, everyone was focused on a weekend music festival (the customer) using their mobile phone app, which had been designed specifically for that festival. Since hundreds of thousands of music lovers would be attending, this firm had a lot riding on getting it right.
Why do students choose to intern with entrepreneurs?
1) Passion – in an entrepreneurial firm, you will be exposed to the zeal of the founder. The founder created the firm and the vision, so they believe in what they are doing with a passion that you rarely see in larger, more mature businesses. The business is much more personal and meaningful to the whole team. Take that passion and double it with the social enterprises – all the mission orientation of a non-profit with the passion (and urgency) of an entrepreneurial founder.
2) Real experience even, if you don’t speak the language – the entrepreneurs that I have met tend to be well-connected, internationally-oriented people. They are often targeting their product or service to a global or at least Europe-wide market. As such, they have great opportunities for interns to do meaningful work and add value even if they are not fluent in the local language, because much cross-border business is done in English. Of course each national culture (and company culture) approaches the challenge of the business environment differently, so you are still getting cultural immersion, but you can often do it even if your French needs some work.
3) Exposure to a variety of functions helps students figure out their strengths – many students are not really sure what they want to do. They often choose a major by the intro class that they liked or what others (parents, teachers, advisors) have suggested that they should do. As an entrepreneurship intern, students get to see operations, finance, sales, marketing, and put out a fire in account management – sometimes all in one day. With that experience, students can identify and gravitate towards what they enjoy and do well.
4) Understanding how organizations work – the flip side of the point above (figuring out what work you like best) is that students see the dynamic of how different functions interact in a small business. Most business classes provide a sense of how finance or marketing or accounting work on their own, but not necessarily together. Unless students take an entrepreneurship classes or discuss the interworking of functions in a strategy or case method class, it is easy to miss the bigger picture of how organizations really work internally.
5) Fast moving environment – there are some who love the structure of a larger organization and the certainty of knowing what they will be doing months before they do it. Others get bored and wonder if the research project they are working on will really impact the company or be read at all. Working for an entrepreneur, the intern often sees a more frenetic pace as she works on varied assignments that are almost always directly related to the success of a firm. Obviously every company is different, but being small often means that they are working close to the margin. What happens today means either a) success & growth or b) closing up shop at the end of the year (especially in this economy), so there is no time to drift. As one student said, “this company has the personality of its founder and its founder is definitely ADD – just like me.”
6) Job Opportunities – we have seen students get job offers and get hired by their internship company in several countries, almost always with small businesses. Why? They can make decisions. Back in the 90’s when I interned abroad in Germany with Opel (GM Europe), my boss liked me and wanted to hire me, his boss liked me and wanted to hire me, but… it was General Motors. It takes about 18 people to agree to make a decision like hiring someone, plus another five to justify hiring a foreigner (requiring all the extra paperwork). When the Founder/CEO of a small firm says “He’s doing a good job, let’s hire him,” it gets done.
In summary, working as an entrepreneur is unstructured because you are creating something new. Students who embrace that challenge can gain meaningful work experience in a dynamic environment, learn more about themselves, and get a better sense of what they want to do.
Posted by Olga at Going Global on April 18, 2011
Photo attribution to andercismo
Imagine working abroad for the first time, armed with all the information you need to successfully acclimate yourself to the work environment, social scene and overall cultural customs? That is where Goinglobal steps in. Goinglobal is committed to providing you with an arsenal of career information and resources to ease the transition abroad and help you be prepared before you leave. We have career country guides for over 30 countries, written by in-country researchers, aimed to help you as a professional, regardless of whether you are a novice or seasoned expat.
Every week, we will feature an insight from one of our global career guides to help you achieve your dream of working internationally.
Living in Gumball Machine, Photo attribution to 29cm
Today’s tip: Knowing your cost of living in Italy
Salaries and Cost of Living
Italy is one of the least expensive countries in the European Union. Even though the Euro has made great gains in recent years against the US dollar, average prices in both Rome and Milan are still slightly lower than in New York, North America’s most expensive city, according to investment bank UBS.
Housing
On a per-square meter basis, apartment rent is most expensive in central Rome and least expensive in Milan. Apartment rent in Venice is more expensive than in Florence,
but both are less expensive than Rome. In central Rome, a 30 square meter (323 square feet) apartment rents for 1,100 EUR (1,737 USD) per month. In Milan, a 50 square meter (538 square feet) apartment rents
for 600 EUR (948 USD) per month.
Vacation and Leave
Workers receive a minimum of four weeks of paid holiday, although many receive up to six weeks. There are also 10 public holidays, plus some half-day holidays and feast days for local patron saints. Many Italians choose to take their annual leave during August.
This is just a sample of what you’ll find in the complete Italian country guide. To learn more about Goinglobal and our other country guides, please visit www.goinglobal.com
Posted by Olga at Going Global on February 21, 2011
Photo attribution to andercismo
Imagine working abroad for the first time, armed with all the information you need to successfully acclimate yourself to the work environment, social scene and overall cultural customs? That is where Goinglobal steps in. Goinglobal is committed to providing you with an arsenal of career information and resources to ease the transition abroad and help you be prepared before you leave. We have career country guides for over 30 countries, written by in-country researchers, aimed to help you as a professional, regardless of whether you are a novice or seasoned expat.
Every week, we will feature an insight from one of our global career guides to help you achieve your dream of working internationally.
Today’s Tip: Knowing the cost of living in Argentina
By North American and European standards, the cost of living is very low in Argentina. According to a global cost of living survey for expatriates conducted by UBS, the average cost of a basket of products and services in Buenos Aires is 45 percent of the cost of the same basket in New York, the most expensive city for expatriates in the Americas.
Transportation
Due to road congestion and the high cost of parking in Argentina’s cities, most people utilize public transportation. Each of Argentina’s cities has urban bus, or colectivo, service. In Córdoba, Mendoza and Rosario, buses are supplemented with trolley buses which are powered by overhead wires. Buenos Aires has a subway system (known as Subte, short for subterráneo) as well as a network of commuter trains covering its suburbs.
Medical Care and Health Insurance
Argentina’s public health care system has been ravaged by inefficiency, corruption and the paralyzing economic downturn occurring in the early part of this century. Nearly half of all Argentines are covered by healthcare programs funded by their employee union and administered by one of many Obras Sociales. Forty percent do not have health insurance and about 10 percent are covered by private insurance plans. Those who do pay into the public plan pay six percent of the first 4,800 ARS (1,520 USD) in gross earnings plus 1.5 percent of the first 4,800 ARS of gross earnings for each dependent.
This is just a sample of what you’ll find in the complete Argentina guide. To learn more about Goinglobal and our other country guides, please visit www.goinglobal.com
Posted by Olga at Going Global on February 7, 2011
Photo attribution to andercismo
Imagine working abroad for the first time, armed with all the information you need to successfully acclimate yourself to the work environment, social scene and overall cultural customs? That is where Goinglobal steps in. Goinglobal is committed to providing you with an arsenal of career information and resources to ease the transition abroad and help you be prepared before you leave. We have career country guides for over 30 countries, written by in-country researchers, that help you as a professional regardless of whether you are a novice or seasoned expat.
Every week, we will feature an insight from one of our global career guides to help you achieve your dream of working internationally.
Today’s Tip: Online and Offline Job Resources in Italy
Roma, Italy
Italy’s job market offers opportunities in several growing sectors, and recent liberalization in labor laws has made employment more flexible. The advent of the Internet Age, when Italian per capita internet usage quickly surpassed that of all other European countries, has allowed the number of innovative web-based employment agencies to flourish.
Online Job Sites
Cambiolavoro.com
http://www.cambiolavoro.com/lavoro.htm (Italian, English)
This website provides a job board, newsletters, advice on CVs and other helpful information.
Cambio Lavoro
Corso Vercelli, 11
20144 Milano
Email: info@cambiolavoro.it, stampa@cambiolavoro.com
Government Employment Resources
Euroguidance Italy – Centro Risorse Nazionale per l’orientamento
http://www.euroguidance.it/ (Italian, English)
This site provides various tools including job search functions, training and educational opportunities for the Italian and the European market.
Email: info@euroguidance.it
Internship Programs
Sportello Stage
http://www.sportellostage.it/ (Italian and English)
This website is a free public service that aims to promote internships in the Italian market for young professionals age 32 and younger. It organizes weekly meetings to update students and young professionals on the current market and various job opportunities (service available upon reservation). It also has a link that allows users to search for internships all over the world (www.europlacement.com).
Sportello Stage – Roma
Via Pavia 6/8
00100 Roma
Tel: +39 064440443
Email: inforoma@sportellostage.it
Sportello Stage – Milano
Via Agnesi 3
20100 Milano
Tel: +39 0258430691
Email: info@sportellostage.it
Staffing Agencies and Temporary Help Firms
Eurointerim
http://www.eurointerim.it/ (Italian)
This is an Italian staffing company that operates mainly in Northern Italy. It has more than 10 years of experience in the Italian market and serves more than 11,000 clients.
Eurointerim spa
Viale dell’Industria 60
35129 Padova
Tel: +39 049 89 34 994
Fax: +39 049 89 35 068
Email: info@eurointerim.it
Executive Recruiters and Search Firms
Cegos Search
http://www.cegos-search.it (Italian, Spanish)
This is an international recruitment firm specialized in the sales/marketing, information technology, finance, human resources, legal and R&D sectors.
Cegos Milan
Piazza Velasca 5
20122 Milano
Tel: +39 02 806721
Email: selezione@cegos.it
Newspapers that Publish Job Advertisements
Bollettino del Lavoro
http://www.bollettinodellavoro.it/ (Italian)
This is the website of the magazine Bollettino del Lavoro (Labor Bulletin), on sale at the price of 2.00 EUR and containing more than 20,000 job opportunities. This website offers an e-newsletter for job news. The magazine provides information on job fairs and events related to employment all over the country. A fee is required for an annual subscription (21 issues).
Bollettino del Lavoro
Via Savonarola, 16
I-44100 Ferrara
Tel: +39 0532241356
Fax: +39 0532209144
Email: redazione@bollettinodellavoro.it
This is just a sample of what you’ll find in the complete Italy guide. To learn more about Goinglobal and our country guides, please visit www.goinglobal.com
Posted by Olga at Going Global on January 31, 2011
Photo attribution to andercismo
Imagine working abroad for the first time, armed with all the information you need to successfully acclimate yourself to the work environment, social scene and overall cultural customs? That is where Goinglobal steps in. Goinglobal is committed to providing you with an arsenal of career information and resources to ease the transition abroad and help you be prepared before you leave. We have career country guides for over 30 countries, written by in-country researchers, that help you as a professional, regardless of whether you are a novice or seasoned expat.
Every week, we will feature an insight from one of our global career guides to help you achieve your dream of working internationally.
Today’s tip: A deeper look into the management structure in France
Eiffel Tower in Paris - Courtesy of olga_LG
Starting a new job, regardless of its geographic location, is always an interesting challenge. This is magnified as you cross foreign borders and enter into the culture of an international company. It is key to understand the differences between your home’s business culture and the country you are moving to or residing in. That will ultimately help you grow in your career at a quicker pace. Today, we highlight elements of the management structure in France, the work ethic of the French and the overall business culture of French companies.
The PDG (President Directeur General) is equivalent to the CEO, and most senior level executives are “directeurs”. Senior management tends towards a directive, rather than a collaborative style, with the PDG determining overall direction, which is disseminated down the line for implementation by junior management.
The French, by nature, tend to shy away from risk. Privacy and individual accomplishment of one’s tasks are critical in French business culture; workers provide what their bosses expect of them, and plans, methods and reports can be time-consuming, thorough and complicated efforts toward perfection. All of this occurs in a formal and sometimes very rigid hierarchical structure, which means that time, deadlines and efficiency, while important, are secondary to attention to detail, rigorous logic and perfection of form.
Each individual on a French team prefers to have a very specific task; the team is an organization of different individuals with different objectives and roles, all carefully defined. Thus, French bosses are expected to provide guidance and information and
to make decisions, while subordinates provide detailed information and follow the decisions made by the superiors. Traditionally, French companies have followed a somewhat paternalistic or ‘family’ model, with senior managers making key decisions without necessarily communicating relevant information to subordinates. All in all, communicating information may be a challenge in French organizations and this can prove frustrating to a foreigner who is attempting to understand how and why decisions are made.
Most senior managers were educated at the elite schools (or Grandes Ecoles) of France. This may be the case even in so-called American or multinational corporations based in France. Intellectualism is something desired in French managers; one’s ability
to master complex concepts and provide and understand detailed analysis is respected far greater than one’s interpersonal skills and ability to motivate staff and build effective teams. Complimenting and rewarding employees publicly is not common That being said, managers often have strong relationships with their employees, feel responsible for them and will back them in a dispute.
This is just a sample of what you’ll find in the complete French country guide. To learn more about living and working France or any other country in the European Union, check out www.goinglobal.com.
Posted by Olga at Going Global on January 25, 2011
Jim Key - Director of Global Marketing at Intrax Internships Abroad
Today’s guest post is brought to you by Jim Key, Director of Global Marketing at Intrax Internships Abroad. Last year, Jim took us through the international job searching funnel starting by preparing for a job abroad, researching potential employers and turning those findings into potential interviews. Now that you know the process, it’s time to narrow down your focus and chose your industry. In this guest post, Jim will teach you about the advertising industry and what you can expect working in the field.
In last fall’s series of guest blog posts, we went through how to find an internship overseas and turn it into a job. This winter we will look at a few different industries and why you might consider them for an international internship.
Top Ad Agency in Madrid - Courtesy of Jim Key
Our first industry is Advertising – starting with full service advertising agencies and other firms that have similar models such as PR agencies, branding boutiques, social media agencies, and others. For simplicity, I’ll just call them “Ad agencies”, but you’ll know that term includes several other niches. In addition to meeting with ad agencies all over the US & Canada over the years (in my career before Intrax), I have met with agencies all over Europe regarding summer internships for students. These organizations help their clients (from big global brands to the local ballet) to create, plan, and deliver advertising campaigns as well as other marketing tactics – everything from reaching out to journalists in the hope of getting media coverage (PR), to improving a website in order to drive more traffic (Search Engine Optimization – SEO), consulting on media buying, direct mail & e-mail campaigns, and much more. This industry includes lots of jobs in creating messages and delivering them to an audience. The workflow at ad agencies predominantly falls into three areas:
- Account Services – managing the relationships with existing clients, new business development
- Creative – creating content, from copywriters to graphic artists
- Planning – determining what the message and medium should be for a given campaign
There are several reasons that we place quite a few students in this space.
1) Ad Agencies are fun places to work – they have a creative buzz, young teams, international staff (often), and lots going on. There are usually more projects than the team can handle – new business pitches, campaigns to create, consumers to test, etc. It just makes for a dynamic environment.
2) Ad Agencies provide broad exposure (helping students figure out what they like) – most students are still considering several options for their future: advertising, corporate marketing, creating content, developing strategy, optimizing ad placement, etc. At an agency, students not only see more than most about how their host company works, they also get a view into how their clients work. Because of their structure, the ad agency internship environment provides interns with more visibility to more parts of the business and experience that transfers to other businesses. The goals of an internship are to get experience, figure out what you want to do, and make yourself more valuable for the next internship or job. Ad agency internships can fit those goals better than most.
3) Advertising interns can add value more easily – spending a lot of time on Facebook may not help you in class or on tests, but a high level of familiarity with the medium (Facebook, Smart Phone applications, and other advertising venues) and being “tech native” can help get you up the learning curve faster in an advertising job. Nothing makes an internship fun like the feeling that you made a difference and added something to the conversation.
4) Job Opportunities – agencies can grow quickly with the acquisition of a new client or staff turnover. When an ad agency finds interns who prove themselves as hard workers with good ideas, they can make an impression. Several companies have commented to me that their North American interns showed a stronger work ethic and more initiative than some of their European counterparts. I noted above that agencies are young – in other words, they tend to have more entry level jobs than some other industries do.
Final note: Over the last few years, I have met many Communications, Marketing, Advertising and Graphic Arts majors who have told me that they have trouble finding ad agency internships in the US & Canada. Of course, finding a full-time job is even harder without experience because there are a lot of Communications and Marketing majors out there. Any international experience will give you lots of stories to share with friends. You can imagine that those students whose international experience is an advertising internship simply have that many more stories that they can also share in an interview.
