Expat Women: Partners

Finding Professional Career Help Abroad

You have arrived in your new location and the whirlwind of moving is starting to settle. Day to day life is functioning again. Now your thoughts can turn to some of the issues that you have had to shelve while you addressed the urgent problems. A key issue for accompanying spouses being, "What about my career"?

Personally, I was unprepared for the impact of moving overseas and losing my professional role. Of course I had thought about it, as I had lived abroad previously and I knew that I could adapt to living overseas. I had also experienced the ups and downs of a major career transition when I decided to go to university after ten years of being employed. But dealing with both changes at once was a different story.

Research from the Permits Foundation shows that although dual career status is common among internationally reassigned employees, only a minority of accompanying partners receive sponsored career assistance.

The purpose of this article is to share some ideas about professional career assistance to help you move through the challenges of combining the two roles of professional and accompanying spouse.

 
Why Seek Professional Help?

You may be used to successfully making decisions about your career without any problems. A quick search of a book store or the internet is likely to yield more information about careers than you could ever use. So why seek the assistance of a professional career transition coach?

One reason is that as an accompanying spouse, you are dealing with concurrent change in many areas of your life. The loss of a professional life, that up to now has probably framed your identity and consumed much of your time and energy, is difficult enough. The feeling that nobody 'gets it' can add to your sense of isolation. People that you normally turn to may not appreciate your experience. They may be perplexed by your life choices, or wish that they too were on 'extended holiday'. A spouse in a new job and a new location is probably already overloaded with work-related demands, and may not see why 'not working' is such a problem.

If you decide to get professional help, it is important to find a career provider who appreciates the complexity of your situation. In my own experience, the opportunity to talk with someone who listened without dismissing my concerns enabled me to expand my view and move from feeling trapped by legal restrictions to finding a positive approach even in the time I was 'waiting'.

Expatriate author, Robin Pascoe, makes the case for redefining the concept of career to mean a "path through life". Following Robin's logic, the first step therefore is to assess your personal needs and priorities, in order to decide the next step in your unique life path.

 
How Do I Assess My Personal Needs and Priorities?

To help determine what is important to you and what drives you, begin by brainstorming all the issues that you see as currently relevant to your own work-life situation. Do not forget to add less tangible issues such as loss of access to a work-based social network. Include ways in which your experience is complicated by having to concurrently negotiate either a culture that is new to you, or a culture that is (or is similar to) your 'home' culture, but still feels unfamiliar because you have been living elsewhere.

Now go back and rate all of these issues according to the extent to which you feel you can influence them. For example, you may have no control over your legal authorization to work. Rate this as a 1. Availability of childcare might be a barrier now, but it may be possible to find the right resources. Rate this type of issue with a 2. Other issues, such as finding information can be resolved with specific actions. Rate these as 3's.

One of the benefits of writing everything down is that it gives you the opportunity to see patterns. When stands out? Is there one thing that you could do right away to improve how you feel at the moment? Seeing a more complete story and identifying the issues that are most important to you is the first step to setting priorities for finding the right help.

 
Where Can I Find Professionals That Provide Career Assistance?

Nowadays, technology allows you to choose from many providers. Asking for recommendations may be the easiest first step. There are also several specialized directories (see below) available which include member information provided by professional bodies and training providers.

The career field includes providers from many professional backgrounds and with various levels of training. Whilst this can initially seem overwhelming, try to look at it as a positive, in that if you search hard enough, you can most likely find someone who is 'just right' for you, in terms of experience in your professional field and/or your expat location and so on.

For example, I choose a licensed psychologist because I wanted to work with someone who not only had expertise with career transitions, but was also knowledgeable about psychology practice in the United States (given that I am a psychologist myself, living in the United States). Sometimes local cultural knowledge may be essential.

However, other people engage a professional career coach based far away from their current social network, in order to keep some distance between their social contacts and their professional issues. Take the time to write down what would make a professional career coach the 'right' one for you.

 
What Can I Do To Make This Professional Relationship Work For Me?

Once you have narrowed down your potential providers according to your goals and priorities, consider what you need to know so that you and your provider can co-create a productive working relationship. Practical questions to discuss include logistics for meeting, policies, payment arrangements, and time and other commitments. Advance information about your provider's professional code of ethics and what happens if things don't go as expected may help. Sometimes, providers do an initial consultation without charge or at a reduced fee. A one-to-one conversation may be the best way to make your final choice, because actually talking to the person (via Skype, phone or in person) can help you both to understand a little more about each others' style and nuances.

Whether or not you seek professional help with your career, remember that there is lot of support available within the expatriate/repatriate community. Reach out to others who may have gone through these issues before you. They usually have plenty to share with you. . . and it helps to know that you are not alone on your journey.

 
Jennifer Bradley, Ph.D, is an Irish expat woman currently living in Texas, United States. Jennifer specializes in work-life issues and helps people navigate transitions with less stress. She is a certified coach (ICF) and a registered occupational psychologist (U.K. ). Learn more at http://www.jenniferbradleyphd.com.
 

Links

Permits Foundation
http://www.permitsfoundation.com/home.htm 

International Coach Federation
htt://www.coachfederation.org 

Certified Career Coaches (US)
http://www.certifiedcareercoaches.com

National Career Development Association (US)
http://www.ncda.org

Association for Coaching (UK)
http://www.associationforcoaching.com
 
Institute of Career Guidance (UK)
http://www.icg-uk.org/