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Last Updated on February 1, 2024
The experience of struggling to find a job can be frustrating, depressing, and demoralizing. Despite diligently searching and applying, the lack of responses or even rejection emails can significantly impact your confidence and career satisfaction. This situation often leads to feelings of hopelessness about succeeding in your chosen industry.
During challenging times like these, feeling lost is common, but there’s no need to succumb to the notion of perpetual unemployment. Numerous options exist to jumpstart your career, including many that offer financial rewards. Among the most effective and exhilarating options is working abroad. Although it may seem intimidating at first, this path offers a wealth of benefits. Here are eight reasons why working abroad can be a pivotal step in advancing your career.
Ever thought about taking your career international? Working abroad isn't just an adventure; it's a career game-changer! Discover how global experience can open doors, expand networks, and skyrocket your professional growth. #GoGlobal #CareerBoostClick To TweetIt Will Build Character
Living in a foreign country where you know no one, and possibly don’t speak the language, is a profound character-building experience. While the prospect may seem daunting, it presents an unparalleled opportunity to seize life boldly. In this journey, you’ll forge new friendships and encounter remarkably unique experiences, the likes of which are unimaginable back home. This adventure will invigorate you, offering the fresh start you’ve been yearning for.
It Provides Opportunities Not Available At Home
Some countries are better than others when considering industry opportunities. If you come from outside the US, moving there can open your world to an array of possibilities in several sectors. This includes film and TV and the tech industry, even if these industries are highly competitive. On the other hand, Southeast Asia is an excellent place for people who want to teach, or at the very least see if teaching is for them, thanks to TEFL positions without going through the rigors of university courses.
It Gives You The Chance to Save Money
Depending on where you choose to move, you’ll have the chance to save up some funds so you can come back home with a substantial buffer. This could be crucial if you can’t find a job as soon as you return, and will ease the stress of being unemployed. Furthermore, many countries won’t require you to adjust your quality of living, and you can find a master bedroom for rent in a bustling city that is pennies compared to your apartment or house back at home. You can also use your saved-up money to travel around the area, which is part of the reason you moved away, anyway.
It Offers Healthy Challenges
There is no doubt you’ll experience a culture shock wherever you go, even if you move to a country that is similar to home on paper. Every country has a unique way of doing things, so you’ll need to adapt to this if you want to survive and thrive. This is all part of the fun, though. For the first few weeks, you’ll face various challenges that will make you a stronger person, building your confidence and providing to yourself (and others) that moving was the best decision you could have made.
It Helps You Learn More About Yourself
You will also learn more about yourself when living and working in a foreign country. As there are so many unique opportunities, you’ll get an idea of what you love, what you don’t love, and what you’re good at or want to explore more of. You could be exposed to situations that you could never have imagined. If you’re able to overcome them or find yourself fascinated by them, such as spending a lot of time in nature or trying something new, you will find out that you’re much more capable than you initially thought.
It Teaches Key Skills
From learning these skills, you can come back home a more complete person, which you can take through life with you. If you choose to return, you’ll already know how to communicate and get around. Even if you don’t return, you can take the lessons learned and repeatedly apply them to life.
It Can Expand Your Professional (And Personal) Network
Working abroad means you’ll meet various people every day, especially if you start your new adventure at a hostel or on a course with a group of like-minded adventurers who have left home for new opportunities. This immediately gives you a network of ex-pats who can share advice while also making friends that you may stay with forever. Similarly, working abroad is excellent for your career, as you can maintain contacts with everyone you meet at work, which could prove beneficial in the future.
It Can Make You More Employable
Anyone who works abroad and then comes home has a range of unique experiences that can appeal to employers, which will make you more employable in their eyes. They will see that you are confident and a risk-taker (in a good way), while your varied experiences can give you an edge over other candidates. This is especially true if you took a position considered more senior. It means you already have the necessary experience several years before such experience is expected in your home country, saving the employer time and energy in training you to be ready for the role.
Go On An Adventure
While you are there to work, it’s also the chance for you to take an adventure. For many people, this is one of the primary reasons why working abroad is so enticing. If you feel you’re ready to take the leap and leave your current life behind to start over across the border or on the other side of the world, try expanding your job search to find something that can give you all the tools, skills, and experiences to enjoy the career you’ve always wanted.
