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Foundations for building an international career. Presented by: Miguel A. Piñeiro. Points of discussion. Academic studies Networking and cross cultural experience Overseas experience Hard Skills Soft skills International job hunting skills Make the commitment . Summary.
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Foundations for building an international career Presented by: Miguel A. Piñeiro
Points of discussion • Academic studies • Networking and cross cultural experience • Overseas experience • Hard Skills • Soft skills • International job hunting skills • Make the commitment
Summary International careers are carefully planned and built up over a period of time. International employers insist that you have international experience before sending you to work abroad. The key to gaining international experience is to dive into all things international while you are at university and by taking a gap year off. You need to build up a host of international experiences before you are ready to start applying for professional international jobs. Learn how you can start building your international career from the early stages to successfully living and working abroad.
Academic Studies • Master Degree: This is a prerequisite for most international positions. This is especially true in the social sciences, pure sciences, and business. • University Degree: With outside electives broadens your skills inventory. For example, a science student should have a few internationally focused social science courses. Include language skills with all types of disciplines. • Other Academic Experience: Attend or help organize a conference, write a book review for an academic journal, make public presentations; actively seek to work on team projects and preferably team up with foreign students.
Networking andCross-Cultural Experience • Network with international experts in your field of interest: For example, write essays that require you to speak directly to someone working internationally in your field of interest. • Guide foreigners who are new to your country: You can act as a tour guide for visiting professors; assist with foreign student orientation; work with refugees; or teach English as a second language. • Befriend foreign students on your campus: Join foreign student social circles on campus; visit with them in their homes; become familiar with their food and social behavior; try to pay a visit to them and their families in their home country • Become socially active and knowledgeable in a culture other than your own: Hang out at ethnic social clubs; focus on the writing or history from one region or country; learn ethnic cooking; join an Internet club with foreign members.
Overseas Experience • Study abroad for one or more semesters:Study abroad in your field and learn a new language. Everyone should consider studying for at least one semester to gain international experience. • Work internationally:As an intern or volunteer, preferably in your field of expertise. Try for two professional internships over the course of your four years of study. Strongly consider taking a gap year to gain any manner of international experience. • Travel: Do not underestimate the value of living abroad. Interact closely with people from other countries in order to learn the skills required by international employers. Always consider traveling to Asia, Europe, South/Central America, US, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand. • Be creative:Extend the value of all your international travel by combining two or more objectives while abroad. For example, learn English or another language abroad and travel around the country and practice your new language.
Hard Skills • Proficiency in a new language:Be able to speak and read a language other than your mother tongue. First consider learning English since it is widely used for business. • Economic and geographic knowledge of the world:Gain a solid knowledge of the political and social forces shaping the planet. Start by regularly reading news magazines such as The Economist. • Computer skills:Acquire strong word processing, be comfortable using spreadsheets, be familiar with databases, try to develop exceptional Internet research skills, etc. • Business skills:The most marketable are those with multidisciplinary backgrounds, especially business backgrounds that include strong people skills. • Other management skills:These include project management, accounting, training, research, report writing, evaluating.
Soft Skills • Organizing, people, and leadership skills:Demonstrate these through work and volunteer experience, preferably with an international group, organizing an event, or as a member of a committee. • Intercultural communications abilities: Demonstrate these by being conversant in describing patterns of behavior in cross-cultural work and social environments. Learn to professionally describe these real-life experiences. • Coping and adapting abilities:Demonstrate these with examples of how you coped when living away from your support structure of family and friends.
International Job Hunting Skills • Essentials for finding international work:Experience has shown that those who are successful at finding international work have all done something extraordinary to land their first job. They have gone out on a limb, acted boldly (but politely), have been entrepreneurial, have sacrificed certainty and taken risks to gain international experience and land that first job. International employers are looking for individuals who are fully committed to international work and living, and your job-hunting methods should reflect this.
Start dreaming of your ideal destination… Make the Commitment!! International jobs require a long-term commitment—you need to invest in yourself to build an international IQ. This process eventually becomes a lifestyle, an outlook on life, a commitment to internationalism and cross-cultural learning. It is an interesting and creative process. Go forth—the world is your teacher. And have fun with the exploration!
What’s a resume? A resume is a summary of your experiences and skills relevant to the field of work you are interested in. It highlights your accomplishments to show a potential employer that you are qualified for the work you want. It is not a biography of everything you have done.
Resume Dos • Do use a confident tone and positive language - Use positive words to start each sentence, such as initiated, • improved, introduced, developed, negotiated, established, created, pioneered, delivered, increased, reduced, saved etc. • This also helps to ensure that you’re substantiating your skills with hard evidence. • Do concentrate on your achievements not your responsibilities - This means listing things you have done – such as products • launched, sales increase, awards won – not rewriting your job description. Quote figures whenever possible. • Do encourage the employer to read on - Ensure that you put your most salient points on the first page of the CV to include • your greatest successes and achievements and proven examples of how you have used your skills to benefit the companies • you have worked for. • Do concentrate on the quality not quantity of your achievements - Don’t hold anything back but make sure that your • achievements are fantastic and not just that you are a fantastic communicator! Typically a CV should have 10 achievements • on it that cover the main successes in your career to get the reader’s attention. • Do rise above the competition - Make sure you include other skills that could set you apart from other candidates, • such as languages and computer skills. • Keep to the point - Be ruthless with yourself and keep your CV to a maximum of two pages. • Only very senior, experienced executives have more to say.
Resume Dos • Do check, check and check again - Check thoroughly for correct spelling and grammar – spotting errors is a quick and easy way • of weeding out weaker candidates when faced with a mountain of CVs to read. Don’t just rely on your computers spellchecker • but get someone else to proof it – you may have spelt a word correctly but used it in the wrong place. • Do use relevant keywords - With posts advertised through job boards and online recruiters, keywords are entered into databases • to find the most relevant jobseekers without having to trawl through 1000s of candidates. These keywords will include specific • technical skills like SAP or qualifications like ACCA or specific job titles like ‘Customer services advisor’. Make sure your • resume mirrors the language used in the advert. • Do capture immediate attention - Prioritize the content of your CV and detail the most relevant information first. Start with • a hard-hitting personal profile that avoids clichés such as ‘hard-working, team player with excellent communication skills’. • Make sure that all your career history is punchy and to the point with qualified and quantified successes. • Do graduates should expand - Tell your reader more about your degree other than just the modules you have taken. • Show successes you have had in your project work and dissertations and other extracurricular activities you have undertaken. • More experienced job hunters should just put their degree details on page two with the university they attended, • the degree that they took and the grade gained.
Resume Don’ts • Don’t expand the truth - It is simply not true that the bigger the lies you put on your CV then the better the job you will get. • Most employers are not fooled by creative embellishments and if you do manage to get a job based on this you could • be let go of pretty quickly which won’t look good on your resume. • Don’t list everything - An employer really doesn’t need or want to know all the one-day training courses you have ever been on. • Keep information relevant and to the point. • Don’t Include a photo - No matter how attractive you make yourself look, it will not improve your chances. This tends to be popular • in other European countries but isn’t favored in most places. • Don’t get creative Don’t use elaborate fonts and colours to make your resume stand out. The more gimmicky you make your CV using • different shapes and pictures, the more off-putting it will be to an employer. It will also make it more difficult to upload to Jobsite. • Don’t divulge sensitive information - Never include your NI or passport number or any other sensitive personal information • on your resume. • Don’t‘ tailor your resume -Your CV should be strong enough to be used for different positions that you are applying for. It is your • covering letter that you should tailor carefully for each position, making sure it answers all of the employer’s questions • about your suitability for the role. However, if you have a really wide skill set then you may have more than one resume depending • on which role you’re going for.
Resume Don’ts • Don’t talk about me, me, me - Don’t start each sentence in the first person. Instead use phrasing such as ‘Selected to manage the • companies online marketing spend of $100,000 which resulted in position 1 being achieved across • all search engines within 6 months’. • Don’t Talk in clichés - Phrases such as ‘I am a highly motivated individual who works well on my own or in a team, with • exceptional communication skills and the ability to work under pressure to produce results under tight deadlines’ • are dull and the employer has heard them all before. Make yourself stand out with carefully worded phrasing that • is factual and captures the employer’s attention. • Don’t duplicate applications - Some recruiters have systems that handle multiple applications from the same person, • but for those that don’t, remember it is most off-putting to receive five resume from the same person and for the • same job application. • Don’t make the recruiter jump through hoops - If you are able to perform in the job, explain how in your resume. • Don’t expect the employer to read between the lines to work out whether you will be worth the $70k salary per year. • Sadly, that’s what lots of candidates think it's the recruiter’s job to do.
