Eyeing overseas job opportunities? Here’s what you need to know

Every year, we see a small but growing number of our graduating students wanting to work overseas. Many believe working overseas is good for their personal development — new environments, cultures, people and sometimes even another language allow for growth in adaptability, independence and maturity.

Overseas work experience also looks good on the resume. It demonstrates dynamism and a willingness to go outside one’s comfort zone to take risks and work with diversity.

So what should you take into consideration in deciding whether or not to pursue a career abroad?

KNOW WHAT YOU WANT

For fresh graduates and those still early in their career, it is always much tougher to secure such opportunities. With little track record, they represent a risky option for overseas recruiters. It is probably more challenging to apply for work permits as well.

If you are sure that overseas experience is something you want to pursue, you have to enter your tertiary institution with that mindset and plan your internships and overseas exchanges accordingly.

Returning to work for your overseas internship firm is probably the easiest route to take, since the employer will be familiar with your work.

This would reduce the risk for a firm looking to hire a foreigner. As an overseas candidate, the risk too is reduced given that you know the people in the team, their working styles and what they expect of you.

One of our Master of Science in Business Analytics students did just that. He secured an overseas placement for six months with Logitech in Switzerland as part of the NUS Overseas Colleges Programme.

His entrepreneurial mindset, strong work ethic and active participation in activities such as hackathons, expositions and workshops left such a deep impression with Logitech, it offered him a job as a data scientist.

We also have students who seek internship placements with multinational firms based in Singapore. While interning, they take the opportunity to network and explore international placements within the organisation.

An alumna secured a one-year internship stint with Uber, where she spent six months in Singapore and another six months in New York. While in New York, she applied for and secured a position with the company as a data analyst and moved to its Silicon Valley headquarters after she graduated.

DO YOUR SUMS

An important factor to consider is the cost of living of the country you plan to work in. You can find out such basic information by doing some desktop research and reading cost of living surveys. Based on this information, it will be easy to determine the minimum salary required for a comfortable living.

It is important to note that not all overseas jobs provide expatriate packages. In fact, many organisations prefer to offer local packages, even to employees who have to relocate for the job.  In such a scenario, the employee would be responsible for his living requirements with little to no support from the employer.

For more experienced managers who may be on expatriate packages, the financial rewards can be great. Their packages may include housing, car, education for children, and even annual family air tickets to visit home.

As most daily needs are provided for, most of the regular salary can go towards savings or investments. However, where rewards are high, it probably means that the workload and challenges are huge.

One will have to weigh all these financial considerations carefully in deciding whether to move overseas for work.

One of our fresh graduates was offered an attractive management associate position paying the equivalent of about S$4,000 a month. While this may be a good starting salary in Singapore, the job was based in Tokyo, one of the top five most expensive cities in the world according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest Worldwide Cost of Living Survey.

As a result, he declined the offer as he could not afford to rent an apartment near his office, and the commute from an area he could afford was too long.

On the flip side, I have seen others find ways to make it work, either because of the prestige of the role they have secured or for personal reasons. They see the longer-term rewards of working overseas and decided to do so before returning to Singapore with an established track record.

I remember an alumna who applied to be a WPP fellow after graduating, a role that saw her embark on a three-year multidisciplinary marketing communications global rotation programme with the British advertising and public relations firm.

Through WPP, she travelled and worked in London and the United States. She was one of nine fellows selected from a pool of 1,700 applicants globally that year. Today, she is back in Singapore and working in the marketing industry.

WEIGHING RISK AND REWARD

If you choose to proceed with securing an overseas role, be mindful that you cannot rely on the safety net provided by your support network in Singapore should things go awry.

Let me share an experience of one of our Singaporean alumni who relocated to Hong Kong to join an ex-colleague at a new hedge fund. A couple months into the job, he realised that his former colleague had tried to cover her trading errors.

He blew the whistle but the senior management took no action after an investigation. Having to face daily pressure from staying silent and dealing with office politics, he finally decided to leave after seven months as a sign of protest.

He returned to Singapore to start his own company, but found another asset management job back in Hong Kong after a year. This time, he did more market research to ensure the firm was reputable and had proper compliance policies.

He was also more cautious about his housing situation and signed a lease only after he was confirmed. However, shortly after joining the new firm, it decided to restructure and closed down the investment arm where he was working.   

Fortunately, he managed to find another job quickly and is thriving in his current role. His experience goes to show that you do need a healthy dose of resilience if you venture abroad.

In considering whether to work overseas, it is useful to be reminded that in this new digital age, the exact location of work is no longer as important as before.

With technology evolving rapidly, new skills need to be learned and applied constantly. For example, analytics professionals are in high demand not just in Singapore, but also all over the world.

Thus, having the right skillsets and attitude will go a long way in opening doors to opportunities. What is more important is for job seekers to keep on growing and learning.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kenneth Lam is a career advisor with NUS Business School’s Career Services Office, which works closely with business undergraduate and postgraduate students to prepare them for their careers ahead. This is part of a series of career-related commentaries which TODAY will be running in partnership with the school.