Before you accept that exciting expat assignment, know this first

Congratulations! You’ve just been asked to fill an exciting new position in one of your company’s global offices.

This is the culmination of many years of patiently and diligently building your experience and skills, and prior to that, several years of preparing yourself through the rigorous coursework you took at college and in grad school. 

You should rightly be excited about the personal and professional opportunities this new step in your career will open up for you. The people you’ll meet and the experiences you’ll have will last with you for the rest of your life, regardless of how long your assignment lasts.

It’s a testament to the kind of increasingly connected world we’re privileged to live in today that you can pick up your laptop and start being productive almost immediately in an office located thousands of miles away from your company’s headquarters. Thanks go largely to the digital technologies that seem to get only more powerful and less expensive by the day. Much credit is also due to those engineering marvels produced by the brilliant minds over at Boeing and Airbus.

Of course, like anything in life, with a big, “hairy” career-changing move like the one you’re about to embark upon, there will be challenges. As an expat living overseas from my home country for over 25 years, I know first-hand what these challenges look like, and how to deal with them. I’ve also seen many others—friends, colleagues—tackle these challenges in their own ways as well.

Here are just a few lessons I’ve learned from my experience, which I hope help you in some small way. (Please leave a comment below with stories from your own experience, and any questions you might have. I’ll do my best to respond to them)

Culture shock.

If you get frustrated by the rude attitude from the barista at your local coffee hangout, or feel incredibly fed up with the bumper to bumper traffic clogging I-95 (pick your favorite local highway in the US or elsewhere), get ready for a whole new suite of annoyances and inconveniences that you’ll need to contend with on a daily basis in your newly adopted country. 

Add to this the completely different language and cultural norms and values of the country you now call home, and you’ll experience the phenomenon all expats go through from literally day one of their overseas assignment: Culture shock.

The solution? Become more aware of how you’re feeling and try to create a support network comprised of your family, colleagues, and, if necessary, reach out to counselling professionals either nearby or virtually, which is now a possibility thanks to platforms that provide professional counselling support remotely.

Internal cultural differences across the company.

Culture shock doesn’t end after you’ve entered your new office overseas. To the outside world, global companies strive hard to position themselves as being a unified company with a set of values and practices that are followed consistently across the world, regardless of the individual market in which they operate. In my experience, few companies do this very well. For most firms, the reality is generally a few steps removed from the image they like to portray in their marketing materials.

The solution? Since it’s hard for any single employee like yourself to change this, of course, being aware of this less visible and less tangible dynamic can help put some of what you experience in your new role into context. Take the time to understand how things are done differently in your new office environment; keep an open mind; stay flexible; and don't expect colleagues to think or behave the way they do back in your home office.

Late night conference calls.

Some of the largest and most global of global companies I know of still operate with a US or EU-first mindset. That is where headquarters is, after all, and that’s where most of the company’s revenues and profits are generated. So why should it be a problem if you have to stay up until the wee hours of the evening to join late night conference calls? So what if you have to cut into precious family time helping your kids with homework, reading bedtime stories to them, nursing them while they are sick. It’s part of what you got into when you decided to accept this exciting new assignment, right?

The solution? This is a tough one: Try suggesting to your manager—or whoever schedules late night conference calls—if they can try scheduling at least one or a few at hours that better fit your schedule. If that doesn’t work, then you can just grin and bear it and dial-in, decide not to join the calls—or start to plan your next move.

Limited upward mobility.

Sometimes, overseas postings represent a move upward in the organization, with more responsibility and, often, more compensation. Sometimes, however, these can be lateral moves that simply place you in a different geography, but in the same role and at the same level as you were in back home.

Undertaking a new overseas role could give you the skills and experience you need to assume bigger roles either in that market, or in other markets that you move to later. But know this: The farther away you are from the “center of power” in your organization, the harder it is to build the relationships and attract the recognition you deserve for your work. This makes it that much harder to be considered as a candidate for new roles that open up, whether through the departure of a colleague, or the creation of an entirely new job in your organization.

The solution? Try to join those exhausting late night conference calls to stay abreast of what’s happening in your department. Schedule regular check-ins with senior management back home to update them on what you’re working on, and to gather information about what’s happening at a regional or global level. And make it clear to your managers that you’re willing to consider new opportunities as they open up, and you’re willing to move again, if necessary.

There’s a host of other issues you’ll need to deal with as you embark upon your overseas assignment: A perpetual sense of outsider-ness, fraying bonds with your family back home, immigration and work permit issues, and the curse of double taxation, if you’re a US citizen like me.

Of course, the benefits of spending time working and living in a country and culture that is vastly different from the one you grew up in help balance out the professional and personal cost-benefit equation. 

Being aware of—and prepared for—the challenges you’ll inevitably encounter along the way will make your experience more enjoyable and rewarding.

Good luck!

What has been your experience with an overseas assignment? Did you encounter similar problems? Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments.

Thanks for reading! Please reach out and connect with me here on LinkedIn.

Photo credits: Vases in Suzhou: Alexandre Valdivia on Unsplash; Boy reading Buddhist scripture: 和 平 on Unsplash; Suzhou, China: Ivan Leung on Unsplash; Lantern: Austin Neill on Unsplash