Applying for Jobs from Overseas

Well yes, it was an uphill slog. I'm an expat Careers Adviser. I support clients applying for jobs in third countries.  Help them consider and articulate how their experience in Somalia is of relevance for Zimbabwe. Some 80% of them get the job. I know there's a massive recession, hundreds of applicants for each job in some fields. But I thought getting a work permit and setting up a company in Kenya was the difficult bit. I don't think I apply for jobs beyond where I'm at. And yet nonetheless which are the missing links it took me a while to grasp when I was looking for work back in my home country, UK, for myself?

Well first, and obviously, each person's situation is different.  You can't predict your own progress by those of your friends. Many of my clients are the ones with the primary expat jobs in their family, snazzy job titles and IN the corporate structures.  We all know it is much easier to find a job when you have a job. As I say to the other half of my clients, the accompanying spouses, it is very much harder when you've lost the entry ramps and informal networks.  I've kept up with my referees, have kept them updated, - but its harder to get the soft information and onto the specialist linked-in and professional body groups if you're working abroad in another sector.  'I'm one of you really' I email in plaintive tone to the group's admins.  All a bit too needy.

The sector makes a difference. It is far more productive to apply from another country when your sector is international development. When an email address ending in a far-off country domain is an accolade showing you've already won your spurs. Or when you are seeking posts in another country office for the large corporate which sent you to Kenya in the first place.  Those of us seeking to return to a non-global sector in an austerity-hit insular market from a foreign clime, well its different.  And you're addressing not only the reality, but other people's perceptions of the reality. 'Kenya = mud huts' or 'Kenya = Safari Pit Helmets & Out of Africa', - neither of which are perceived as helpful brands to show you as a key innovator in a university careers service.

The internet and jobs websites are a massive boon. Thank you www.jobs.ac.uk, www.agcas.org.uk, www.tes.co.uk and the ICG. But boo hiss to online applications which allow no space anywhere for free text to explain a non-standard situation in three slick sentences.

'The past is another country. They do things differently there.'
Things move on. Many of the big issues in university careers work are the same as when I left - teaching & learning in an innovative way, supporting clients to get good quality experience to position them well in a difficult market, outperforming the rivals, entrepreneurship, employer engagement, good guidance skills, every last measure to help people get those jobs - but things which were twiddly add-ons four years ago - providing services and workshops online - have become major parts of the job.  We do things online at BigCorporate too (unlike in much of Kenya), but of course the 200 word competency questions don't allow for the fact that my clients  in the main can only afford phones after they've been at work for several months, and that none of them have laptops. It doesn't mean that I don't develop & market innovative services in an innovative way if I can't answer a question like:
'And can you tell us about a time when you used social media in an organisational context to meet a training need.  What did you do and how did you know it was successful?'
But you need the self confidence to produce a more homespun example.

Its a risky business for managers hiring staff. They want to feel assured that you get and can perform in the context. Have skills which add value. Specialisms where you can lead the team.  But, beware pitfall, also, where you can lead the team in directions they want to go. Its hard applying from a different context. Much of what I've learned in Kenya has been about how to be creative, resourceful, develop twin-track approaches which cover belt and braces both, and to lead in a difficult, different, insecure environment where I'm in a tiny & very visible minority. And judging by the body language in at least two of the interviews, even toned down magnolia examples can throw the panel, demonstrate the yawning chasm of LifeElsewhere, get interviewers feeling deeply twitchy and insecure, - not what you want.  Yes panels want interesting examples, but all too often, I fear, they want interesting examples which hit IN their comfort zones. And that's the gap too for transition between field and headquarters. On paper the competencies look the same. In practice the realities and skillsets don't overlap, never the twain shall meet.

Friends of mine were catching up recently about a third friend who has become a consultant based in an idyllic but non-metropolitan far-flung part of the UK.
'Yes yes, its great on one level, but the problem is he is too far away, he isn't bumping into potential clients at donor meetings or coffee shops, - and out of sight is out of mind.'
And return is a bit like that too. You can affect nonchalence on the form:
'I will be in UK between x and y [carefully covering the dates of the interview] should you wish to shortlist this application.' No one wants to shortlist a candidate who might be asking for international fares in the current climate, better to meet this one head-on. You also don't want to sound that too much is hanging on this lone application lest they get cold feet.
'It would be helpful to know as far in advance as possible to help me to cluster appointments. I would be unavailable on x and y.'
On the other hand you can make it sound too easy. I heard of one Kenya-based Deputy Head who flew back to UK for interview at his own expense four times when each time the job went to the internal candidate, before he netted his own catch.  If you know in advance that the internal is the front-runner, don't use an overseas candidate as the makeweight.  For me, at one interview recently at a burgeoning university in the North East it became clear that all the other candidates already lived within two miles of the institution. They already had permanent contracts in precisely this role in rival institutions, just wanted to move closer to home. Had all attended the same regional conference on the previous day. Again, the body language of the manager - who failed to give me any eye contact in the hour long pre-briefing of four of us - made it very clear she thought I was the outlier. And that wasn't overcome through the interview, when two of the panel of three sat, arms folded, for 45 minutes.
'I'm quite nice really,' I wanted to say. Though by the end I was feeling more feisty, wanting to lean over and tap them on the chest.
'I've flown 5000 miles, at my own expense, to come for this. I'm not a gatecrasher. You invited me. I've done the preliminary (free) consultancy project you asked for, designed the workshop and the presentation, been observed giving guidance to one of your students. You might at least pretend to put me at ease, or to consider I might have something of interest to share.'

Not that its much easier when the panel has the bright idea to interview remotely.
'Skype doesn't work very well here,' I email, trying to combine proactive solution-finding with realism.
 'Can you send me a mobile number so I could text if our power goes, so you aren't left waiting without contact.'
'Oh it'll be fine,' they replied, secure in the knowledge they skype their governors in Clapham and Droitwich without incident. 10 minutes into the interview - which I'm holding outside for the best reception as it isn't raining, be-suited to get in character but with our free-range chickens pecking my toes, - the headteacher broke in, weakly.
'I really can't hear a word you're saying. I think what you're saying sounds interesting, but I really can't tell.  Can you send me an email of what you were saying...'
Or my client who had an interview by videolink in a booked internal meeting room. When seven colleagues bustled in, loud and self-importantly for an impromptu meeting in the double-booked room.
'Trying to have a job interview here' he hissed at them out of the side of his mouth so the far-off panel wouldn't notice his strident tone, as the gatecrashers opened their notebooks and settled down for the duration.  In vain. Had to decamp to the broom cupboard to conclude the interview by phone.

There are a range of difficulties for the non-resident interviewee. Not least the penchant to give a tour of the campus to the candidates. Which requires a coat, since this is generally conducted in the driving rain.  Thank you thank you my generous mate who has lent me her warm, toasty, appropriate Jack Wolfskin coat for each of the interviews of the last year, in lieu of the scraggy winter coat I binned when we left for Kenya, and have been too mean to replace while out here.  I'm sure it all helps.

Recruiters, consider how your rejection letters might be received. I know its the bit of the job no one likes, which gets delegated to the lowly admin assistant, but a thoughtful, intelligent one powers the downcast interviewee for weeks (thank you University of Warwick). Whereas this written feedback from a self-importantly Elite Institution got me outraged and spitting feathers:  

The panel 'agreed that while you do have substantial experience in counselling and careers, they considered that you do not have substantial employment experience in a sector to which our alumni and students aspire'.
Humph. Of course they see the field of candidates. Its a competitive process and its their right to make that assessment, - though I do find it perplexing as I've worked as a international consultant for three European Union agencies. Nonetheless it speaks volumes of their attitudes.  What I'd want to retort (but didn't) is:

'Maybe even more important than my professional experience, is that - not on the form - I've also worked in credit control, as a security guard, as a cleaner and waitress, a care assistant, a temp, in a children's holiday camp and as a language teacher and translator, - and realise that your students and alumni too might need to do this as stepping stones or interim to their professional aspirations.  And it might be helpful to have a member of careers staff who understands this and isn't demeaned by it, - because I do wonder what messages your students are getting, if this is what you say in written feedback to a fellow practitioner!'  Falala.

In the end I decided I needed specialist help. Career guidance makes a difference. It may be my field but you can't give yourself a massage. And yes, a short sharp specialist careers interview offered really helpful feedback, helped me up my game and I got the next job in a great institution, in a really interesting role. Hurrah.  But a longer, far more uphill process than I'd encountered before on previous returns from stints abroad in the EU, from postgraduate study or childcare, in previous recessions.

So which are the tips I wish someone had given me:

* Before you leave your home country, convert to a career break membership of your professional body.  They'll offer publications, newsgroups, maybe career guidance, maybe cheap professional liability insurance if you set up shop abroad. But getting in with them, from abroad, ain't easy.

* Keep your eye on the ball back home, keep up your CPD, check how regulations and issues are changing. What implications does this have? And if you're in a highly regulated profession it might be worth considering going back for a month each year to keep your registration up to date.  If you're in a sector where you need criminal records checks, - or have children in whose schools you might want - or be forced - to help out, even as a volunteer on a working bus or a reading mum - well make sure you get the proof you haven't been convicted/charged with anything in the host country before you leave.

* Plan at least 18 months in advance for professional return, to update your skills, revive your networks, receive and read key new books via very longwinded post, attend the national conference for networking if funds allow.  If you're moving to a third country, consider the needs there, the assets in your current place, the links and transferable skills you could develop or offer.  Could you take on a short project to demonstrate your prowess in the new field?  Its always easier to get good experience at the end of the previous posting, building on your understanding and contacts, than at the start of the new posting.

* Consider which additional experience abroad would add lustre to your case. In my experience, and that of most of my clients, experience abroad is very devalued in the UK context - unless Abroad is the key business of the organisation - so you're applying based on the experience you had before you left. Nonetheless confidence will out, and knowing you've achieved to your utmost in your current context has to help at some level.  But can you publish that research paper or run a free workshop for a prestigious client? How can you demonstrate the level at which you've been performing to a new market which can't read the signals of the brands you've been working with, the challenges you've overcome?

* Recruiters are conservative, especially with non-resident applicants where there might be some doubt about their claims, where the most recent referee, however acclaimed, isn't in the same networks, where you haven't seen the applicant in action. Initially I tried applying for a new sector (careers work in schools) based on the work I'd been doing in Kenya in this field. One headteacher was upfront with me.
'Yes you were the front runner, have very strong experience. We liked you, you would fit in. But your experience in university admissions was mainly abroad. In Africa. We can see you've had a national impact in an internationally competitive field. But Head of Careers is just too important a job for us to take a risk, however small. Sorry.'
Be realistic about how big a switch you can do. In general you aren't going to get a promotion on immediate return unless you're staying within the same organisation. Transitions to new sectors based on overseas experience will be tricky too.  Sadly UK-based experience is what counts for most recruiters in these risk-averse times, even when, as in higher education, its a global market.  Be willing to be flexible, to either better focus your message or to adapt where you target to feedback from the market, however wrongheaded you may think it.

* Save, hard. As a teacher at our kids' school said, tongue in cheek, when congratulated on her new job back home: 'Yes, we can eat again.'  But it adds up. Flights, hire cars, travelodge rooms and somewhere to hang out between stage one and two of the interview, ain't cheap.

* Articulate your needs in the application form. 'Our post takes six weeks. Communication by email is best.' I couldn't come back for interview during the six week period around Kenyan elections, as we were apprehensive there could be violence, and the family needed me here. In the end it wasn't a problem, but I felt I needed to be clear upfront. But be willing to be flexible.  Most universities are now selecting by two and three stage assessment centre processes - not ideal for a candidate hoping to fit it all into one or two days - and in the end I had to bow out of University of London's extended four stage process. Sadly just not viable.

* Think hard which achievements are the most relevant for the new context. Get feedback.  When you are transferring within the same context you can usually be clear that the examples you are most impressed by are those which speak most eloquently of your competencies. But into a new context it can just articulate dissonance.

My example of training and sending undergraduate mentors out into the bush to offer outreach guidance support and to talk high school teachers through how to write a university reference doesn't speak of creativity, innovation and resilience in the UK setting, but of do-lally failure to focus.  Why didn't they just phone head office or look it up on the internet?  Or ask someone local who knew how.  Hard, from the UK, to imagine schools which don't have phone lines let alone internet (or computers), where teachers are highly respected but lack professional networks or any contacts with anyone with experience overseas at all, even a week's holiday in the neighbouring country.  Just as other people's holiday photos are rarely that fascinating for public consumption, so too the highs and lows of your professional achievements abroad will likely need radical trimming and strimming before they hit the spot back home.

* Which is why career guidance helps, but guidance with skilled practitioners who understand the issues and the context, - and don't give cookie cutter answers, but think on the job and say when they don't know. I went to C2, the Careers Group, University of London's commercial careers service where they deal with streams of mid career professionals - and it shows.  Not cheap at £160 for a one hour session - but precisely the specialist support & focus I needed and couldn't have got in Kenya to help me get the job.

And what do you think, what were your experiences?

Job Interviews Abroad

Each culture has its twiddly bits. Its good to be able to display them at job interviews. Your BBC received pronunciation, your tidy spoken Welsh, your ability to juggle a glass of fruit juice and some chewy sandwiches and make polite conversation with the team. But all too often, as a foreigner, you blunder on by, not even realising the manhole without the manhole cover until .....Oops.

A Belgian mate of mine explained to me twenty years ago:
'And that's the bit in the job interview when you pull out your party card and put it on the table....'
Oh. Durr.  Well how in many interviews have I let that pregnant pause just pass me by. And I suppose a card from Blockbuster just wouldn't do.

Interviewing for a student job as a Fruehstuecksfrau in Berlin - (hotel cleaner and kitchen staff for breakfast prep) I had to boil six eggs in an alien kitchen.  That went just fine, but once in post my supervisor had the day off, and I managed to explode all 50 boiled eggs at once. Oh the shame of it.

Six months into life in Kenya I went for an interview in the placements office at an evangelical university. I'm a Quaker. I'm confident talking about my faith life. I just don't expect to do it at a job interview.  In fact I'd even think it might be something to get you excluded from the running.
'No, I don't know about risk assessment in teaching & learning, but let me tell you about a thought I had the other day...'
Towards the end, when all had gone swimmingly, out came the killer question.
'And have you been saved?'
[Gulp. Look behind me to see if there's anyone else this might be addressed at.]
'Saved? Errr...'
[Highpitched] 'I pray. I listen to God in my life and try to act on it. I've served my local church as an Elder for the last six years, responsible for the spiritual life of the meeting.'
[Leaning forward & insistent]  'But have you bathed in the blood of the Lamb?'

It wasn't a meeting of the minds. They turned me down, though I was the only applicant. The problem, as they made clear, was that being Saved wasn't a claim I even wanted to fumble my way towards. I'm stroppy on this. I'm not going to have my faith life coerced into your belief system. Either you listen to what I want to say, and see if it measures up - it didn't - or not.  But Being Saved isn't what its about for me, and I'm not going to bluff it and stutter a feeble:
'But I'm confident with a two day refresher course I could be saveable...'

It rankled. I got wild eyed and pointy stabbing fingery at innocent bystanders for a while afterwards.  Six months later I got linked in requests from the two members of the panel. We don't want your skills because we think you're damned to perdition - but we'd like to link in with you. Huh.  No way. This heathen is walking by on the other side thank you very much.

On the other hand at BigCorporate where the job involved supporting students to write autobiographical college essays I mentioned sheepishly, diffidently towards the interview's end,
'And I studied Literature, that might help.'
I thought they'd fall about, insisting they only wanted staff with Econometrics or Auditing with Advanced Astrophysics.
But 'Marvellous' they said heartily, 'that will be a great help.'
A great solace that was. I repeated it to myself at low moments for years. Though mentioning it to a Polish friend last week she said sceptically,
'But weren't they being ironic?'
Sinking feeling, maybe they were. Maybe, horror of horrors, this is a case of the penny dropping three years late. Another sign of the foreigner adrift.

Four years on I'm returning to the UK for job interviews. And somehow the landscape has shifted, my timing is off and I've lost my native touch there too. But that's a story for another day.

Making a Difference for Jobseekers

Europe and US are in recession. It's an awful market for jobseekers. And worse still in Kenya, where official unemployment rates are 40%, where there's no formal social security, so if you have no job you - your family - have no income at all.

As a careers advisor I see some Kenyan jobseekers each month for free. Hear their stories: the sparky, feisty young woman with KCSE and a diploma with good IT skills, great communication skills, good exam results. A good candidate, whose education was paid for by her mum's former employer, who over the last six years has had a total of two months' paid work, on various temporary call centre contracts working for global brands you'd have heard of, - and then been retrenched as the passing demand passes.  She changed direction, set up a cafe in the slum, managed to get contracts to supply restaurants with her products. But then had to sell her one asset, her fridge, to tide the family over in their third year without any income at all. 

Or the man in his late twenties, a mechanic, whom I interviewed for my dissertation. He'd studied car mechanics on a Kenyan youth employment scheme some ten years ago. Had left the scheme with a qualification, but not a qualification at a high enough level to get a job, as it now becomes clear. When I interviewed him he had spent literally ten years, trudging daily, on foot, from garage to garage all over Nairobi, presenting his qualifications, trying to bypass gatekeepers, seeking to speak with employers, trying to get a job. He'd heard the feedback that his level two qualification wasn't at a high enough level to get work. Quoted it to me. But what can he do? He can't afford to return to college to build on it. He's now got so much invested in his search, he can't change direction now, though I fear, in his heart of hearts, he realises this might be what is needed.

Or the conversations with my expat mates with adult children.  The family home is in Kenya, for now. So their adult children, school leavers, newly graduated, not so newly graduated, have no free family base in UK while they seek work. It's harder to give supportive conversations, informal support, or the occasional bracing kick over skype.  And for the adult children who opt to be with the family for a while, its harder still to break into the Kenyan job market - not where they grew up or where they have contacts or school friends - but where they'll need to demonstrate they are better than Kenyan applicants to get a role to get a work permit.

So what can the rest of us do to help those seeking work at times of mass unemployment?

It's easy to get isolated when you're seeking work. It's easy to lose touch with who you are, with your strengths, with the anecdotes your friends tell about you, with the experiences that make you, you at your best. It's tempting to hide away under the duvet, feeling unacceptable.

Kenyan jobseekers tend to only have contact with other jobseekers. Just as expat partners seeking work tend to have contact with the other jobseeking mums on the playground, rather than with those who've spun off into the world of smart suits and someone else doing your school pickup.  But in jobseeking - as in Richard Wiseman's fascinating research on the tactics used by those who assess themselves as lucky, The Luck Factor, - broadbased contacts matter. The people who assess themselves as luckiest are those who would, for example, go to a party, and rather than huddling close to the friends they already knew, cast themselves onto the open ocean, make a commitment that they today will speak to each person wearing red.

So encouraging jobseekers to identify what - beyond a job - and towards a job - would help comes first. And then helping people to network, to seek information interviews, to see whether someone in employment might let them shadow them for the day, mentor them - all this helps. Who do you know through your church, your siblings friends, your parents colleagues, your community, your high school, professional body? And who do they know in turn?  And that we offer information interviews - 40 minutes of our time - to those who'd welcome it.   'Redescendre l'ascensceur' the French call it. 'To send the lift back down behind you', so others may follow in your footsteps.

The point of wider contacts isn't a clearcut route to a job, - you know me, you'll give me a job. It's about information gathering. Which are the key tasks in your role? How do you go about them? Which are the skills your organisation is seeking at the moment? What would you say is the best way to gain them? Might you be willing to refer me on to another of your contacts in this field for a potential information interview?  Yes and seeking to leave a professional impression and your contact details, lest the contact come across a job you might fit.  But it's building a body of professional knowledge and a base of contacts who might be on the lookout for opportunities to which you could add value.

Creating slices of a job helps too. Identifying that niggling bit of work you're too busy or too cackhanded to do, as actually a project, and writing up what it could involve, the skills needed, the possible benefits, - and advertising it. Just getting out of the house to have contacts with others can help when you feel you've been knocking on doors for two years, in vain. But ideally, it'll be offering more - a chance to learn something, to gain different experience, contacts with others, a wage.  Creating sliproads into mainstream employment, a day's ironing each week which might lead to some babysitting and a reference; help taking monthly payment to the Kenya Revenue Authority, which could lead to helping out with the accounts, and work as a financial assistant.

Security is one of the key issues on anyone's mind when employing in Kenya. Even my accountant won't take on new clients without an introduction from a former client. Yes people have ID, but if someone did a runner it would be nigh on impossible to find them again in this land without integrated databases. So good references from employers willing to give their own details, to stand surity with their own reputation as it were, matter inordinately. And that's a big barrier for many. 

Giving people new opportunities helps. I heard of one expat mum, knowing they were to be leaving in six months, who bought her housekeeper a copy of Jamie Oliver. And whose family ate a different Jamie Oliver recipe each evening for the next six months, so that, by the time of their departure they could write a glowing reference for their housekeeper/cook, 'who can cook all the recipes in Jamie Oliver' and comes with her own cookbook.  But its hard. Our gardener/handyman said as we arrived, licking his lips as he looked at our dent-free car.
'I've got a driving licence you know. Just haven't had much practice. I could drive you.'
A bit like letting your seventeen year old loose in your car, rather in the dual control car of the driving instructor, we decided to pass on that one. Thank you.

Access to cash is a major hurdle here in Kenya. Little bits can make a massive difference. A friend of ours gave a local newspaper seller (average daily earnings 250 KSh, around £1.50) a loan to buy a bike. He can deliver papers - maybe the sole delivery person in Nairobi - has massively expanded what he can charge and his potential buyers.  And helping people set up bank accounts. Equity Bank has a bank account where you can save as little as 10 KSh, incur charges only when you do something.

Marking 'distance travelled' is another big issue. Having a job is like being pregnant. Either you are or you aren't. You can be putting in marvellous applications, gaining fantastic experience, networking like crazy, doing everything right, hard. But still not finding a job with a paycheque.  So it matters that those around you help you see the distance you've travelled towards a job. The steps, big and small, the buying signals - even if they ultimately came to nothing. That others make concrete the successes which for the jobseeker seem so dwarfed by the deluge of rejection letters, or the disheartening silence of no rejection letter at all.

And finally helping people think what they offer in the labour market, and who would value this - and the rest of who they are.  Helping people think how they can reassure employers that this is a low-risk venture to hire them.  Some Kenyan jobseekers I've worked with seemed to see a job as something static, like a chair, that you occupy, rather than something dynamic, a need that you fill, which changes, where the requirements on you change too.  Not something where you make a difference, solve problems. More something which is bestowed on you, like blonde hair or freckles.  And while that could be the reality for some in the Kenyan job market, it doesn't really help if you're a normal jobseeker, and an uncle from your village isn't the chief executive of a major parastatal.

While knowing you're not alone doesn't help the key plight of the Kenyan jobseeker pounding the streets, I think it matters that the rest of us come out where we can. I've been made redundant. Sought work in 1980s South Wales when the only posts advertised in the Jobclub were as topless waitresses. Had periods between jobs. Been despairing that I'd ever get back to interesting work after having kids. And have been really grateful for the help I've received on the way. What goes around comes around. Over to you.