What educators should consider before deciding to work abroad

Originally published in the International Schools Magazine

Before you engage other considerations (the culture, society, way of life), there are some immediate factors to weigh up:

• Contract: Is it fixed, variable, open-ended? Will you have any job security? Are certain benefits realisable only on completion of your contract, or a number of years?
• Relocation: What package is included?
• Cost of living: How expensive is it to live in your destination country?
• Travel: Will return travel to your country of origin be covered? If so, how often? At the end of your contract? Annually? Is travel for your partner, family, or dependents included?

Here are some notes from my own lived experience:

• Contract: Check your residency visa status. Find out about your rights. Try to discover if your contract (including salary) is market equitable where you’re heading. Don’t assume there will be any trades union or other representation.
• Relocation: Check what you can and can’t take. You may be surprised at what is and isn’t allowed in some countries. If in doubt, err on the side of caution and don’t trust unofficial advice. (If you have pets, factor this in because it can get messy and expensive!).
• Cost of living: Check the price of basic foodstuffs, utilities, rent, internet, insurance, car, fuel, and school fees if relevant. This may seem obvious but never assume. Extra bills like air-conditioning or heating quickly mount up in hot and cold climates. For example, water, electricity, and driving can be phenomenally more expensive than you’re used to.
• Travel: Be prepared to negotiate on airfare and tickets.

Advice for working overseas

Don’t be afraid to be direct.

Polite but very straightforward questioning will often be necessary, in a manner you may not be familiar with back home. You may need to ask a number of people, and ask more than once.

The HR director at the school to which you’re going should be a source of useful, inside knowledge. If you know anyone who already lives there, definitely ask them. A national will have a very different perspective than a non-national resident. Both will be useful and both should be taken at face-value – as personal opinions.

You can never do too much research in advance. Believe me, you will be amazed at the significant impact of something as simple as unpredicted/able bills, or the speed and functionality of your internet connection. Your salary will get gobbled up soon enough or your home life will be uncomfortable – not things you need when you’re grappling with the challenges of a new work environment.

Then there is the important question: what job are you actually going to?

This is not as easy to bottom out as some of the earlier list. Unless you know someone who already works where you will be taking up your post, you won’t easily find the inside track. You should visit if you can and, if offered, a final interview in-country will help.

Advice for living overseas

Expect cultural unfamiliarities. Embrace them.

Mostly, whatever your interests, you’ll find common ground in someone, somewhere, in your new home. And that’s important: make it your home.

There’s nothing worse than the ex-pat crowd eating the same food, reading the same newspapers, and talking about the same things they did before they left wherever they came from.

Ex-pat should be a dirty word. This is where you work now. This is your home. You’ll be much more welcomed and engaged with by locals if you take that approach. You’ll also feel less removed.

A couple more clichés: eat the local food and try to learn the language.

Unless you’re a linguist, you’ll be surprised at your own lack of ability, and you’ll be chastened at how colleagues are working in second, third, and even fourth languages more fluently than you.

Education overseas

Accept that the education sector in different countries is at different levels of maturity and experience; some more and some less than you may be used to. This means:

• governance norms may be at odds with political and other pressures;
• stated hierarchies, policies, and processes may be more fluid than you’ve experienced;
• rigidities and unseen boundaries may exist that you may not have taken into account;
• staff recruitment, procurement, estate management, financial reporting, legal procedures: all may operate in different contexts.

Your success will depend on your ability to navigate waters which are uncharted for you, but quite familiar to others. In many ways, you will need the skills which make good embassy staff: tact; diplomacy; a width of understanding beyond your home country; and a willingness to appreciate and learn from your new territory, rather than dictate and impose. And like embassy staff, you are also ambassadors for the countries you left behind.

American author Clifton Fadiman wrote: ‘Remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.’

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Hugh Martin is the Managing Partner MENA for executive search firm, Anderson Quigley. He has spent 25 years in the education sector as a lecturer, teacher, senior manager, and consultant. He can be contacted at hugh.martin@andersonquigley.com or you can connect with him on LinkedIn.