I have two questions for you how many of
you have moved abroad because you were
offered a job can I see some hands okay
about a third a little over and how many
of you moved abroad for other reasons
and then looked for a job okay about the
same I know I did that one I’m a dual
career professional which means that
every few years my family and I moved to
a new country and then I have to look
for a job and since 2014 I’ve been
living in the European Union where free
movement of workers is a founding
principle of the internal market where
people are encouraged to travel to other
countries in search of jobs yet finding
meaningful decent work is no easy task
it’s complicated enough to make a
geographical transition to adapt to a
new culture to learn new languages
building a career while moving at the
same time requires that skills interests
and opportunities come together in a
targeted way career transitions are all
about the learning curve learning new
social skills new technical competencies
adapting as fast as possible
I believe in today’s world of work
individuals more than ever need career
support in relearning professional roles
in rewiring work relationships that’s
why today I’m going to talk about
managing career transitions in a dual
career mobility context the dual career
narrative looks something like this two
people married or not embrace
transitions together as a mobile couple
one partner has an attractive contract
to go abroad and the other is often
traveling on what’s called an
accompanying spouse visa or partner
according to global mobility reports
there were 50 million expats working
worldwide in 2014 unemployed spouses
were counted in the 50 million along
with corporate transferees individual
workers and students
typically what we know about
accompanying spouses or partners is in
relation to the partner with a job
simply put if an accompanying spouse
cannot find career opportunities in a
host country then a company cannot
retain the employee we know several
things about the spouses we know their
gender composition we know age ranges
employment or unemployment status in a
recent 2017 survey here we are again
global platform found out that 88% of
their members are women
maybe that’s why many studies up to now
have focused on gender dynamics within
dual career couples and also cultural
adaptation of the spouses yet what we
understand less is how they manage their
careers how do they make career
decisions what do they think about
networking how do they network my own
dual career experience has extended
nearly ten years in multiple countries I
am a student of European politics and
integration but my personal choices and
my family life took me away from Europe
to Asia to the Middle East and then to
the United States I have to say that in
those previous relocations I felt
isolated from formal career support and
don’t get me wrong I didn’t have trouble
finding a job I can be creative in
finding meaningful work for myself but
often connecting the dots to build a
career takes something a bit more
structured today
my family has a new assignment we have a
contract for six years to live in
Denmark and possibly longer often on I
work in the field of Human Resources and
through my projects I meet other spouses
like myself who are starting over again
in a new country these spouses are not
somebody’s wife somebody’s husband they
are global professionals and like many
job seekers they have transitional risks
they face challenges
one because they have moved they
experience a break from their social
networks they’re away from their
families primary contacts friends and
two they get disconnected from their
professional circles peers co-workers
with whom they share similar
problem-solving approaches how many have
you have felt that isolation when you
moved abroad I think social isolation
and professional disconnects make it
very difficult to start over often
people find themselves stuck in between
roles and identities
Herminia Parra of inside Business School
calls a phenomenon liminality a state of
being stuck in between what we hope or
what I hope is to avoid being liminal
for too long and this is why I seek
guidance so in my recent transition to
Denmark I found formal career support
through my husband’s workplace a public
institution with growing number of
foreign employees I think I can say at
least in that country there is a an
adaptation a transition into
acknowledging this as a as a problem
that requires a solution the human
resource department that processed my
husband’s contract connected me to a
private company and through them I was
able to take classes on local work
culture I learned how to use LinkedIn
even though I had a LinkedIn account
I learned to grow my network but more
importantly I gained access to my first
local network when I arrived so I’m sure
many of you know the general advice for
anyone who’s a working age is to start
and keep meeting new people in different
professional contexts because even if
you’re well established in your career
networking is a valuable tool I’ve
already mentioned that I meet spouses
like myself and I find that often they
vary greatly in their approach to
networking or what value they find in it
and I think it has something to do with
occupational identity which is something
you build over time I noticed that
specialists especially who are nurses or
rocket scientists they maybe don’t find
as much value in broadly networking
because they’re interested in very
specific roles and they would like to
advance in a narrowly defined career
track but one of the transitional risks
they have is an extended period of
unemployment and this is because their
job options are limited to what’s
available in the local market so perhaps
what networking could help them do is to
get a little creative and find
interprofessional solutions to their
situation and I have a great example
because through LinkedIn I met someone
who used to be a primary school teacher
in England and is now a training
coordinator for one of the top hearing
aid companies in Denmark
I think that’s career support magic well
that was a specialist then there are
generalists like myself I can speak for
myself that I’m flexible in the work
that I do and I’m open to exploring
different roles and I tend to look for
non industry specific jobs technical
writing editing I know some people do
graphic design you can work in any
industry with these jobs so generalists
tend to like networking broadly but
maybe what their challenge is is to make
a story connecting those dots and
building their career so specialist or
generalist
these professionals require transitional
support especially in finding and using
their networks so one question I ask
myself as I meet these people is is
there a perfect Network for all and I’m
going to say yes to be positive there is
a type of network that’s a mix of
internal and external relationships it’s
called a membership organization and
maybe because of social media and how we
connect today in the world
we’ve forgotten the value of what
membership organizations provide
what it is is that you have a local
group and individuals pay to become a
member but these individuals are very
diverse they can be working in public
sector private sector managers or
students they come together they create
activities or projects this is their
internal relationships and then through
the projects that they create and the
roles they take on they build
relationships in collaboration with
local business community and that’s
their external relationships as expats
or as an expat myself because I move
frequently I enjoy the ability to know
that there will be an organization for
me when I go there to my next
destination and that I could explore
different roles while I’m transitioning
because I think in today’s fluctuating
world of work being in one role in one
company is something that’s a little bit
rare and I think in this accompanying
spouses are on to something larger
they’re part of a global change of the
way we build our career I think their
transitional experiences can inform
different segments of the working age
population especially now especially in
the European Union as we talk about
integrating other mobile groups into our
labour market so there’s no better way
than to empower people by assisting them
in their career transitions thank you
[Applause]
you have moved abroad because you were
offered a job can I see some hands okay
about a third a little over and how many
of you moved abroad for other reasons
and then looked for a job okay about the
same I know I did that one I’m a dual
career professional which means that
every few years my family and I moved to
a new country and then I have to look
for a job and since 2014 I’ve been
living in the European Union where free
movement of workers is a founding
principle of the internal market where
people are encouraged to travel to other
countries in search of jobs yet finding
meaningful decent work is no easy task
it’s complicated enough to make a
geographical transition to adapt to a
new culture to learn new languages
building a career while moving at the
same time requires that skills interests
and opportunities come together in a
targeted way career transitions are all
about the learning curve learning new
social skills new technical competencies
adapting as fast as possible
I believe in today’s world of work
individuals more than ever need career
support in relearning professional roles
in rewiring work relationships that’s
why today I’m going to talk about
managing career transitions in a dual
career mobility context the dual career
narrative looks something like this two
people married or not embrace
transitions together as a mobile couple
one partner has an attractive contract
to go abroad and the other is often
traveling on what’s called an
accompanying spouse visa or partner
according to global mobility reports
there were 50 million expats working
worldwide in 2014 unemployed spouses
were counted in the 50 million along
with corporate transferees individual
workers and students
typically what we know about
accompanying spouses or partners is in
relation to the partner with a job
simply put if an accompanying spouse
cannot find career opportunities in a
host country then a company cannot
retain the employee we know several
things about the spouses we know their
gender composition we know age ranges
employment or unemployment status in a
recent 2017 survey here we are again
global platform found out that 88% of
their members are women
maybe that’s why many studies up to now
have focused on gender dynamics within
dual career couples and also cultural
adaptation of the spouses yet what we
understand less is how they manage their
careers how do they make career
decisions what do they think about
networking how do they network my own
dual career experience has extended
nearly ten years in multiple countries I
am a student of European politics and
integration but my personal choices and
my family life took me away from Europe
to Asia to the Middle East and then to
the United States I have to say that in
those previous relocations I felt
isolated from formal career support and
don’t get me wrong I didn’t have trouble
finding a job I can be creative in
finding meaningful work for myself but
often connecting the dots to build a
career takes something a bit more
structured today
my family has a new assignment we have a
contract for six years to live in
Denmark and possibly longer often on I
work in the field of Human Resources and
through my projects I meet other spouses
like myself who are starting over again
in a new country these spouses are not
somebody’s wife somebody’s husband they
are global professionals and like many
job seekers they have transitional risks
they face challenges
one because they have moved they
experience a break from their social
networks they’re away from their
families primary contacts friends and
two they get disconnected from their
professional circles peers co-workers
with whom they share similar
problem-solving approaches how many have
you have felt that isolation when you
moved abroad I think social isolation
and professional disconnects make it
very difficult to start over often
people find themselves stuck in between
roles and identities
Herminia Parra of inside Business School
calls a phenomenon liminality a state of
being stuck in between what we hope or
what I hope is to avoid being liminal
for too long and this is why I seek
guidance so in my recent transition to
Denmark I found formal career support
through my husband’s workplace a public
institution with growing number of
foreign employees I think I can say at
least in that country there is a an
adaptation a transition into
acknowledging this as a as a problem
that requires a solution the human
resource department that processed my
husband’s contract connected me to a
private company and through them I was
able to take classes on local work
culture I learned how to use LinkedIn
even though I had a LinkedIn account
I learned to grow my network but more
importantly I gained access to my first
local network when I arrived so I’m sure
many of you know the general advice for
anyone who’s a working age is to start
and keep meeting new people in different
professional contexts because even if
you’re well established in your career
networking is a valuable tool I’ve
already mentioned that I meet spouses
like myself and I find that often they
vary greatly in their approach to
networking or what value they find in it
and I think it has something to do with
occupational identity which is something
you build over time I noticed that
specialists especially who are nurses or
rocket scientists they maybe don’t find
as much value in broadly networking
because they’re interested in very
specific roles and they would like to
advance in a narrowly defined career
track but one of the transitional risks
they have is an extended period of
unemployment and this is because their
job options are limited to what’s
available in the local market so perhaps
what networking could help them do is to
get a little creative and find
interprofessional solutions to their
situation and I have a great example
because through LinkedIn I met someone
who used to be a primary school teacher
in England and is now a training
coordinator for one of the top hearing
aid companies in Denmark
I think that’s career support magic well
that was a specialist then there are
generalists like myself I can speak for
myself that I’m flexible in the work
that I do and I’m open to exploring
different roles and I tend to look for
non industry specific jobs technical
writing editing I know some people do
graphic design you can work in any
industry with these jobs so generalists
tend to like networking broadly but
maybe what their challenge is is to make
a story connecting those dots and
building their career so specialist or
generalist
these professionals require transitional
support especially in finding and using
their networks so one question I ask
myself as I meet these people is is
there a perfect Network for all and I’m
going to say yes to be positive there is
a type of network that’s a mix of
internal and external relationships it’s
called a membership organization and
maybe because of social media and how we
connect today in the world
we’ve forgotten the value of what
membership organizations provide
what it is is that you have a local
group and individuals pay to become a
member but these individuals are very
diverse they can be working in public
sector private sector managers or
students they come together they create
activities or projects this is their
internal relationships and then through
the projects that they create and the
roles they take on they build
relationships in collaboration with
local business community and that’s
their external relationships as expats
or as an expat myself because I move
frequently I enjoy the ability to know
that there will be an organization for
me when I go there to my next
destination and that I could explore
different roles while I’m transitioning
because I think in today’s fluctuating
world of work being in one role in one
company is something that’s a little bit
rare and I think in this accompanying
spouses are on to something larger
they’re part of a global change of the
way we build our career I think their
transitional experiences can inform
different segments of the working age
population especially now especially in
the European Union as we talk about
integrating other mobile groups into our
labour market so there’s no better way
than to empower people by assisting them
in their career transitions thank you
[Applause]
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