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~Graduate International Career Pipelining~
#1

~Graduate International Career Pipelining~

It's been a while since I've been around and I thought I'd chime in with another strategy I've come up with for international careers to help out some soon-to-be grads and young guys who want to go abroad but are afraid/confused of the challenges involved.

There is a range of logistical and financial risks involved with making an international career move. Since the last time I was around, my client placement in Asia has skyrocketed. Based on what I've seen from successful placements, I've come up with some new career pipelining strategies that I feel optimize the situation.

As usual, take this with a grain of salt.



GRADUATE INTERNATIONAL CAREER PIPELINING



1. SAVE CASH (6-12 months)

If you are still young, early to mid twenties, you are surely facing a tough job market as a recent grad. If your parents will let you, move back home for a bit so that you can save money. Take on a low pressure job like working at Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Crate/Barrel etc - so that your hours are decent and you have enough energy to take on other projects at night time.



2. BUILD SKILLS (occurs during same period as saving cash period)

While living at home, save every penny you possibly can. This period of time will be between 6-12 months. Your goal is to save at least 20,000 dollars. The reason that you are taking on a low pressure job with good hours is so that you can independently build skills that will be useful to you as an individual freelancer and also as an intern or full time employee of a company.

Teach yourself some skills that you can use later on. There are lots of skills you can pick up free off the web:

railsforzombies.org/

You can also learn a bunch of skills off of http://www.lynda.com

Try to get some certifications in skills such as graphic design or related areas that would be in demand. Your goal here is to build "technical" skills that are portable and can be useful in the context of your own business or in the context of a company that hires you.

While you are living at home, consider different countries abroad that interest you for a place to live or a place to have a career - China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Colombia, etc.

Your goals by the end of this 6-12 month period are to:

-Save 20K USD or more

-Develop some "hard" skills in microsoft office, keynote/presentations, graphic design, ruby coding, PHP, python, social media marketing, SEO - portable skills useful to you as a person or useful to a company who will hire you

-If you can, do a virtual or part time internship with a reputable company in your area. This can be unpaid - your goal here is to get a strong recommendation/reference for the utilization of your newfound skills in design/SEO/development. You are trading your hours for experience and credibility.

3. LANGUAGE SCHOOLS AND LOGISTICS

Narrow down on one country you want to go to, ideally a cheap one like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China. Good second tier cheap cities in China are Kunming, Chengdu, Dalian, Qingdao, Xiamen, Nanjing, Harbin.

There are a lot of scams. Find a good school and see if you can TESOL/TEFL certified from your home town or nearby city in the US. Once you have this covered, get in touch with one of the better schools and apply to become an English teacher.

Becoming an English teacher solves lots of problems for you - you will get housing and a visa, along with immediate guidance in logistics as soon as you arrive in your target destination. This is very important. Moreover, you will have an entry into a career in your stop - even if it is "just an ESL job."

4. ESL JOB PERIOD

For about 6-12 months you're going to stick with this teaching job. Start networking immediately on weekends and nights - go hang out with expats and see who is hiring. From the skillsets you have built, you will be able to immediately tell business owners what your value add is. Get in touch with the Chamber of Commerce and Embassy for your home country and ask them what jobs might be available in your city of choice.

ESL jobs have lenient hours and usually enough pay to cover your living costs. Don't live beyond your means and don't spend any of the 20K+ of cash that you saved up. Discipline is very important in this phase.

5. INTERNSHIP PERIOD / JOB OFFER

Depending on your networking, if you get lucky, or what the situation is like in that city, you will end up finagling an internship at some company like a boutique consultancy or the chamber of commerce or something like that. If you get an internship, it will certainly not be enough to cover your living expenses. This is where it becomes useful that you saved that cash - you can live on 500-700 bucks a month in a place like Chengdu, Penang, or BKK if you spend carefully.

Alternatively, you can be an unpaid part time intern for a company as a sort of extended long term testing period to see if they want to hire you.

After 3 months of working, ask if there are full time positions. Connect with your bosses and colleagues on linkedin and see if they have connections at companies where you might be interested in working.


6. FULL TIME OFFER / TRANSITION

By this point you have turned an internship into a full time job. Worst case scenario, you can go back to ESL.



7. (OPTIONAL) ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Another option is that you might become so skilled at whatever skills you trained yourself in that you can just launch your own venture or company of your own and drum up clients locally.

If it turns out that during the cash saving period and ESL period you've created a design company that is taking in 2K in cash per month, you can obviously take that route and build a brand and venture there. The skills you learned are portable by design, so you can take it with you and travel a bit if you want.


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I sincerely hope this helps some of the younger guys trying to figure out what to do and worried about all the unknowns that come with going abroad.

I'm not telling anyone that you SHOULD do this. I'm simply laying out what seems like a reliable strategy that I've noticed is a trend in many of my current clients.


Like any other outlines I've put up here, you do this at your own risk. I'm just dishing out ideas here.

I'm incredibly busy these days so I'm not going to be able to so much followup on this.

Cheers, everyone. Hope you've been doing well.


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#2

~Graduate International Career Pipelining~

Great information, thanks a lot for sharing.
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#3

~Graduate International Career Pipelining~

Great strategy but you have any ideas on how/where to look if you don't want to work for a company and are more interested in NGOs/government work? Sorry I am a bit of a bleeding heart liberal.
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#4

~Graduate International Career Pipelining~

The strategies are really the same - it doesn't have to be all corporate or private sector. The main purpose and risk that is being taken out of the equation here is that you are getting accustomed to being on the ground while simultaneously dodging the visa issue, which is a frequent problem for many people.

I would suggest that you intern at the embassy, consulate, or local chamber of commerce. This is for NGO/Government type work and also for private sector work. There is no better way to combine a short term work experience with building a network as quickly as possible. You'll meet all the movers and shakers and be able to finagle your way into one of those positions.
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#5

~Graduate International Career Pipelining~

Excellent Tips! I also want to add a few more details. If you are looking to expand in the international scene, take a look at the state department. There are many many opportunities for fresh graduates but people don't bother to look into it at all because the forms are too long or some other bullshit like it takes too long! Go take the Foreign service exam! It doesn't cost you shit! go to http://careers.state.gov/officer/selection-process and check out the information. Register for the exam and sit for it, if you don't pass the first time, do it again! The idea is to at least try. Similarly, you can also sit for the United Nation Young Professionals exam..it's a great way to get into the UN https://careers.un.org/lbw/home.aspx?viewtype=NCE If that doesn't suffice, then go ahead and take a look at the United Nations Volunteer Program at http://www.unv.org/about-us/employment/vacancies.html The point is to target and execute what you truly want to accomplish and you will get there. While you are doing this, as the OP said Network Network Network!!! Take a deep breath and make it happen! Good Luck.
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#6

~Graduate International Career Pipelining~

Quote: (12-01-2012 05:47 AM)youngmobileglobal Wrote:  

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i'm usually split 50-50 on the quality of YMG's stuff. This post here was pretty solid, as my own career trajectory was not so different. but i gotta nitpick on a few things he said:

first, i'd strongly recommend living in a big city and not some small town if you go the "teach in asia" route. I loved my first city in Korea, population of half a million, but it wasn't until I moved to the capital, population of 10+ million, that my career took off. i went from hanging out with guys who enjoyed decent success, managing a few franchises or something, to being hired and retained by internationally-connected globetrotting VPs and executives who were playing with multimillion dollar accounts. networking and business opportunities are of an exponentially higher quality when you live in an ecosystem that brings together such a high level of critical mass of human capital.

second, most internships are bullshit. take action and do things yourself. first website i designed was for a politician during a campaign, and i did it for free, asking only for a testimonial and referrals. his referrals were huge, which allowed me to take on paying customers. whenever possible, come in from a position of power, something like "hey, i'll do this for you for free (you end up in MY debt first) so that later you will help me out (and get rid of this "debt")" VS "hey please hire me (i'm in YOUR debt) and i'll work my ass off (just to get out of MY debt to you)." besides, if you've ever had interns of your own, you'd know 2 things: (1) they're about as useful as a Beats by Dre headset for Anne Frank over the first several months or years, and (2) it's actually a lot of work just managing them.

third, 20K is a totally arbitrary number for how much someone "should" save. calculate for yourself how much you'll need and why based on your circumstances and your goals.

and finally, i'm not so sure you're aware of how tough it has become just to get hired as an intern for an embassy/consulate position. Their internships usually require MA degrees in highly specialized areas, a minimum of several years experience in a specific field, or some combination of both. it's definitely not easy enough for someone to just "suggest" to anybody.
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#7

~Graduate International Career Pipelining~

Awesome Awesome Awesome.

I'm kinda in a reverse situ, having blown alot of cash abroad this year, and finally just now getting my ass in gear with freelancing online.

Im looking to be able to cover basic living expenses from it pretty soon, and hopefully step it up and start putting cash back in the bank 1-2 months down the line.

Im due to go home for Xmas, and want to get back out here ASAP... not sure how wise that is without much of a cash safety net though. I guess "sensible" would be stay at home and crack on with work online, building a reserve back up... but for me living home with parents for more than a couple of weeks is not healthy.

How important do you think those savings are? Why do you say 20k, any reason?

Obviously I'd need emergency cash for a flight back home, and a few hundred for medical costs, although I'd expect my travel insurance to pay for anything serious.

I guess more slack is always better, but how necessary I wonder?
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#8

~Graduate International Career Pipelining~

Thank you everyone (esp GyopoPlayboy) for your constructive criticism and feedback - I tend to bang these posts out quickly based on a bit of a whim and it's useful/helpful to have you fill in the little cracks and areas that may be a blind spot for me.

I mean that sincerely, too.

I regret throwing the 20K figure out there. That's a number that would have worked well for the specific situations that I have experienced and worked with in the past. It might be totally different for you. Like GyopoPlayboy said, this is up to you - I'm not in a position to be giving you advice about that.

Take everything I say with a grain of salt - I just wanted to share what has been working for people I know who are making it happen in Asia.

Cheers.
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#9

~Graduate International Career Pipelining~

one very large problem. VISA

most companies will not get a visa for a guy with minimal to no real experience or for a guy doing an internship.

secondly, tier 2 cities have a very limited number of opportunities outside of the education sector compared to tier 1.

Getting a Visa is hands down the most overlooked thing for newbies that want to live abroad. Once you have lived abroad you realize it is the most important thing to consider bc. your elaborate plans will quickly fall apart when after a few months you get booted out of the country.

Learn the Visa rules like ur life depends on it (bc it does) BEFORE you go. How long can you stay as a tourist? How hard is it to get a work visa?
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#10

~Graduate International Career Pipelining~

I posted this on a thread in the travel section and it is relevant here as well.

Here is an article specifically about the job market in China. It did differ with my opinion about tier 2 cities. I haven't had fulltime boots on the ground in China since 09, so possibly I was wrong. Europeans have flooded China since the 08 crisis (I've mentioned that in other threads) especially the last 2 years, anyway enjoy...

5 Tips for Succeeding in China’s Changing Job Market

http://www.echinacities.com/expat-corner...arket.html
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#11

~Graduate International Career Pipelining~

Quote: (12-02-2012 06:17 AM)GyopoPlayboy Wrote:  

first website i designed was for a politician during a campaign, and i did it for free, asking only for a testimonial and referrals. his referrals were huge, which allowed me to take on paying customers. whenever possible, come in from a position of power, something like "hey, i'll do this for you for free (you end up in MY debt first) so that later you will help me out (and get rid of this "debt")" VS "hey please hire me (i'm in YOUR debt) and i'll work my ass off (just to get out of MY debt to you)."
Old school genius. Reminds me of the political machinations you see on Boardwalk Empire.

Find a guy with connections, and make him owe you.

Genius.
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#12

~Graduate International Career Pipelining~

Nice summary, YMG.
I always enjoy reading your posts, inspires me to work harder and learn more to achieve my goals. I sometimes tend to lose focus, so thanks a lot.
I wanted to ask if you have any ideas on what would be a good strategy to get a foot in the door if you´re not a native English speaker? I´m not quite sure I would have a chance getting a job, considering the competition.
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