Have you Considered International Experience?

According to a recent survey, 72% of people think that their employers view international experience as important. This comes at a time where increasing numbers of professionals are seeking to add international experience to their CVs, and are doing so in an ever wider variety of locations.  

The research was commissioned by recruitment company Hydrogen Group and conducted by ESCP Europe. 94% of those who responded to the 2012 survey are considering relocating or have already done so, and they are taking the step to gain international experience because they recognise it as a key factor in career success.

The energy sector leads the way in global mobility of professionals with 100% of employers in the sector seeing international experience in prospective employees as important.

At the same time the survey found that this international migration of professionals is spread more widely than ever before. While the three most popular places for respondents to live and work remain the US, the UK and Australia, their dominance is waning: the US fell from 18% last year to 12% this year, Australia fell from 11% to 9% (Law and More’s down under correspondent Dr Joshua Wilson SC will not be pleased!) and the UK from 10% to 9%. 

As Dan Church, Client Services Director at Hydrogen, says: 

“The most significant impact of the global financial crisis of 2008 has been that migration is spread more widely than ever before. People now need to go where the revenue is. Five years ago this might have been New York, London and Hong Kong; now it is also Shanghai, Houston, Vietnam and so on.”

It would also seem that overseas work is no longer just for the young, with 45% of those respondents working abroad aged over 40.  Moreover, people who make the move tend to stay much longer than they expected to; on the whole respondents said they expect to stay overseas for up to five years, when in fact a sizeable 45% of respondents have already been overseas for more than five years and 50% plan to apply for permanent residency.

Raymond Madden, Visiting Professor at ESCP Europe and the academic in charge of the survey, concludes: 

“We’re not seeing people going abroad to do a quick two-year assignment. More and more people are spending their entire careers working overseas, doing stints of several years at a time in one country before moving to a new region where they gain fresh perspectives and experiences. Very often they are hesitant at the start but become hooked on the lifestyle and keep doing it much longer than they intended.”

The UK is still the third most desired place in the world for professionals to live and work, according to new research into global mobility trends. Those who come here tend to stay much longer than they initially expect.  Have a look at Law and More’s entertainment and travel guide to see what makes the UK so popular.