Finding Work Abroad

Finding Work as an Expat

Launching the Expat Working Instagram Live Series

This week I will be launching my new Instagram Live Series – I’ll be interviewing Expats from all over the world, living and working internationally. We’ll be discussing the trials and tribulations of finding meaningful work, expanding your career, accompanying a travelling spouse, starting your own business in a foreign country and much, much more!

This week, to kick start the series I’ll be chatting with Tiffany Smith of Nutrition by Tiffany Smith. She has lived and worked in many exotic countries worldwide and been an expat since 1994. She recently retrained and started her own business as a practicing Nutritionist but she has had a long and varied career and has run several of her own businesses as an expat.

Each week I will be talking to a different person with a focus on a range of topics related to Work as an Expat. This week we’ll be covering these questions to get the conversation flowing:

1.       Can you tell us a little bit about your life as an expat first of all? Where have you lived and worked? What made you leave the UK initially? Any favourite locations?

2.       Can you tell us a little bit about your current job and what you do now?

3.       What made you decide to start your own business in the first place?

4.       Have you had times in your career where you have questioned your direction?

5.       What made you decide to study to become a nutritionist?

6.       What advice would you give to anybody contemplating a change of career, especially as an expat – particularly nowadays?

7.       How about the practicalities of starting a new business in a foreign country – France in particular – what are some of the things to take into consideration?

8.       Do you have any advice for expats who might be struggling with their job searches?

The series is aimed at anyone who finds themselves either in an expat situation or with a future plan to work and travel. I want to enlighten people on the different things you need to consider in terms of your CV, your LinkedIn page, how you network, how you connect with the right people, the right recruitment agents. I want people to consider starting their own businesses if and when the time/ place is right and the best ways to do it. However, most of all I want people to meet real people who have done this and understand what their experiences have been. Learning from others is one of the best forms of learning.

I have lived, worked and studied in 5 different countries and been an expat permanently for the past 11 years. I have witnessed first-hand how difficult it can be for people in certain situations to find work and/or further their careers. This has been further emphasized during my last 2 years living in France – there is a melting pot of expats in this country, those in and around Paris seem to be thriving but throughout the rest of this vast country people are struggling, grappling around to make a living. I have met extraordinarily talented people, living here with an array of qualifications and experience, who are not able to earn a living in their fields. They are struggling to find the balance between living the expat life they so dreamed of and making a career for themselves. Must there be such a compromise? I don’t think so, and so I have embarked upon this journey in a bid to try to get some answers for fellow expats such as myself, not just those living in France.

In addition to my French life experience I have spent a long time living and working in the Middle East, spending time remote working in Asia. Here the expat life is a very different kettle of fish and one I think the world would benefit from understanding better. Would you like to know more?

Are you planning to move abroad to get a job and see the world? Are you a spouse moving abroad with your partner and perhaps children? Are you already an expat but struggling to get work or further your career? Would you like some career help as an expat? Do you know how to write a CV for an International audience? Would you consider starting your own business in a foreign country? If so, you definitely need to tune in to watch us weekly.

If you have lived through the above and would like to be interviewed as part of the Instagram Live series please do not hesitate to send me a private message – I would love to hear from you.

So all you need to do next is follow me on Instagram @cande_hr_consultancy and stay up to date with our Live timings. See you there!