Optimizing your International Experience for Career Success

Aarti Ramaswami, Professor and Executive Vice-Dean at ESSEC Business School, shares a video on how to make the most of international work experiences to boost your career.

Optimizing your International Experience for Career Success by Aarti Ramaswami and Tom Gamble.

It is generally recognized that international work experience has a high impact on the value of your profile and subsequent mobility across organizations and jobs. So, if you’re seeking to further your career within a multinational organization, what types of international experience are beneficial?

In today’s global economy, there are a variety of relatively cost-effective ways for people to obtain international experience – including study abroad periods, travel, and remote teamwork with multinational teams – but do all of them have the same impact on career success?

Studying abroad

It is now possible for organizations to hire employees who are already internationalized: indeed, one form of pre-career international experience might come in the form of pursuing advanced degrees in another country. However, this may offer only limited exposure to a foreign culture. The question to ask here, then, is how can the future employee get the most out of the so-called study abroad experience?

Travelling for work

With globalization comes the need to travel for business, tie links, and foster relationships. Travelling is a great way to build your social capital and just how can be seen in the video International Experience embedded in this article. It may be that even business travel will prove useful if a person approaches it with skill development in mind.

Openness and self-efficacy: Working as an expatriate

Global organizations are increasingly relying on managers who have expatriate experience. However, useful expatriate experience reposes on two key issues that are covered in the video as is the approach that should be adopted by corporate HR and management when dealing with international mobility.

To sum up, these three key areas – studying abroad, travelling for work, an expatriation – provide graduates and employees with a host of ways to boost their careers. However, there is a hierarchy of effectiveness among these three strategies regarding the impact they have in opening the doors to a career move. Watch Prof. Aarti Ramaswami in her video International Experience to find out more.

With acknowledgements to ESSEC Knowledge

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The Council on Business & Society (The CoBS), visionary in its conception and purpose, was created in 2011, and is dedicated to promoting responsible leadership and tackling issues at the crossroads of business and society including sustainability, diversity, ethical leadership and the place responsible business has to play in contributing to the common good.  

Member schools are all “Triple Crown” accredited AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA and leaders in their respective countries.

The Council on Business & Society member schools:
- Asia-Pacific: Keio Business School, Japan; School of Management Fudan University; China; ESSEC Business School Asia-Pacific, Singapore.
- Europe: ESSEC Business School, France; IE Business School, Spain; Trinity Business School, Ireland; Warwick Business School, United Kingdom.
- Africa: Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa; ESSEC Africa, Morocco. 
- South America: FGV-EAESP, Brazil.

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