When you’re looking for work abroad, it can be frustrating. There are a lot of factors that go into a job search abroad: the varying customs, worrying about what the working conditions will be like, who you’ll be working with, where you’ll live. But finding the right work abroad experience will be rewarding if you show a little patience.
Here’s why.
You won’t rush the process
Rushing the process could be detrimental. You need to make wise decisions about the kind of job you’re looking for in a new country. Rushing also means you’re worrying, and worry just creates a lot unnecessary suffering.
Work abroad documentation like applications, background checks, and visa approvals are lengthy processes that involve two (maybe even more than two) governments. Agencies and bureaucracies will take as long as they need to take to finish processing your stuff. And if you’ve planned it out right and given yourself enough time to get all the paperwork done, it’ll get done on time.
You’ll learn to go with the flow
Learning to go with the flow is a key skill, often underrated, for going, living, and working abroad. Showing patience about your work abroad experience before you get on the plane will show that you’ve got the right mentality for moving to a new country. You’ll need patience when you arrive to manage cultural differences, language barriers, and work responsibilities with professionalism and grace. Start training for your new position by rolling with the punches as you’re looking.
To find work abroad, you need to consider what you really want and which position truly suits you.
You’ll make wiser decisions
When you let the process proceed as it is, you’ll give yourself time to consider what it is that you’re really looking for in your experience, in your work, abroad. What kind of people do you prefer to work with? When you’re interviewing with families as an au pair, how did you feel while talking to them? Did you get a “good vibe”?
When you’re patient and not rushing through the process, you’ll answer those questions with more clarity than you would a busy, anxious mind.
Working abroad is a learning experience
Working and living abroad will change you. That is if you let it. The job search is just the beginning of your work abroad journey. You can let it by learning patience early on. But the mentality of going abroad starts at home.
Remind yourself that you’re going into what will feel like a different world. And in many ways, it will be. You’re the one who will have to change. So choose an environment you’re really curious about.
Then remember that while the job search can be frustrating, you’ll save yourself a lot of grief by going through the process with patience, experiencing each step for what it is. In this way, you’ll keep your mind clear and ready for your new adventure.
