Conducting an effective job search aimed at the international arena is often difficult to do given the overall structure of the international job market. The international employment arena is extremely decentralized and fragmented, and information on organizations and job vacancies is difficult to access. Nonetheless, with some basic information on the structure of the job market as well as a few leads on how to contact organizations and access job vacancy information, you will be well on your way to bringing some structure, coherence, and effectiveness to this job market. In other words, its best to first understand the structure of the international job market in order to best handle the process of finding a job within the structure.

Job searches in general tend to follow the structure of particular job markets. In the United States, the domestic job market is also highly decentralized, fragmented, and chaotic. While information on organizations and job vacancies in the U.S. is at best incomplete, you do find numerous directories on organizations and many services are available to assist you with a domestic job search. These range from executive search firms to public employment agencies, from classified ads in newspapers and trade journals to job listing services, job banks, and resume marketing services.

Furthermore, it is a relatively open job market for enterprising job seekers who can easily network for job leads and apply directly for jobs within a single community. Within a short period of time you can position yourself well within this decentralized yet fairly open job market. The biggest difficulty comes when trying to conduct a long-distance job search campaign which may involve traveling, for example, between Chicago and Los Angeles to develop job leads and interview for jobs. The logistics of conducting a part-time job search by telephone, letters, and periodic travel to another community lessens one's overall job search effectiveness when compared to a full-time job search involving frequent face-to-face informational interviews in a single community.

The structure of the international job market is even more decentralized and fragmented than the domestic U.S. job market. More importantly, it tends to be closed to outsiders. The implications of this decentralized and closed job market are many for international job seekers. It argues for job search strategies that will best organize international job vacancy information and help penetrate what appears to be essentially a closed system to outsiders.

The following characteristics of the international job market should be kept in mind when formulating the most effective job search strategies that will be responsive to the decentralized and closed nature of the market:

1. Unless promoted from within an organization and transferred abroad with little or no international skills and experience, most international jobs require specific types of international skills and experience beyond basic travel and language competency.

While you can easily break into the domestic job market through entry-level positions which require few skills and little experience, not so for most jobs in the international job market. What entry-level positions exist are most likely found with headquarters staff and involve basic organizational management functions. They may involve little or no international travel and thus have questionable international content. Multinational corporations and large businesses operating abroad seldom hire individuals for international positions other than for consulting positions. For example, full-time IBM employees working abroad tend to be local nationals and management personnel transferred from headquarters in the United States.

They may also hire others as consultants or short-term employees, especially if these individuals have specialized technical and language skills that would assist their operations. However, these individuals will most likely remain short-term employees rather than individuals who will advance up IBM's corporate ladder. What international positions exist in such companies are filled from within the organizational ranks through a clearly defined hierarchy of promotions. Experienced employees, who have little or no international ex-perience, including no language skills, are often promoted to overseas posts because of their intimate knowledge of the organization and its products, services, and internal decision-making structure. From the perspective of the organization, hiring someone from outside the organization for such important overseas postings would be foolish. Specific organizational experience is much preferred over international experience. After all, international experience can be quickly acquired by being posted abroad and by working through the local national staff.

Therefore, to get an overseas job with such organizations means either working from within the ranks for promotions abroad or being hired by a firm because of extensive experience that can be directly transferred to their organizational products and services. While such promotion and foreign assignment practices are largely responsible for the high turnover and adjustment problems of corporate executives who are unprepared for living and working abroad, nonetheless, it is the practice and it will likely continue in the foreseeable future.

Even nongovernmental organizations working on development projects in Third and Fourth World countries recruit individuals with technical skills, language competency, and international experience. Health workers, such as doctors and nurses, are more likely to break into the international job market than most other types of job seekers primarily because their skills are in demand. Even U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers, who at one time were primarily inexperienced generalists, are increasingly recruited on the basis of their technical skills. For many Volunteers, their Peace Corps experience becomes the first step in getting international experience for other international jobs and life-long international careers. Indeed, ex-Peace Corps Volunteers are now found in abundance within the U.S. State Department and the Agency for International Development and among most contracting and consulting firms as well as nongovernmental organizations operating in Third and Fourth World countries. In fact, in 1990 for the first time in history all heads of U.S. civilian agencies in Nepal -- the Ambassador, USAID mission director, U.S. Information Service director, and Peace Corps director -- were ex-Peace Corps Volunteers. Most had started their international careers as young inexperienced generalists who acquired international skills and experience through their two to three year Peace Corps service. This milestone will most likely be repeated in other countries during the next decade as the growing "Peace Corps network" demonstrates its commitment to international careers and its continuing success in landing one international job after another in a highly decentralized and chaotic job market that continues to be closed to outsiders.

Travel experience and language competency are not special qualifications for international employment. These are "givens" anyone seeking an overseas job should possess. Without these you do not appear to be a serious job candidate nor have you taken the first steps toward the international job market. While many people do get hired for international jobs without travel experience and language competency, they possess special skills and qualifications that are in demand and thus these override other basic considerations.

2. Job changes, career advancement, and patterns of employment within the international arena tend to involve movement between many jobs as well as a great deal of job-hopping, uncertainty, anxiety, and frustration.

Especially with international development work, where jobs are tied to specific government contracts and grants, international careers tend to follow an unpredictable pattern involving frequent moves between jobs, projects, organizations, and countries. One pattern may be to work abroad for a government agency, move on to several contracting firms and nongovernmental organizations that receive government contracts and grants, become a recipient of a personal services contract, and then start one's own contracting and consulting firm either from abroad or based in the U.S. Another pattern might be to start working for a nongovernmental organization, then move into an overseas government position and later start one's own import-export business. This element of job uncertainty and fluidity between jobs, projects, organizations, and even international lifestyles often means individuals are constantly looking toward their next contract, job, assignment, or career opportunity. Even among overseas staff of the State Department and the Agency for International Development, the typical three-year tour begins with planning one's next move to hopefully an even better assignment. This will involve maintaining a good record in one's present job as well as attempting to manipulate the reassignment process in Washington, DC. Few people want their next assignment to be Ouagadougou, Calcutta, Beirut, or Bucharest, but Tokyo, Beijing, Bangkok, Manila, Istanbul, Cairo, Moscow, Madrid, Rome, Paris, Vienna, London, Toronto, or Rio would be nice.

Since many international jobs and careers evolve unpredictably and through word-of-mouth transmission, and many jobs tend to isolate one from the larger international job community, it's important to develop contacts and be in many places at many times so you can learn about impending vacancies. Indeed, international job seekers are noted for using ubiquitous "connections," "dropping names" of people they know or at one time met, or boasting to others about their roles in previous jobs or assignments. In fact, they develop such an international personality in order to quickly connect themselves to current developments and job vacancy information in the international job market. Because of their unstable international job and career situations?often spending no more than two to three years on a particular project or in a specific country, these people are used to making numerous new acquaintances, retaining few longterm friendships, and always having to say "goodbye" to those they have just begun to know and develop close friendships with. As a result, by necessity they must learn to quickly make new acquaintances, effectively network with other international workers, send out numerous resumes, and join organizations that will better put them into contact with other organizations hiring individuals with their interests, skills and experience. In this sense, they are used to developing many superficial friendships, few of which ever develop into close long-term relationships.

Few international careers follow a traditional career path of moving up a single organizational hierarchy for the simple reasons that most of these organizations are small; their organizational structures tend to be flat and exhibit a short hierarchy of management positions; and they are primarily oriented toward delivering services at the field level through jobs that are very technical in orientation. Therefore, given the motivations of many international job seekers to work at the field level where much of the excitement and action is found, and given the flat structure of organizations, many international jobs and careers involve moving from one field position to another in what quickly becomes a seemingly never--ending pattern of delivering field services in different project and country settings. Only in government agencies, such as the State Department, USAID, the United States Information Service, and the United Nations, does one find a hierarchical bureaucratic structure that involves advancement up a career ladder. In such organizations, individuals who are primarily oriented toward getting things done at the field level increasing become disconnected from the field as they advance their careers. In some cases international careers become less interesting as individuals move up the career ladder where they become more involved in managing the organization and monitoring its procurement process than with doing what was initially the real fun and prime motivating factor for pursuing international work -- getting things done in the field, or literally getting their hands dirty in development work. Monitoring a contractor's project to provide irrigation services in Egypt, for example, is much different than being in the field putting together the project with government officials and villagers and then seeing the results of one's labors -- improved health, increased agricultural production, and new job opportunities.

3. The best international jobs are found at home rather than abroad.

This may appear to be a contradiction in logic, but it is the case more often than not. Job vacancies tend to be announced and the recruitment process initiated at the headquarters level. The field, which is where the job is performed abroad, is where qualified candidates will be assigned, but not necessarily from where they will be hired. As a result, most hiring for international positions is done in New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Your job search will primarily involve networking for contacts with the headquarters staff as well as traveling to these U.S. cities rather than making a trip abroad in search of job vacancies with field offices.

4. Many international firms also have a bias toward hiring from headquarters rather than finding qualified candidates in the field.

Indeed, this becomes a major problem for international job seekers who are already living and working abroad. Many mistakenly feel they are the best qualified for local jobs because of their physical presence, knowledge of the local situation, and their superior language capabilities and extensive contacts within the local business and government communities. Such logic, however, is countered with another more compelling logic as well as the ironic reality of often having to return home to find their next job rather than conduct their job search from their present expatriate base abroad. In many cases this hiring bias is justified, because some candidates may have "too much" field experience -- they've been abroad too long. Some international experience is essential, but living and working abroad for several years without recharging one's skills and intellect back home for extended periods of time is not necessarily a positive qualification when applying for an international job. These expatriates may lack current knowledge and skills necessary for success in the field. In fact, many consulting firms prefer hiring US-based consultants rather than locals and expatriates who lack a "fresh" and comparative perspective. Furthermore, expatriates are sometimes too politically involved in the local bureaucracy, too well adjusted to the local culture, and too willing to avoid risks that might jeopardize their next "local" job. Many employers believe risktaking, rather than acquiescence to local conditions, is essential for the success of international projects.

5. International job vacancy information is poorly communicated through traditional information sources, such as publications and job listing services.

Many international jobs that appear in newspapers, magazines, and newsletters are already filled by the time they are advertised. It's best to apply directly to organizations that normally have international job openings. Many of these firms maintain an in-house resume bank which they do refer to when they have impending vacancies. You should get your resume into their banks as well as send an updated resume to these organizations every year. At the same time, many of these firms welcome individuals who network with their organization. Many are looking for individuals with specific technical and exotic skills as well as the willingness to quickly relocate. Depending on what type of skills you have and the specific job you are looking for, you should also advertise your experience and qualifications among firms that are hired by employers to recruit qualified candidates for specific types of positions. Known as "headhunters" and "executive search firms," these companies are paid by employers. Many of these firms specialize in recruiting in one or two areas, such as computer specialists, communication technicians, or petroleum engineers and oil riggers. Some newsletters and data banks are useful, and we will identify these later.

6. Given the poor dissemination of international job information as well as the high demand for ostensibly glamorous international jobs, some fly-by-night and fraudulent international or overseas job finding services that require up-front fees still operate and prey on naive individuals who don't know any better.

The international job finding business is big business involving millions of dollars being paid by both employers and candidates to firms specializing in linking individuals to job vacancies. As with any business involving lots of money, you'll find the good, the bad, and the ugly operating in the same arena. Some job search firms give a false impression that the international job market is highly centralized and that they have some secret to information on and access to this job market. The only problem is that many can't do much better -- probably less so -- than you can do in conducting a job search on your own. Worst of all, many of these firms require fees -- $150 to $5,000 -- from the job applicant. The sure sign that you may be taken on an expensive journey in finding an international job through such a firm is when they want up-front money from you. Reputable and effective firms get paid by the employer who seeks out their services to locate qualified candidates. They normally contact you rather than you contact them. They seek out individuals who have sufficient international skills and experience to be "in demand" by international organizations and firms. Without naming names, let us just say that many of the best firms don't have to advertise in tabloids and sleazy magazines, although some also advertise in ostensibly reputable publications, because they have already established strong word-of-mouth reputations for delivering reputable services.

7. The most interesting, well paid, and easiest international jobs to find and perform tend to be with organizations that operate within the larger international arena rather than with domestic organizations that only operate in a single country.

Many international job seekers still believe they can travel directly to a country to look for employment with local organizations. Such trips and job search efforts are often a waste of time and money. The reality is that foreign workers are usually discriminated against in most countries. Indeed, it is very difficult to get directly hired by a local firm because of major legal restrictions on employing foreign workers in jobs that compete with the local labor. These restrictions include complicated and expensive visas, stringent residency requirements, and hefty local taxes. In some countries you may be able to get a work permit to perform only certain types of jobs over a limited number of months, but the process may take up to one year to get the permit! In other countries, such as the United States, it's virtually impossible to get a work permit unless you have the proper residency documentation. Furthermore, even if you are successful in becoming a "local hire," you may quickly discover other problems, such as low wages, high tax rates (30-50%), and travel restrictions.

For example, you may be prohibited from traveling outside the country unless you have a tax clearance and pay an expensive "departure fee" whenever you wish to exit the country. Entry back into the country may invalidate your work permit and visa and require you to initiate the whole time consuming and expensive process over again. While you may find exceptions to this general rule, your best choice of employment will be with multinational firms that have already negotiated the status of their employees with the host country. This often means you can be hired from outside the country and moved there at the company's expense and provided with housing, travel, shipping, and educational benefits. You may be given special visa status that may exempt you from most local taxes, permit you to enter and exit the country with few restrictions, and import and export your household goods duty-free. In other words, living and working abroad with such an organization will be much easier as you avoid the hassles of the local legal system that is largely designed to discourage foreign workers by making "working in our country" simply difficult.