Many people don’t think about expanding their job search to different countries because they’re afraid of living in an unfamiliar environment. But sometimes, you can get a much better salary if you only widen your horizons. And the improved standard of living more than makes up for any discomfort caused by cultural differences.
This is the reason why many people with specific, in-demand skill sets opt to move around until they find their specific niche. Given that we now live in a global village, it’s always possible for a person to find the type of employment they want and the compensation they want in one part of the world or another.
Hiring Global Workers to Save Money
There are global employment trends that many of us have heard of, such as the mass-production of clothes in China, India and Pakistan. Many companies have also started routing their customer service calls through South Asia, after training locals to solve their customers’ problems over the phone.
In the above cases, the main idea behind employing people in different countries is to get cheap labor. It’s not that people in these other countries are particularly better at making clothes or taking calls. But the companies hiring them don’t need to pay them as much as they would have to pay workers in Europe and America. This is one type of global employment trend.
Hiring Global Workers with Special Skills
There are also times when companies opt to employ people from other countries because they are in need of their special skills. In these cases, those companies are more than willing to pay more, as long as they get the type of skills they’re looking for.
For example, a lot of Indians with advanced degrees in information technology can be found in Silicon Valley. For some reasons, Indians gravitate towards this field—partly because of a natural inclination and partly because of practical reasons.
In these cases, the Indians don’t get paid any less than Americans; they might even get paid more, depending on their qualifications and work experience. This is a different type of employment trend and one that we are more concerned with in the present case.
Hiring Global Workers with Language Skills
Nowadays, language is becoming one of the skills that companies value. Since more and more companies are looking to sell their products globally, hiring bilingual people has become something of a global employment trend.
If you’re an American company trying to set up a branch in an Asian country, for example, you need someone to translate for you. And most of the time, you don’t just need one person. You need several people—an entire team that will act as your liaison with the new culture.
The people on this team need to be bilingual, speaking one of the languages of the Asian country you’re moving to as well as English. Without this type of team to ease your transition, your company will be at a loss.
The Global Value of the MBA Degree
Business skills, such as those developed by doing an MBA, are also in demand all over the world. After all, businesses are being run everywhere. And there might be a different work culture when you go abroad but the basics of running a business don’t change. Having marketing, finance and management skills can serve you well in any environment.
This is the reason why many multinational companies will send people with MBAs abroad to run their departments there. Also, people from Asia often travel to Europe and the US to earn MBA degrees which they then put to use in those countries or back in their own countries.
So it’s not just specialization in a certain field which makes a person valuable in the global job market; it’s also the development of skills that will be useful in any business environment. And although these skills can be developed through years of work experience, you can save time and give your career a boost by earning an MBA degree.
This article was originally published on our website at www.the-network.com/spotlight.
