An international working experience is a plus for changing job

An international experience to have a plus

In the ’80s (and later) many people wanted to find a job with a multinational or global company to have the opportunity – immediately or in the future – to move aboard to work on a project for a short or long periods. It meant working for a leading company, having the chance to learn new languages and discovering new cultures, adopting other management styles, coming into contact with a company’s management, which from a career development perspective is a very important factor.

Especially nowadays if you have experience in other countries this will give you the edge over managers at a similar level who have never worked outside Italy.

Some people think it’s a sacrifice.

I remember very early on in my career speaking to a fellow engineering graduate that was one or two years older than me who told me about an American consultancy company that sent its staff to Chicago to do technical training courses even though they could also have been done in Gorgonzola (MI). That was true! Today it’s arguably even easier today with e-learning courses, but it’s not quite the same as going to the States with your colleagues in the ‘80s, getting limos from the airport and meeting people in your company from all over the world. That’s one of the reasons I had joined that company: in practice it was for a course in Chicago, in reality it was for what this represented.

Former university colleagues and their families might have seen me as a mad person for making unnecessary sacrifices.

I believe – in both a professional, and personal context (with travel) – that it’s best to go somewhere in person and get to know it rather than have someone else tell you about it, see everything on TV and believing that people and places are the same the world over.

Today (and for the past twenty years) an alternative is the Erasmus programme which enables you to go abroad when you are at university and it’s becoming more common to have the chance to study abroad even in high school.

Even here there are opposing positions: some people believe that you can study better in Italy and you won’t waste time.

But what about the experience you get from leaving home at 17 for 6 months in the USA or Australia and spending time on you own without you mum?

And youngsters understand this!

An inspirational example

An example? Davide was a 23-year-old young man from Milan, who had just finished his bachelor degree at Bocconi University, followed by a Master in Strategies and Marketing at the same university. His was not a standard Italian Magistrale degree (3+2  year course) but rather, 2 separate degrees from the Bocconi. He had excellent people skills in terms of his ability to establish relationships with people, motivate them (leadership!) as well as drive and a good knowledge of English. What else? He was also hard-working and works at weekends as a painter and decorator for his mum’s friends. He was passionate about marketing, and accepted a variety of different internships without earning much.

We had a few meetings and identified the area of management control as the “fil rouge” that would represent the solid foundation for a future career in management.

After an initial fixed term experience (because he could no longer do internships one year after finishing university) which paid €546.00 per month, Davide was champing at the bit and started to look for another options…. 

And when a person is receptive opportunities present themselves and they are able to spot them!

Amongst these, there was an opportunity in England that we prepared, focused on and wanted.

It went well! Now Davide works in London. He lives in a nice area, he doesn’t use a car to get to work and … doesn’t think he’ll come back to Italy!

He sent me a text message to tell me his first thoughts about London: “It’s a completely different world!”. And he wanted to come back to Italy because his girlfriend was here, but he has no such thoughts now. 

It was as if he had reached a different planet in terms of the approach towards work, as well as the rules in his professional and social life, and the general atmosphere, in terms of the people he met and their way of thinking.

And what was the foundation for all of this? The desire, the awareness that experience abroad is fundamental for professional development… and he didn’t do an Erasmus!