Malewski - GenXpat: the young professionals guide to making successful life abroad

GENXPAT

The Young Professionals Guide
to Making a Successful Life Abroad

Margaret Malewski

First published by Intercultural Press, a Nicholas Brealey Publishing Company, in 2005.

Intercultural Press, Inc., a Nicholas Brealey Publishing Company

PO Box 700, Yarmouth, Maine 04096 USA

Information: 1-888-BREALEY

Orders: 207-846-5168

Fax: 207-846-5181

www.interculturalpress.com

Nicholas Brealey Publishing

3-5 Spafield Street, London, EC1R 4QB, UK

Tel: +44-(0)-207-239-0360

Fax: +44-(0)-207-239-0370

www.nbrealey-books.com

2005 by Margaret Malewski

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Printed in the United States of America

09 08 07 06 05 1 2 3 4 5

ISBN: 1-931930-23-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Malewski, Margaret.

GenXpat : the young professionals guide to making a successful life abroad / Margaret Malewski.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-931930-23-6

1. Employees--Relocation. 2. Employment in foreign countries. 3. International business enterprises--Employees--Relocation. 4. Americans--Foreign countries. I. Title.

HF5549.5.R47M345 2005

650.1dc22

2005007808

TO CAROLINE,
for seventeen years of friendship across four continents,
and for being there at every step of the way.

I would like to extend my warmest thanks to the following people, without whom this book would not have been possible:

For getting me started on the GenXpat experience, being an inspiration and a mentor: Jim Lafferty, Vice President, Procter & Gamble.

For helping me find my career interest and personal balance: Michael Reddy and Jim Hayhurst at The Right Mountain, www.therightmountain.com .

For showing me the enjoyment of writing: Mr. Robert Hamilton, at The Study School.

For their friendship and support: Pini and Rene Abcassis, Fawaz Al Matrouk, Eric Fattah, Leyla Pardo-Figueroa and Chris Brodie, Alex Kuilman, Mylne Robic, and Christian Wernstedt.

For their love and support: my parents, Wanda and Ryszard Malewski; my sister, Anna Malewska-Sza3ygin; and the Guay family.

For sharing their personal stories and the insights that shaped this book: Anna Borzymowska, Guy Brusselmans, Jennifer Hamm, Zeina Hatem, Nick Kosick, Asaph Naaman, Jesse Nobbs-Thiessen, Ulla Raithel, Paddi Rice, and Dor and Lital Sela.

For their broadening comments and perspective: Atsuko Fukuda, Elodie Richard, Glenda Davis, Hugo Vega Jmenez, Ilham Sebti-Benani, Ines Scharnweber, Jose Arce Varga, Michael Heilig, Miguel Alfaro Cuevas, and Silke Brabander.

For sharing her expertise based on 17 years in the relocation industry: Jennifer White, Global Client Services Director, Primacy Relocation.

For introducing me to the world of expat writing: Robin Pascoe, www.expatexpert.com .

Last, but certainly not least, I would like to acknowledge the great work of the team at Intercultural Press. Erika Heilman patiently coached me through the editorial process, offering constructive feedback, helpful suggestions, and encouragement. I would also like to thank Rebecca Greenberg for her thorough copy edit and Carmen Mitchell for her work on the promotion of the book.

It all began when I called Jim, Marketing Director of Procter & Gamble Poland, for help with a translation. He had recruited me to join the company in Warsaw a few months before, when I still had a year to go before graduating from university, and we continued to touch base periodically. That day I had a question about the expat neighborhood he lived in and, I felt, this would be a good opportunity for us to catch up.

He sounded distracted as he answered the phone. He told me that he had a new assignment as head of the Near East business, based in Geneva, and he was about to leave for the airport. I felt my heart sink. I had really wanted to work for Jim because he had an entrepreneurial attitude that I found inspiring, and now he would no longer bebased in the Warsaw office. Before I even knew it, the words spilled out, Is there any chance I can move with you?

I was only half-joking. I had been in Poland for six years by then, since 1992. To my Canadian eyes, it had been a fascinating experience to see a country metamorphose from a former satellite of the Soviet Union to a free-market state. Yet no matter how open the country was becoming, my Western values and upbringing still clashed with the more traditional outlook of my peers. I wasnt ready to get married and have kids, like many of the girls I knew. I wanted a career and adventure. Thats why I had been looking for jobs with multinationals, preferably with the opportunity to travel outside of Poland. In this context, working for Jim in Geneva would be a dream come true.

Amazingly, Jim paused to consider my idea and promised to inquire whether I could join his new team. A few days later, the phone rang. Jim had just finished his meetings in Switzerland and was on the way to Beirut for his first market visit. He had news for me: the vice president had given his okaythere was a spot for me on the Lebanese business team, but I needed to make my decision by the end of the week When he hung up, I headed straight for my world atlas. Where the hell was Lebanon? All I knew about the country was what I remembered seeing on CNN in the early 1990s. My mental image was of white concrete buildings with gaping holes in their sides, rubble in the streets, and soldiers in desert camouflage. Would I be working in a war zone? Was it worth staking my life for adventure and career?

Then I got an e-mail from Jim. He was, he wrote, on the roof of the Beirut Marriott Hotel, sipping a drink by the side of the pool. The sun was sinking into the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Theprevious evening he had gone out to dinner with the distributor, and Jim described the luxury cars and expensively dressed couples swarming around the hottest nightclubs. Despite the ravages of war, he said, Lebanons economy was picking up; Beirut was being rebuilt and in all probability Lebanon would regain its former reputation as the Switzerland of the Near East. In any case, he concluded, safety wouldnt be an issue since Id be living in Geneva and only traveling periodically to the Middle East. Should the political situation get worse, no one would expect me to expose myself to danger. Now then, he asked, what was my answer?

With some trepidation, I wrote the decisive e-mail, copying my parents and friends. At 23, I felt like I had hit the big time: I was going to live in Switzerland, travel to exotic countries, and earn a salary that made my eyes pop. I was going to join the ranks of jet-setting young professionalsGenXpats.

GenXpat / jen eks pat / n. a member of Generation X, born between 1964 and 1981, who is also an expatriate, or expat; that is, one who decides to live and pursue a career abroad.

GenXpats are young, internationally and/or culturally mobile professionals. Some begin their adventures by studying abroad and then decide to remain in the foreign country to pursue their careers. Others are hired by multinationals that are restructuring the way they do business internationally: instead of having local offices in each country, with communication only at the senior management level, many companies are now establishing regional offices that are staffed at all levels with representatives of the member nations. Also, says Jennifer White, Global Client Services Director at Primacy Relocation, there is a greater trend toward developmental assignments, where junior managers are sent abroad for career developmentto gain exposure, training, experience, and other desirable management skills. This has become possible as travel and international communication have become increasingly accessible. All in all, rapidly growing numbers of young people are beginning to move and work across nations or cultures.