The international job
market is just that, a market driven by economic forces of supply and demand.
Why do organizations hire Westerners and nations grant work visas? For our
professional skills and products. Westerners are too expensive to hire as unskilled
labor, but worth paying for our technology and our products. This demand fuels
jobs for about 5,000,000 westerners overseas.
All countries protect
jobs for their own people. Also, all countries go outside to meet real needs.
1. Vocational profile of the global job
market. The need to develop is the primary force driving the job market in
most developing nations. Development requires the transfer of technology and
especially the training of any nation’s greatest resource—its people.
Consequently, education at all levels is the single largest vocational field.
Because English is crucial for globalization, English teaching is a huge arena
all by itself. Further, as schools and other organizations overseas learn that
they can get teachers who will work in their limited settings, the demand
increases. Recently I have heard story after story of schools and universities
asking tentmakers to help them find more teachers because they see what the
tentmaker is providing. Especially at the university level, openings exist for
almost all fields.
The
second area providing international jobs is business and industry. There is
tremendous demand in computers, communications, engineering, marketing,
manufacturing, health care, and basic development. This is also considerable
demand in banking, accounting, financial services, law, transportation,
agriculture, tourism, and arts and media. Some vocations offer fewer openings
like recreation and social services.
2. The
two markets. There are essentially two overseas job markets, expatriate and
local hire. The expatriate market pays Western wages in order to obtain
qualified Western expertise and job openings are advertised publicly. The
“local hire” expatriate market consists basically of local agencies which are
open to hiring Westerners who are willing to work for local wages. Jobs in this
market are not generally listed, but are discovered by networking. The
President of Kyrgyzstan a few years ago wanted to hire 7,000 EFL teachers. But
there is no way Kyrgyzstan could pay anything close to Western wages. There is
similar interest in Kazakhstan and other countries. This is why it is not
generally wise to go overseas to look for a job. You will not likely find a
competitive Western job, will not be able to live on the income, and will harm
your credibility if you take such a job and live on almost full support.
In
reality, these two poles are oversimplified. Market forces drive this
situation. Many organizations want more Westerners, but cannot afford any or
many at Western salaries. So when Westerners are willing to work for less, they
take them. Why do they work for less? Desire for travel, missions motivation,
service motivation. For instance, a person can find numerous jobs that provide
adequate income to live in China, though low by western standards. In other
situations, a person will need supplemental support. In such settings, it is
vital to negotiate hard for other forms of compensation like housing,
in-country transportation rates, health care, etc. This lowers a person’s need
for support and enhances credibility. Another caution should be added: Live
appropriately to your role in the community. Identifying and connecting with
the people is one of the great blessings of tent making. When tentmakers live
beyond the means of their job, they undermine credibility and distance
themselves from the people.
3. The
four job providing entities. Basically four entities provide work to
Westerners overseas: 1) international or local corporations, 2) indigenous
national institutions like colleges, universities, and government agencies, 3)
relief and development agencies, and 4) new start-up businesses. These are the
arenas in which to look for jobs. Starting a business offers some wonderful
advantages like ability to stay indefinitely and greater evangelistic freedom.
However, it demands special skills and experience. More on this later.
4. Structural
nature of the global job market. The international job market is very
decentralized, fragmented, and unstructured. This is a natural result of
specialization in skills and needs. With globalization and modern
communication, it is easy for a university in Tajikistan to communicate with a
chemical engineer in Idaho who is open to working there, but how do
they find each other. Because of this challenge, the global job market
is really a collection of hundreds or even thousands of relatively small,
vertical job markets, which communicate through specialized networks,
publications, websites, and job agencies. For this reason, it is vital for job
seekers to take initiative and persist in pursuing all these channels.
5. Relatively
closed character of the global job market. The job market tends to be
closed to outsiders for a couple of reasons. First, western organizations have a
strong tendency to promote and transfer from within for overseas jobs even when
the person has little cross-cultural skill or experience. The reason for this
is that organizations need people with intimate knowledge of the organization,
its culture, products, services, and authority structure. The consequence of
this approach is big adjustment problems and a high turnover rate for workers
going overseas. Nevertheless, this pattern is likely to continue for some time.
Some companies are recognizing the problem and a new industry is developing to
provide cross-cultural training for employees.
The
second reason for the relatively closed market is that there are few
entry-level jobs for westerners. Generally openings require a bachelor’s plus
two or more years experience in one’s field. This applies across the board with
English teaching being the only exception. Almost any native English speaker
can find a job teaching English somewhere, though qualifications are rising and
pay is limited for those without TEFL certification. But going without good
skills serves people poorly and dishonors Christ. In addition to vocational
competency, employers often look for travel, overseas work experience,
relational skills, and even language competency for obvious reasons.
6. Length
of contracts. Overseas contracts tend to last 1-3 years. After that, a
person must renew or find another job. Corporate jobs tend to last 1-3 years
because they expect that employees will want to return home. Development agency
jobs tend to be limited because they are tied to government grants and specific
projects. Another factor is that national organizations want expatriates to
equip their own people so that they can take over as soon as possible. The
result of this trend is that international jobs and careers tend to evolve
unpredictably and require ongoing changes. Since many jobs actually isolate
people from the larger global job market, it is imperative to develop a broad
range of contacts and keep one’s ears open to impending vacancies. Networking
is indispensable. Furthermore, most job moves tend to be horizontal rather than
hierarchical because most jobs are oriented toward delivering specialized
direct services. Only larger corporations and government agencies provide more
vertical job changes. However, such changes usually move people away from
direct work in the field where many find greater satisfaction and excitement.
Again, running a business is a big contrast to this.
