How To Make a Career Transition When Moving States or Countries

When you’re moving countries or states, there’s some mistakes you can make. So, I’ll talk about three mistakes and three solutions.

The first mistake is to think that the actual transition is a career transition. Wrong. It’s actually as much as a career transition, or the company sponsoring you to go over there. The biggest reason you’ll make it a success is you can get the personal stuff right.

Rule 1 – Invest In Settling In

If you move to a new country and your kids hate the school, or they hate the culture, it’s not gonna last very long, is it? Or, your partner, right? So, the first rule is to see it as much personal as it is professional, and to invest in settling in. And what that literally means is, for the first six months, you’re sort of working 24 hours a day, keep time free to help your family and your partner settle in and make it a home.

Rule 2 – Build Your Own Community

The second rule is, you actually need to build your own community yourself. The tendency when you move to a new place is, for you to go head long into work and set yourself up. And quickly deliver some results to the company and all that sort of stuff. But if you don’t feel connected to the local place, you’re not gonna want to stay there very long. Before moving, start to make connections and build a community.

Rule 3 – Think About Your Routine

The third rule is, any time you make a career transition, and this is regardless whether you’re moving states or countries. It’s a great time to think about what old ways or old habits, as a leader, do I need to let go of in this situation?

Transitioning into a new culture is gonna mean that some of the things you have done as a leader are no longer going to be appropriate into that context. And for you to think about, what are those one, two, or three things that you’ll need to change about and the way you’ll keep reminding yourself to do it, to put little reminders or calendar items or little notes, to remind you that in this new role, you’ll have to operate differently and let go of those old ways.

So, career transition can be hard enough. But let alone, when you’re moving states or countries. Because it creates a bit of a personal transition, as well as a career transition. If you’re doing it, there are three things to think about.

One – It’s as much a personal transition to make sure you invest in settling in.

Two – It’s important that you build your own community so you feel part of the local culture.

Three – Let go of old ways. Think about the things that you want to stop doing when you get to this new role. Put some reminders in place to help remind you when you get there.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little video on success or career transition.

If you want to have a chat about how this might apply to you, happy for you to contact me and have a chat.

Talk to you soon on The Reason & The Road.