How a woman can make a career in the West: an instruction from Forbes
'13.03.2020'
Source: Forbes woman
According to Kontakt InterSearch Russia research, relocation to other countries is traditionally one of the four most popular desires related to further career development. 17% of women leaders would like to leave. What steps should be taken to be in demand abroad? Tells Forbes woman.
Women's vs male relocation
According to Kontakt InterSearch Russia research, relocation to other countries is traditionally one of the four most popular desires related to further career development. 17% of women executives and 30% of men who are generally more ambitious, willing to take risks, and often less connected by family obligations, would like to leave. In popularity, this answer is at the same level as opening your own business. However, if you look at the practice, there will be two to three times less successful cases of relocation.
Why it happens? The well-known saying that men go to work, and women to love, accurately reflects the real picture. According to a study conducted by InterNations, 12% of women continue their careers abroad by marrying a foreigner, and 16% follow husbands who have received an offer to work or study in another country. There are many examples illustrating these statistics: for example, HR BP, a sportswear manufacturer, moved to New York after her husband and took a similar place in the US division of the company. The biologist, an employee of one of the leading Russian research centers, received a job offer from her husband’s boss when she flew to her husband from Russia for her birthday: it turned out at the party that there was a vacant place at the US university where the husband worked. The lawyer found a job in the specialty when her husband entered the MBA in Stockholm. Most women with higher education who have moved to Europe from Russia work in the field of science and education (20% of the total). About 8% work in sales and marketing, 7% in medicine.
The lack of parity in the relocation cases between men and women is a global issue. Only 17% of women choose positions outside their home country compared to 28% of men, according to a study by Catalyst, an international nonprofit organization that helps companies create jobs for women and solve various women's career issues. It turned out that 64% of women never received offers to move abroad - for men, this figure is 55%.
Of course, the tops for men most often go abroad: in our practice, about 70% of cases are male compared to 30% of female relocations. This is due not only to the lower mobility of women, their inclination toward stable work and family obligations, but to the gender imbalance in senior management positions: according to a Kontakt InterSearch Russia study, 90% of women have a male boss. In addition, there are industries that are driving the economy today, at the top of the list is the IT industry, where there are not so many women.
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Recipe for success
If the thought of building a career in Europe or America has visited you after 40 and you are not a brilliant surgeon or scientist, then most likely this is a pipe dream. The sooner you get started, the better. Base - knowledge of the language. And not only English, but also the language of the country you are aiming at. And really fluency, and not at the level of "conversational". Knowing only English, in principle, you can apply for positions in the IT business or in a multinational corporation, where it is the working language. Or try to try your luck in English-speaking countries - the UK, USA, Australia, although in these countries, especially in the USA, it is quite difficult to get a long-term visa.
In any other case, it will be difficult for you to achieve real success. For example, one of my candidates, a successful director of business development in a pharmaceutical company, first bought a house in Prague as an asset, and then decided to move permanently and develop a career already in the Czech Republic. She asked me to arrange an interview with her Czech colleagues, and the first question her consultant asked was: “How are you doing with the Czech language?” As a result, she decided to move to the Czech Republic for a while, learn a language and get comfortable in order to apply for positions of the appropriate level. Now she has in her hands several quite worthy proposals, but this required temporary and financial investments from her.
Education matters too. It’s good if you had exchange programs, internships. Even better if you graduate at a leading European or American university. Of course, it’s perfectly full-time full-time study, but if there is no such possibility, for example, you are a nursing mother or, in principle, are not ready to leave for a long time at the training stage, now there are a lot of distance learning courses, the cost of which is in the range of 3-000 USD in Harvard, Cambridge and other top universities. By the way, I know a case when a candidate from Russia won in an internal competition for the position of HR manager in Dubai in one of the major international engineering companies: not only because of her experience and success in work, but also because she passed the distance program Leadership at Insead. This gave her extra points and helped to make a decision in her favor, despite the country's conservative attitude towards women tops.
When choosing a specialty, do not forget to study which destinations are most in demand in the country where you are planning to move. If we talk about global trends, then digitalization will be a win-win option. It is easiest for a Russian specialist to build a career abroad in the field of IT, medicine and basic sciences. If you by nature do not have a humanities and a scientific and technical career, choose global corporations practicing relocations around the world as an employer from the very entry level, such as Coca-Cola, Mars, Adidas, Boeing, Siemens, GE and others.
More than 85% of international companies declare opportunities for developing a cross-border career. Of course, it is worth considering that, firstly, no more than 50% of companies are ready to offer such opportunities for Russian top managers, and secondly, relocation is not always possible in those countries that may be of interest in terms of living standards and further prospects. In addition, in Japanese, Korean, and even more so Chinese companies, the possibilities for promoting a manager from Russia are minimal, and if the candidate is a woman, then they are completely close to zero.
The MBA of a strong foreign business school will also help, but still the work experience is primary - a “good school” and an understanding of international business standards are very much appreciated. I would recommend women to pay special attention to Austria, Germany and the countries of Scandinavia. Here, in my opinion, the most objective assessment of candidates without a gender advantage is acceptable, and it is obvious that it will be easier for a woman to achieve recognition in countries where they know what the word diversity means. It passed laws related to gender equality and support of maternity leave for men (for example, the Danish “On Gender Equality” or the European Commission’s decree on the gender composition of boards of directors). The easiest way to understand how the situation with women is in the country is by looking at the composition of the leadership of large companies and the careers of women in power. For example, in Germany, 7 out of 16 members of the government are women, and the boards of directors of most large companies have at least a third of women, which determines the most comfortable environment and development opportunities. I note that in the top management of the 10 largest German companies there is not a single woman from Russia so far - to achieve an outstanding career will not be easy there, but in average management you can definitely succeed.
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The easiest and most logical way is to start professional movement between countries within your company, because it is almost impossible to get the position of vice president, for example, in the Milan office of a large company without experience in Italy. Try to get the next position in your company outside Russia, this will open the door for you to the West. The other day, a candidate - a finalist for the position of director of marketing and sales for a large logistics company - received a counteroffer from the current company for a similar position in Denmark due to the fact that her indicators for attracting new customers and the profitability of projects were the highest in Eastern Europe.
Choose your companies carefully in accordance with your corporate culture to understand how realistic it is to move to the countries that interest you. Read articles, publications in social networks, communicate at forums and conferences, find out the specifics of the company, the real attitude to the promotion of candidates from Russia to top positions in European offices - the more you know about growth opportunities within companies, the more consciously you will make a decision about the choice the employer.
Create your personal professional brand, with a focus on international careers: establish English-language profiles in international social networks, let your publications show that you are focused on global professional development, be tolerant in your posts, create the image that will help you when the question arises about your appointment.
Another banal, but effective advice - choose well-known companies with a positive HR brand as employers: the more impressive your resume will look, the more chances you will be appreciated in any country of the world.
Finally, be aware that the decision to relocate will often depend on your family.
One of our candidates, financial director of a large FMCG company, received a proposal for relocation to the Australian office. She was lucky: her husband works in the field of IT development, and he managed to get an offer from an Australian company pretty quickly. The company paid for the move, including even furniture and all personal belongings, provided payment for renting an apartment and provided an increase in income by 30% compared to the previous one.
Thanks to globalization and the development of technology, our way of life is changing, and with it family roles. Every year the number of companies is growing, ready to provide a flexible schedule to their employees (both ordinary and top), so the transition "to the remote" for a partner becomes an excellent opportunity to pursue a career and at the same time support a wife.
In general, if you are determined to build a career in Austria, Germany, France, the USA, Canada, Australia, Dubai or any other country attractive to you, here are the main tips: start as early as possible, analyze the situation in each country, build a career system , learn languages and, of course, be the best in your industry, in particular in the profession, and offers themselves will look for you.
