Expat spouse/ partners... What is your career?

[Reearry]

Hi...I have been an expat spouse for 6 years now and am finding it difficult to establish a career. I lived in an Asian country and was not able to work due to the lack of work permit which was not easy. Currently living in the UK. I want to study here and move into a career that will let me be able to work regardless of the country. I have more than a decade of experience in learning and development and an unrelated bachelor's degree in commerce. The careers that I am aware of but not interested in are

1. IT
2. Yoga/ Pilates instructor
3. Hairdressing/ Cosmetology
4. Small business owner
5. Lifestyle coach
6. Dietitian/ Nutritionist
7. Accounting
8. Teaching/ English Teaching
9. Nursing

I was considering counseling and becoming a psychologist but it doesn't seem feasible due to insurance and requiring additional study in every country based on local guidelines. I do not feel comfortable not earning a paycheck and being financially dependent. I enjoy moving to new countries and getting to experience local culture and meet people however the lack of my own career is having a big impact on my mental health and self worth. I feel very insecure and worried about future retirement and financial dependency. Most of other expat friends are SAHM. I want to start a family soon but I also want to make sure I have a career plan in place because I am not going to be happy being a SAHM expat spouse. My question is what career options have I not considered?

You've discounted pretty much everything obvious there... Presumably translating isn't an option or you'd have mentioned it?

It sounds as though you need something you can do anywhere, from home. Unless you want casual work like bar work.

We emigrated - we don't move countries regularly and don't plan to until the children finish their education.

Despite having a degree, a Postgrad qualification and a separate masters my qualifications weren't useful in Germany, where I now live, so I retrained completely here. My qualification is only recognised in Germany though so it wouldn't help you, and anyway it's essentially a nursing-teaching hybrid. Its a shortage occupation in Germany though, so a good investment of time and effort especially as I was essentially paid to do it (it nearly killed me - studying in a language I didn't learn until my 30s and have never actually formally been taught was the hardest thing I've ever done, but I never wanted a boring or unchallenging life...)

Good luck - google brings up lots of occupation lists with your requirements but they're mostly either things you have said you're not interested in, or casual work.

Although you've discounted nursing would you discount everything in healthcare? Healthcare jobs do travel well.

Counselling is one of those jobs hundreds of psychology graduates and hundreds more without a relevant degree try to get into as trailing spouses, far more interested people than jobs/ capacity for self employment IMO. Bit like interior design or offering children's art courses ... To actually be a psxchologist you need degree plus masters plus relevant local further training as I guess you know.

You've discounted IT, but it's a much broader field than just the ponytailed IT techy type image. How about something with IT? Website design, data analysis for a field you're interested in (that's what my trailing DH does), online sales and marketing, social media, project management, online HR, online/in person PA?

At the moment you sound like you're looking for the magic 30k, 4hrs per week, no qualifications, term-time only job.

I think the only career that you can do pretty much anywhere is teaching because all major cities will have least least one English medium or international school and qualifications are pretty transferrable. At a push you can at least TEFL. Banking/finance is also pretty bulletproof providing you're only living in major cities - has the added benefit that you can often work in English. But you're right- most trailing spouses (especially with kids) don't have big careers and it becomes self-perpetuating after a while. We are moving back in a few years, and one of the reasons is that I am quite limited in what I can do due to language and cultural barriers.

Psychology/ counselling - I do know a few but often work as school counsellors etc or in medical practices that largely cater to expats. It is quite culture specific as well in terms of understanding why certain courses of action seem impossible to people so clients tend to drift towards a psychologist from their own culture.

I worked for a private philanthropic foundation for 8 years but tbh that was a lucky break. I'm a qualified accountant and mainly worked in banking before moving to Asia. I could have got another banking job but not speaking/writing fluent mandarin is increasingly limiting.

Silversmith
Gardener/ tree surgeon
Interior designer

Thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts and experiences.

Despite having a degree, a Postgrad qualification and a separate masters my qualifications weren't useful in Germany, where I now live, so I retrained completely here

This is my major concern. I do not want to spend a couple of years getting a degree only to retrain in every country. The stints are usually between 2-3 years... So if it takes me a year to retrain ...I am going to spending a lot of time and money retraining and not enough time working.

To actually be a psxchologist you need degree plus masters plus relevant local further training as I guess you know.

Yes, I would need a master's, pay to provide and receive counseling, get a doctorate and still not be eligible unless I acquire and fulfill that countries guidelines and so I have had to discount it.

Actually, how academic are you? If you get a science PhD, you can do post doctoral research in almost any country in English. The pay and hours aren't great and there are no permanent career prospects unless you're very committed, but if you picked an area of science that is in high demand, it's pretty easy to get 1-2 year contracts, at least for a few years. If you picked bio-med/pharma with lab work, there's plenty of work for qualified lab technicians in English in industry, universities and schools.

*How about something with IT? Website design, data analysis for a field you're interested in (that's what my trailing DH does), online sales and marketing, social media, project management, online HR, online/in person PA?

At the moment you sound like you're looking for the magic 30k, 4hrs per week, no qualifications, term-time only job.*

I am definitely not looking for a term time job with no qualifications and 4 hour work week I am looking for a job that is not location dependent, has growth opportunities and which plays to my strengths.

Looking further into IT.... Will you be able to provide details about the data analysis work? Is it very numbers heavy? What qualifications do you require to get an entry level job? Is your DH working with the same company and moving with it or does he look for work every time you move?

I had worked in online advertising more than a decade with a tech company so going back to that is an option( although the field has changed drastically with Instagram and Facebook exploding so I am not sure my brief experience would be helpful)

Banking/finance is also pretty bulletproof providing you're only living in major cities - has the added benefit that you can often work in English

My DP works in finance and I have worked in finance but as a part of L&D team. I have lived in countries where they do not accept/ provide work permit for people in HR. They want only locals in HR so I am trying to get out L&D and move into something that is more easily employable

Silversmith
Gardener/ tree surgeon
Interior designer

I have liked many plants and do not have a green thumb so gardening is not really an option interior designer sounds like something I would enjoy but again as a business it really wouldn't make sense to establish something to leave after a 2-3 years

@stodgystollen Your suggestion of IT adjacent sounds more appealing to me as I have worked in a tech company before and have always worked in corporates so feels more comfortable and familiar than the world of academia. Will also further look into data analysis, pm, online advertising and marketing, and social media... to figure out what works best. My only concern with IT is that I am not good with numbers and I do not enjoy coding so I will need to figure it out which areas are not so numbers and code heavy and work well with being able to move and find jobs easily

@Reearry

*Silversmith Gardener/ tree surgeon Interior designer*

I have liked many plants and do not have a green thumb so gardening is not really an option interior designer sounds like something I would enjoy but again as a business it really wouldn't make sense to establish something to leave after a 2-3 years

Meant to say killed plants...

I went for law but it's difficult to get qualified and get your foot in the door. Once you get there is it very transferrable though and lawyers can usually get work visas because it's a specialized skill set.

Caveat: I'm not in industry. I'm the one doing hopeless post-doc positions all round the world (and dragging my much higher earning DH after me!) However, due to zero career prospects I've been doing a lot of research about what else I can do.

Data analysis varies a lot. There's some hardcore coding (my husband mostly does econometrics). He got into the job because he had a degree in a 'softer' science (think biology). The company thought they wanted someone who knew about biology to analyse the market (e.g. cows not eating because its raining), but then when he got there he found he preferred doing more mathematically stuff (e.g. modelling the global demand for beef). There's going to be jobs about the psychological impact of certain adverts, packaging etc. Are you targeting the right consumers in the right way? How do you measure that? How many facebook clicks are you getting? That would be the in if you've got psychology experience. It's about the link between the data and the real world. I'd guess you're probably in a good position for that sort of thing if you've already worked in tech.

Something that seems to be big at the moment is business intelligence. That I can see, that mostly seems to be about communicating important data from a business to its staff and customers. So it's basically data, but more importantly it's communication and imagination. Is there a better way to present this data?

Most job adverts seem to want a bit of experience with PowerBI, SQL (databases) and maybe Python. There's a lot of adverts where I am though, so they may also be desperate enough to compromise! Eventually you end up seeing the code as the means to the end and it's less painful. Only weirdos actually love code, and they can't cope with the idea that mere mortals can't read code like a book so they'd be terrible at this sort of job!

Should have said DH works remotely for a company in London. that means he's in a team and gets promotions. He's never worked on site. He's been attempted headhunted a few times locally in places we've lived, but he likes his company so he's stayed put. I'm certain he'd walk into another job locally if he ever wanted to. There are normally at least suitable data-analysis 30 positions advertised on linkedin in our small city alone.

@stodgystollen thanks for the information! I am leaning towards IT at the moment and data analysis and business intelligence do sound interesting. I am planning on just looking up all roles in IT that are not coding and do some courses online to see what I find interesting

Have you considered jobs like journalism or copy-writing? Editing and proof-reading? Competition is pretty high (perhaps especially for journalism jobs) and the pay isn't always stellar but they're all pretty portable if you're moving every couple of years.

I'm a long term expat and have lived in a few countries. I work at the embassy and have found this to be a transferable skill-set. If you can get some trade promotion work this is a good start/entry point, although there are a range of jobs you could do and that are advertised. Good luck!