There and Back Again: The Challenges and Rewards of Working Abroad
Considering an international assignment? Working abroad can be a pivotal juncture in one’s career. Yet making a successful transition to another country isn’t just a question of adjusting to a new culture — it’s also about personal transformation. Expats cross a cultural threshold to a new environment that may force them to question their own identity, values, and basic assumptions. That kind of change requires preparation, advise two specialists in senior international recruitment at Russell Reynolds: Patrick Delhougne (MBA ’95), executive director in the New York office, and Tuck Rickards (MBA ’91), a managing director in the firm’s Boston office. (See the International Checklist.)
Working abroad can also develop new skills and open doors to future opportunities. Sean Keohane (MBA ’96), for example, had never visited Asia when his employer after HBS, Pratt & Whitney, an aircraft engine manufacturing division of United Technologies, offered him a post managing a joint venture in Taipei, Taiwan. Keohane had chosen the company because its global operations presented many “right-sized” general management opportunities for his experience level. Still, he and his wife, recently married and both with large families in the Northeast, had concerns about such a dramatic move.
Together, they visited Taiwan and found their concerns transformed to excitement. Keohane spent about three years there, returned to the United States for two more years with Pratt & Whitney, and then moved on to Cabot Corporation, a specialty chemicals firm, where he is general manager of the Performance Products Business Group. He believes his Taiwan experience demonstrated his ability to adapt quickly in new situations, making his new employer trust his ability to transition successfully into a different industry. Reflecting on the time in Taipei, Keohane calls it “without a doubt the most important career decision I’ve made to this point.”
— Laura Singleton (MBA ’88)
Alumni Career Services is located in Teele Hall, 230 Western Avenue, 617-495-6582, 617-496-5699 (fax), career_advisors@hbs.edu, or visit www.alumni.hbs.edu/careers/careers.html.
