The Bourne Effect – If you do not know who you are…

You are Jason Bourne, you wake up in a hotel room in a Middle Eastern country. It’s too hot in your room. You sweat and you just woke up from a nightmare. You are not sure if this nightmare is a memory because you cannot remember who you are. 

How will it be possible for you to connect with anyone? How will you trust others if you do not even know who you are? What if you have changed your identity so often that you cannot even clearly pronounce your name?

This is a challenge and you are probably shaking your head. “This is a movie, it’s not real.”. 
Yes, but there is a truth in this movie that is relevant to your job search in a new country. It might even be true if you are looking for a new job in your own country.

In professional life, we want to hire people we can trust. We want to hire a competent professional who can show us that they managed a similar challenge before. We want to work with people who will be self-starters and won’t need a year to be up to speed in the role.

You need a professional identity before you can enter the circle of trust. Trust starts with you trusting yourself, your knowledge, attitudes, skills, experiences and how you acquire and store them in your brain. You need to be aware of how you relax, how you focus and center yourself when you are in a critical and stressful complex matrix environment. (That’s why we are developing RockMe! at the moment).

I often notice when you come to see me, that you are not aware of most of your competencies. You take them for granted and assume that a recruiter, computer or line manager will already know everything about you when they scan your resume because they are mind-readers and miracle workers.

For them, it is as obvious as all the three-letter-acronyms you have been using on your résumé because English is their native language and they are working in a similar field, profession, and industry. 

What your personal brand should say about you

When we speak about the personal brand it is something unique to you, something that makes people remember your name, that sticks with people and that keeps you top-of-mind when they are looking for someone with your profile. This brand is not just a marketing factor. Putting three labels (professional designations) on your résumé will help a reader to categorize you and put you into the right mental box.

Ideally, you keep reminding this reader of you so that the box is not closed but open, and so that the avatar in the box shines like a Swarovski crystal. Oh, look, here’s Jason Bourne again. Matt Damon is associated with this movie role. He will never be able to play any other role without us thinking: “Oh, that’s Jason Bourne!”.

When I saw “Hidden Figures” and when Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory appeared, I had to laugh. Then, I always waited for him to act like the Sheldon that he is BUT he was playing another role and did that really well. It was hard for me to accept though because for me Jim Parsons is not an identity. For me this guy IS Sheldon.

Imagine you are trying to re-brand yourself. It’s very difficult. Your former career image sticks to your face and to your online trail. I can tell a few CEO’s who won’t find a job anymore because they are burnt.

What is your personal brand?

Your personal brand is not only your name, headshot, twitter handle, trademark, signature product or the funny pink hat. It’s also how you make others feel. It’s what you express with your seven work principles. People should identify you with how you work and how you relate to others.

They should be happy to refer you to others by saying: “She is really competent and helped me on several occasions when I was stuck. She has been my greatest cheerleader.” or “He is true to his values and always seems to do the correct move. He has never let me down.”

How to connect your personal brand with your seven work principles?

As you already know if you have been through HireMe! , we recommend that you develop your seven work principles in alignment with your personal values. An example would be: “I prioritize my clients over my prospects.”. If your personal brand is aligned with your work principles then your clients would say about you that you always take their concerns seriously and that you get back to them in an appropriate timeframe.

If you want this behavior to show, you could ask previous clients to endorse you for this behavior in their personal references and on LinkedIn. You could also try to write a special reference or recommendation about a person in your professional network, without expecting them to endorse you back.

Please tell me how you will review your work principles this week and how you will align them to your personal brand. Then take a break and watch a movie. It’s inspiring.

With our HireMeGroup we hack the job market in Switzerland through developing strong business connections.

Have you been looking for a job or a new job for more than six months?

Have you written over 100 online applications without getting a positive response – EVER?

And are you sure that there are jobs in your field but you just never get a chance to show that you could excel at them?

And are you worried that you will never be able to feed your family, that your kids will never get the education they deserve and that your partner despises you for being at home?

Then it’s time to work with us. Because these are all good reasons to join our upcoming HireMe! Groups or get 1:1 support from Angie Weinberger.

You will receive guidance from our experienced Global Mobility Coach Angie Weinberger and the support of a group of like-minded professionals. Angie is the author of “The Global Career Workbook”.

Hack the Swiss Job Market!

With HireMe! you’ll hack the Swiss Job Market.

You’ll feel more self-confident in your job search and understand how to network even if you are introverted. Most of our clients find a job during or shortly after the HireMe! program.

Program Dates:

Meetings will be held on Fridays mornings 9 AM to 12 PM in a location in Zurich.

Arrange a meeting with Angie now to discuss and agree your personal goals for the HireMe! program. These should be completed before the start of the Group.

The final schedule and dates will be confirmed to the participants.

***

Fee:

CHF 1’200 + VAT per participant, payable before the start of the program.

Group size: Maximum 6 participants.

Prerequisites:

• Valid residence permit (L, B or F) for Switzerland. If you have an L-permit you can also join us. We are open to recognized refugees.
• The group will be run in English but in case you’d prefer to join a German group, please let us know.
• We will not accept more than four people per group to ensure that everyone has enough air time.
• Participants have to come to our Global People Club Lounge in Zurich. If you live too far away ask Angie for 1:1 online coaching options.

Still deciding?

Not sure if a group coaching program is right for you? Here are some of the reasons why you might select a group, over an individual, coaching program

• Wider accountability not just to the coach but also to others in the group
• Gain immediate access to a trusted circle of like-minded professionals
• Expand your network faster – in a group, you will not only exchange experiences but also networks
• Receive feedback from the coach but also from others in the group
• Get access to our expertise at a lower cost

Not ready yet but you might want to join a group in the future?

Sign up for the Global People Club Sandwich.

Here is an outline of the content we usually cover in the HireMe! Groups. However, it’s not a training so content and discussion topics will always be customized according to the needs of the group on the day of the event.

Outline

Build your professional network in Switzerland or elsewhere

Refine your personal brand

Improve your professional presence online

Style your job applications to Swiss recruitment practices

Write effective Letters of Motivation

Learn the art of storytelling in interviews

Improve your stories

Deepen your understanding of your personal values

Improve your Executive Presence in Interviews

Set weekly targets at a healthy realistic pace

Next HireMe! Group

Group 4/ 2018

Friday, 19 October 2018

– 9 AM to 12 PM.

Friday, 16 November 2018

– 9 AM to 12 PM

Friday, 30 November 2018

– 9 AM to 12 PM

The Global Career Workbook

The Global Career Workbook will be used as a guide through the program.

Facilitator / Coach: Angie Weinberger

By Brooke Faulkner

As the world becomes more connected, many businesses are dreaming of expanding into other global markets. In fact, 54 percent of US companies already have some foreign market involvement, according to statistics from Rutgers University, and a whopping 80 percent of business executives agree that U.S. companies should expand internationally for long-term business growth. Increased digitization may make foreign expansion seem like a piece of cake, but in actuality, many factors contribute to realizing success as a truly global business. Here are three things to consider when conducting business abroad:

Invest in Workforce Diversity and Hiring

The HR component of a business is often looked at as a follow-up measure after the integral team has established a presence in a new market. However, when doing business abroad, it is vital that HR and hiring processes are a part of the globalization vision from the very beginning. Since it’s critical to find the right balance between international structures and local processes, senior leadership must give due importance to HR systems and hiring processes.

Global success is a product of culturally knowledgeable leadership and management teams. Thus, diversity of board makeup is very important. In fact, “83 percent of executives believe that diversity has enhanced brand reach and reputation.” Diverse leaders and employees are integral when expanding overseas — not only to connect with local consumers, but also to understand local rules, regulations, and traditions. For example, the board of directors at MasterCard include executives from the United Kingdom, India, the United States, Mexico, Belgium, and Hong Kong. It is often more prudent to use talent from overseas to lead teams working within a specific region. 

That being said, businesses must be aware of the visa, work permit, taxes, and social security procedures required for individuals to live and work in another country. To be globally efficient, a company must have a Global Mobility Team that is agile and adaptive.

Have a great Global Mobility Team

Consider the example of London-based Diageo, a premium beverages company with offices in 80 countries and a presence in about 180 markets. Diageo has created the appropriate Global Mobility Team for different markets by using a customized shared services model. This model provides consistent service to employees and can easily be adapted to adhere to local market requirements. The company’s two centers in Europe and North America serve as virtual hubs,  providing faster service to employees in terms of processing paperwork, legal requirements and more, wherever they are.

Within Europe, crossing borders seem easy but cross-border workers might trigger immigration, tax and social security risks for the company. It is therefore vital to work with service providers who monitor all cross-border activity. 

International Marketing Campaigns

Marketing campaigns change drastically when doing business abroad. It’s not enough to simply transpose a campaign used at home to another country. When taking a brand overseas, one must remember that what works for one set of people might not necessarily work for another.

Consider this Procter & Gamble example of doing business in Japan: When the company started selling Pampers in Japan, it used the image of a stork delivering a baby on its packaging. This image worked wonders in the U.S., but not so much in Japan. The company later found that the Japanese market was quite confused by this imagery, as stories of storks bringing babies aren’t part of Japanese folklore. Rather, the Japanese stories center around giant floating peaches bringing babies to parents. Had Procter & Gamble chosen culturally relevant imagery for their campaign, they would probably have had more success in Japan. Thus, it’s very important to know one’s audience, and thoroughly research culture and traditions prior to executing an international marketing campaign.

Check the Risks of Technology

The role of technology cannot be ignored when it comes to globalization. For one, technological advancements allow for rapid, real-time communications enabling customers to purchase products made anywhere around the globe. This, in turn, allows for pricing and quality information to be available to customers at the click of a button, resulting in very informed buyers with high expectations. Keeping the impact of technology in mind, business leaders must understand that they will lose pricing power — especially the power to set different prices in different global markets.

Secondly, it is technology that makes virtual hubs like Diageo’s possible. Two of the many benefits of digitization, especially relevant to doing business abroad, is the ability for employees to work remotely and the capability for global collaboration. So in case of a work emergency, where it isn’t possible to quickly hire local help or relocate an entire team to another country for a short-term assignment, cross-continental telecommuting makes for a viable solution. 

It can also help with retaining workers. Employees are more likely to stay at a job that allows them to live their best life. Better retention rates mean decreasing knowledge drain and less money spent on new employees.

However, this ease of access as gained through technological developments does come with its set of risks. Borderless workforces might be convenient, but the constant online communication and exchange of data put the company and/or customer information at risk of being stolen or hacked into. In fact, a new report by IDG Connect and Cibecs has highlighted that 50 percent of companies have “suffered data loss during the last 12 months.”

With this in mind, Ontrack recommends endpoint-focused data protection and data recovery investment as something all firms with a remote workforce or online capabilities should invest in. recovery budgets, with regularly-updated plans in place to restore lost data in the event of a mishap. Whether it’s simply selling products and services online or safeguarding sensitive internal data, effective data management and security is an absolute must for doing business abroad.

While expanding a business internationally may yield high profits and return on investment, the challenges in going global must not be overlooked. Therefore, it is vital for management to be well-versed with the multiple factors that come into play when conducting business abroad. A strong partner in the process is vital. For an early exploration of Global Mobility sign up to Angie Weinberger’s free upgrade of the “Global Mobility Workbook” (v3) here.

Brooke Faulkner is a writer in the Pacific Northwest who has conducted business all over the world. You can find more of her writing on Twitter via @faulknercreek

Join us for #RockMeRetreat2019.

Do you sometimes wonder when you update a spreadsheet, database or presentation, why you went to university in the first place? Do you sometimes feel in meetings that your potential is not fully utilized? Or when you run a team, are you the Chief Entertainer? Are you the parent cleaning up the toys after the kids, trying to stop them from fighting about the electronic devices, the projects and the recognition (i.e. bonus)?

Do you regularly try to calm the storm when one of your colleagues thinks she is right and the other one says that she started picking on him for no reason?

Companies and organizations often feel like kindergarten. As a leader you spend a large part of your day solving problems, easing difficult relationships, convincing colleagues to collaborate and cleaning up sloppy data entries from unmotivated service providers. They should be motivated by the fact that they charge you for their services but their staff lost touch to the end client. For them, it feels as if they are working in a data factory.

It’s a sad reality that shows in employee surveys and Gallup reports across the globe.

In my view, we need to deconstruct global careers and build a new concept for a fulfilled professional life for our expats, their spouses, and our #GlobalMobility teams. Last week, we started to discuss the future of work and how it will affect your “career”. We encouraged you to think like an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs have a purpose in their life. They know why they roll up a stone every day, they have an aim for their daily efforts. Being an entrepreneur for me has been the most challenging and most rewarding professional experience of my career. Not that I did not like my work earlier but I love the diversity and self-actualization opportunity that this kind of “portfolio” career allows a “multi-potentialite” with many interests like myself.

Here are five questions for you to reflect on:

1) What if you wanted or had to become an entrepreneur early next year?
2) What would be your three main goals for 2019?
3) Which knowledge can you build on?
4) Which critical skills do you want to develop further?
5) Which attitude would you need and which beliefs would you have to let go of?

If you would like to record your answers in our #RockMeApp or if you wish to join our #RockMeRetreat19 sign up here. #RockMeRetreat2019

Kind regards

Angie Weinberger

We recommend you also listen to and read this:

Podcast by Sundae Bean on Expat Life Upgrade

“The future of work is a complex thing” featuring Luke Skywalker and Buffy by the Libby.

Kai Beckmann’s take on the future of work Are we Curious Enough for the Future of Work?

Join the discussion on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter with #FoW.

For the last two weeks, we had started the journey of the “Future of Work (#FoW)” and we asked you what you would need to learn if you wanted to become an entrepreneur in 2018.

If you are an entrepreneur already, you probably know that health and time are your most important assets. You would, therefore, ensure that you exercise, relax and watch your nutrition. You would also guard your time and try to be helpful at the same time. Most importantly, you would celebrate your close friends and family. They will probably stand by you when the going gets rough or when the rent doesn’t get paid.

You are not able to hide behind a manager and let her do the tough jobs only so you can complain that she never lets you do anything exciting. As an entrepreneur, you will stand in the limelight and you will need to perform all of your billable time.

What I have learned over the last few years is that “learning new stuff” took a new dimension for me when I started my business because, in the beginning, you have zero help. You can source support but it is usually too expensive so you will do a lot of tasks yourself that were done by other people in the corporate world. You might have been used to a team and never had to change the paper in the printer. You had a PA who would claim your expenses. Maybe you had a business development professional who would spice up your proposals. You certainly did not have to raise invoices and chase their payments.

On a skill level, we can always improve or learn something. We even need to practice in order not to forget.

If you feel you already know everything, you could write a book or learn Mandarin or Arabic. This will probably humble you.

So how do you prioritize your learning?

Give room for creation.

When you are satisfied with your work because you have a strong purpose, the amount of time you put in is not really that relevant. Your creative process needs a different space than a factory-style task. Deep satisfaction comes from creation, not from the routine and administration. I also believe you can only monetize creation. Routine can be automated and outsourced.

We created the RockMe! App to increase stress for you. No joke. You will probably feel under pressure to achieve when you work with a coach. You might experience though that your energy is more targeted. You will achieve what is important to you and you will do it with pleasure. I advise you to write your three major goals for 2018 in present tense as if you had already achieved them. If you are a visual person try to find an image or photo for every one of the three future states you would like to achieve.

As soon as you start working with the app one of our coaches will check in with you on a regular basis to see how you are getting ahead. Will this cost you anything? Yes. You will need to give us feedback. If you find our work helpful, we assume that you will recommend GPT and the RockMe! App to all your contacts and friends. That’s all.

Become the leader you want to be and work with our RockMe! App. Contact Lucie Koch to have an account set up for you.

I wish you a productive week.

Kind regards,

Angie Weinberger

P.S.: Don’t forget to check out Lucie’s post on Expat children and Identity Crisis.

Plus, read this article if you are interested in 12 tips for working virtually in a multicultural team.