A better job future with global experience
Published Saturday October 11th, 2008
CALGARY - When Thaier Al-Issa immigrated to Canada in 2001, there were more than a few things to get used to.
"The first thing was getting familiarized with the weather here," he laughs.
Having earned his engineering degree in the Middle East and worked for oil and gas companies abroad, he was used to working on large global projects. Then he met Chandra Sarkar, an Indian-born immigrant to Canada in the 1960s who's worked everywhere from Germany to Jordan.
After spending years working in the Canadian oilpatch, Sarkar decided to set up a small, nimble, engineering, procurement and construction firm with global reach six years ago. He knows the value of global career skills and experience in today's labour market.
"We are Canadian citizens, but at the same time, we are global citizens," says Sarkar. "You are global citizens and you have to work globally. Today, you cannot sustain your economy in one place."
So, Sarkar set up offices in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait with 50 employees scattered around the globe. That's how he met Al-Issa. After some discussions, Al-Issa decided to make the trip to Canada permanently to work for Sarkar's company, Rapid Response Project Ltd.
"We are energized to do anything, so it's just a matter of getting the OK from the client and then we go there," Al-Issa says. "We all have some sort of (global) experience in almost everything."
The value of global career skills, including speaking different languages and employing people from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, is increasingly seen as a one-way ticket up the global corporate ladder, employers say.
"I travelled everywhere and I believe that diversity is the greatest strength of mankind," Sarkar says. "Diversity allows us to explore, educate and appreciate all cultures and religions."
Looking around his company's humble office, it's clear he walks the talk. His team of employees has a wealth of diversity in languages and cultures. Most have worked on several global projects over their careers.
"That (global) experience gives you a better job future," Sarkar says. Many large employers have implemented or improved their diversity programs in recognition of this fact in recent years.
There's also evidence to back up the notion that global experience will put you on the fast-track to success.
Multilingual Canadians enjoy a greater range of career options, build stronger relationships with colleagues and clients and benefit from accelerated promotions and salary increases compared to their unilingual counterparts, according to a survey by Harris/Decima on behalf of Berlitz Canada.
"Canadians who speak multiple languages enjoy numerous career benefits, including financial ones," says Darryl Simsovic, president of Berlitz.
Forty-eight per cent of multilingual Canadians agreed that speaking an additional language enabled or accelerated promotion, while 44 per cent said speaking another language accelerated salary increases. The study also found 38 per cent of unilingual Canadians said that not speaking another language limited their career opportunities.
Amrit Bhardwaj saw a niche opportunity to fulfil the growing demand for multilingual Canadians and launched a company called Translationist.ca in April, doing translation work for clients in Punjabi and Mandarin.
"Even though I haven't formally marketed my website, I have been flooded with business," he says.
He's worked for law firms, the refugee board, Shell in Brazil, various other corporations and just completed some voice-over work for the Real Estate Council of Alberta. All this in addition to holding down a full-time job.
The success of overseas recruitment drives attests to the fact that employees are highly mobile in today's world and borders are no longer a reason to remain in one country for your working life.
Opportunities Canada Expo, a career fair to be held in November in London and Leeds, U.K., is the direct result of its initial success earlier this year.
"All of a sudden there are skilled, educated people lined up to make a change and pursue an opportunity in another country," says Lisa Rushka of Momentum Communications, one of the event's promoters. "It's not an easy, quick process, but it is certainly easier and more streamlined than it has been in the past."
Meanwhile, Sarkar's daughter, Barnali, now works for her father's firm and already sees the value in diversity and global work experience. "When you meet people that have worked on different projects internationally, it makes you realize the world is really small," she says.
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