If there’s the opportunity to take an international secondment, here are five reasons why you should jump at the chance.
1. Greater responsibility
By volunteering for a secondment, you will show your employer a hunger to try new things and test yourself, which will increase both your confidence in yourself and your employer’s confidence in you. You will have taken the initiative to expand the scope of your own role, showcasing your ambition and, in doing so, you have proved to your company that you are ready to take on more responsibility, which is one of the key skills employers look for when promoting or recruiting.
2. Skills boost
Working in a completely different country and environment will develop your skills and boost your knowledge. An international secondment will allow you to develop your knowledge of different global markets and the accounting issues surrounding them, which is a great opportunity to boost your professional skill set. Showing an interest in the international work of the business will also highlight your commitment to your career.
3. New professional challenge
There is no doubt that at the start of an international secondment you will be out of your comfort zone but, with such challenges, the rewards can be huge. Adapting to a new set of work colleagues, working practices, culture and language will only enhance you both professionally and personally. It will allow you to experience new types of projects, work with diverse clients and adapt to a different cultural work style, all in the safety of the same organisation. Everything that you learn you can bring back with you and share with your colleagues, which proves again that the development opportunities of a secondment are far-reaching and don’t just benefit the secondee.
4. Stronger network
The advantages of networking are many and varied, from information sharing to making connections that will be invaluable throughout your working life, to promoting both yourself and your organisation, and improving your reputation to build credibility. The huge, and exponentially growing, popularity of social media and professional online networks gives everyone the opportunity to harness the potential of building a great network but working abroad cake take it to a whole new level. Seeing in person a different way of working, meeting new colleagues face-to-face, and being introduced to contacts that you may otherwise never have met in an online environment, will give an extra dimension to your professional network as well as your friendship group.
5. Sense of adventure
Absorbing life in another country is exciting and the personal journey you go on by working overseas is just as important as the professional one. It gives you the chance to immerse yourself in what may be a very different culture from the one you have been brought up in, to see the beauty of another country, to meet people and make new friends, and to explore the way of life and the traditions a new area.
This article was first published in the August 2019 edition of Student Accountant magazine