Laying the foundations for your global career

There are a number of ways to develop your global competency and the international aspects of your career while studying at Imperial, so it’s important to define exactly what a global career means to you.

International experience may be personally interesting to you, or worth gaining to add an additional dimension to your CV, or it may be essential for your longer term career ambitions.

  • You may want a career that involves travelling internationally on a regular basis but from a home base, e.g. professional service work, banking or logistics.
  • Alternatively, you may want a truly global career, involving several long-term expatriate assignments where you relocated for a significant period of time to a new location.

Your CV can be strengthened by any exposure to experiences of other cultures through learning foreign languages, practising self-reliance or demonstrating resilience and adaptability

What are employers looking for?

Research carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has identified the following key attributes that are required of a globally competent employee:

  • Strong intercultural and communication skills.
  • Resilience. Working abroad can mean losing the usual support structures of friends and family.
  • Flexibility to adapt to new situations and ways of doing things as well as ability to cope with ambiguity.
  • Ability to handle diversity and to understand, respect and adapt to cultural differences.
  • Knowledge of local conditions.
  • Awareness of the strategic aims of your employer and an understanding of the international environment in which they operate.
  • A working knowledge of the local language plus a good level of skill in both written and verbal English. It is common for English to be the working language within many business environments, but a good working knowledge of the local language will help you to communicate effectively and develop good relationships both at work and socially.

Add to these the range of skills normally required for graduate-level work such as problem-solving, analytical thinking, numeracy, team working, leadership, self-motivation, self-reliance and business/commercial awareness and you have a formidable task in preparing yourself for selection.

Developing your competencies at Imperial

Studying at Imperial College London provides direct experience of cultural difference and diversity.

Imperial provides a first-rate environment in which to develop and enhance your global competency and, in particular, your intercultural effectiveness. The diversity of the staff and student population, the international perspective of teaching and research and the extensive programme of public lectures, events and opportunities for travel provide access to an unusually diverse range of ideas and perspectives.

This experience can be augmented through a varitey of opportunities. Many programmes of study have an undergraduate year abroad and other student exchanges can be great starting points. You may also want to explore funding for placements including the Turing Scheme. It may also be posisble to take a summer internship or paid or unpaid work experience gained outside the UK during the vacation periods to develop international skills.

Researching labour market conditions, work permit requirements and having a clear understanding of any constraints, as well as planning and preparation, are all important for success. You can use GoinGlobal to help explore your options.

Furthermore, if you have left your country to study at Imperial you will already have experience of living independently in a different culture and the opportunity to develop the flexibility and resilience that living and working abroad requires.

Searching for opportunities abroad

General
  • JobsLive - Imperial Careers Service - search for employers and jobs
  • Adzuna - Our mission is to be the best place to start looking for a job. We search thousands of websites so you don't have to and bring together millions of ads so you can find every job, everywhere, via Adzuna.
  • Anywork Anywhere - jobs and resources for work and travel throughout the UK and Worldwide
  • Country specific information - explore working in over 50 countries, with lots of useful links
  • Global Choices - offers a wide variety of programmes for students, young professionals and other participants from the UK and internationally
  • GoinGlobal - offers country careers information with extensive coverage, includes job searching and sources of careers information/job vacancies in other countries. GoinGlobal run regular training sessions for students to ensure you get the most from the platform. Check the GoinGlobal traning webpage for details of upcoming sessions.
  • Graduate Prospects - and their pages on Studying Abroad and Working Abroad
  • i-to-i TEFL Jobs - includes a jobs only newsletter and plenty of guides for getting jobs abroad
  • Labour Mobility - knowledge provider on international work issues
  • My World Abroad - the big guide to living, working and studying overseas
  • Student Circus - a job search portal for current international students in the UK, which contains the following resources:
  • Transitions Abroad - comprehensive online resource to working, studying, travelling and living abroad
Asia
  • BEO Career - the Career Consulting Service for Japanese students offers a range of services, including professional information, advice and a guidance service, completely free-of-charge
  • Gateway Singapore - will connect you with the most exciting Careers and Lifestyles in Singapore
  • gradlink ASEAN - specialist careers website for students/graduates from South-East Asia who are studying in the UK, linking them with employers and jobs in the ASEAN countries
  • Work Singapore - a job and internship portal for high calibre students and graduates from around the world who would like to investigate the possibility of working in Singapore
Australia and New Zealand
  • Jobaroo - an Australian jobs and visa information and other helpful advice for students planning their careers
  • Backpacker Jobs Australia - jobs site that has tips and a search engine for students and professionals who want to find work in Australia
  • Sort Out My Visa - offers up-to-date information on visas for working in Australia and New Zealand, including special schemes for Engineers
Europe and the European Union
  • Academic Jobs EU - an independent company with the sole objective of facilitating recruitment and providing career related services to European Academic Institutions
  • EuroBrussels - self-proclaimed 'number one EU job site since 2001'
  • European Personnel Selection Office - the European Union's personnel office
  • Europe Language Jobs - European job board for multilinguals, also containing relevant tips and career guides for working in Europe
  • Graduateland - Europe's largest career portal for students and graduates