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| Advice
on finding employment overseas and study abroad programs |
| Asia: Finding
jobs, employment |
| Africa:
Finding jobs, employment |
| Australia:
Finding jobs, employment |
| Caribbean:
Finding jobs, employment |
| Central
America: Finding jobs, employment |
| Europe:
Finding jobs, employment |
| Middle East:
Finding jobs, employment |
| South
America: Finding jobs, employment |
| South
Pacific: Finding jobs, employment |
| Volunteer
Overseas |
| International
Internship programs |
| Teaching
English, Au Pair, and Work on a Cruise Ship |
| Study
abroad, study overseas |
| Language
study abroad |
| Women
Traveling abroad |
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| Asia: Finding jobs, employment |
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Employment in Asia is concentrated in
the English teaching field. ESL (English as a
Second Language) jobs are plentiful and can be found throughout Asia but are primarily
located in Taiwan, China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The highest paying jobs are in South Korea and
Japan. The greatest potential to save money is
from teaching in Korea whereas the most stable and contract friendly country, to teach in,
is Japan. If you teach in Korea, and are even
slightly budget minded, you can save around $10,000 your first year. Even though the salaries in Japan are higher than
in any other country, you should expect to break even your first year because the country
is also the most expensive in which to live.
The greatest benefits for teaching overseas are that
your employer will pay for the airplane ticket and also it is standard to receive an end
of the contract bonus equal to one month salary (salaries range from $2,000 to $3,000 per
month).
Teaching overseas requires a Bachelor degree from
College (it can be in any field). Also, some
countries require an additional certification in ESL that are interchangeably called
TESOL, TEFL, and TESL.More
Information |
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| Africa: Finding jobs, employment |
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| Employment in Africa is concentrated in working volunteer
programs or Internships with an NGO, a non-profit or not for profit organization. Internships and volunteer programs cover a wide
gambit of fields including; women's rights, environmental sustainability, refugee aid,
ocean and marine life sustainability, economics, and helping to gather general country
statistics (e.g. census reports or wildlife statistics).
There is one unique job opportunity, outside of working an internship or
being a volunteer; that is becoming a Safari guide leader.
In our research, we stumbled upon this adventure-based opportunity and
explored exactly how you would become a guide. You
have to go through a short basic course, which teaches you; how to handle groups out in
the field, setting up a safe campsite, information on the local plants and wildlife, as
well as how to examine signs that wildlife is in the area like paw prints and droppings. Upon completion of the course, you are eligible to
obtain a Guide license and work for a huge number of tour operators (mostly in Kenya and
South Africa). They are always looking for
English speaking Guides. |
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| Australia: Finding jobs, employment |
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| Employment in Australia is naturally focused along the
coastal areas since that is where over 90% of the population lives. Work visa laws are pretty strict; you have a better
chance of finding work if you are under the age of 35 and have experience in one of a few
hundred specific job types that are under-staffed by the native Aussies. Jobs include; pearl diving, ranch work, boat crew,
bartender, and water related employment. More Information |
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| Caribbean: Finding jobs, employment |
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| Employment in the Caribbean centers on tourism related
jobs; bartender, waiter and waitress, SCUBA dive professional, boat crew, hotel staff, spa
work like hairdresser and masseuse, hotel staff, and gym staff like fitness instructors. The key to finding a job in the Islands is to set a
date for departure and contact a host of employers the week before you leave. Tell them when you are arriving and ask for an
interview. Before you call, already contact
apartment managers and real estate agents to find out available apartments for rent; this
will allow you to preempt one of the first questions the employer will ask, "Do you
have a place to stay?" When you arrive,
spend the first day before interviews checking out apartments. One of the biggest turn-offs for an employer is a
job seeker that doesn't know where they will stay even if they are offered the job. The other turn-off is a job seeker that only has
one interview lined up. If you have already
done your research for apartments and can honestly say that you have several interviews,
your chances of getting hired will vastly increase.More Information |
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| Central America: Finding jobs, employment |
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| Employment in Central America can be found as
a volunteer or in a tourism-based job. Spanish language skills are not required but
do help with finding a job. Guatemala is one country, which has successfully
marketed itself as an inexpensive place to study Spanish and has a ton of schools that
offer intensive classes. If you are a U.S. citizen, I'd recommend staying out of El
Salvador and Nicaragua due to safety concerns, although I'm sure some readers out there
would disagree (this is just my personal opinion). |
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| Europe: Finding jobs, employment |
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| Finding employment in Europe for U.S. citizens is a lot
easier if the job seeker is bilingual (unless, of course, you are applying to a position
in the United Kingdom where they also speak English).
You don't have to be fluent but some language skills will help. Most work visas will take approximately two to
three months to process and you can't be inside the host country during this time (e.g. if
you are getting a work visa processed in France, you can't spend the two months touring
Paris and the French Riviera, you would have to be outside of France). Although work visas are difficult to obtain for
U.S. citizens, because most European countries only hire people from within the European
Community, there are several ways around this obstacle.
First, you can get an Internship and work on getting a permanent job while
you are there. Second, you can get a volunteer
position and work on getting a permanent job while you are there. Another opportunity to explore is working a short
term job at a ski resort; they all need
English speaking people to fill in as ski instructors and hotel staff.More Information |
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| Middle East: Finding jobs, employment |
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| Employment in the Middle East offers a great
way to save money; this region offers some of the highest paying jobs, for foreigners, in
the world, salaries are generally tax-free, and free housing is included. Safety concerns aside, working in the Middle East
offers opportunities to see some of the greatest historical sites in the world. In Israel, there are a ton of volunteer programs.
In Turkey, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia, there are a lot of English teaching positions as well
as work in the Energy sector. |
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| South America: Finding jobs, employment |
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| Employment in South America can be found as a volunteer or
in a tourism-based job. Spanish language
skills are not required but do help with finding a job.
When I traveled through Peru, Argentina, and Colombia, I was surprised to
see that there were a lot of job advertisements for English teachers but they only paid $7
to $9 per hour! The higher paying teaching
jobs are found in the Universities but, generally, you have to have a Masters degree to
obtain one of these jobs. There are also jobs
to be found as a translator (both speaking and writing), tour guides, hotel staff,
Internships, and volunteer positions. For some
reason, unknown to me, Brazil is the most difficult country to obtain a work visa and find
employment as a foreigner. |
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| South Pacific: Finding jobs, employment |
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| Employment in the South Pacific can be found in all the
major Island groups, however, it is easier to obtain employment for U.S. citizens in
Samoa, Guam, Saipan, and Micronesia; the reason being is that they are either currently or
previously U.S. territories and getting a work visa is irrelevant. Jobs include volunteer positions, water related
jobs, hotel staff, bar staff, and teaching a variety of courses in the two year colleges
(a Masters degree is required).More
Information |
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| Volunteer overseas |
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There are some great volunteer
programs out in the world and they offer people a way to travel and do some good at the
same time. Most programs, that we list, don't
have a time limit and are happy if a person can stay and help for an extended period of
time (at least 3 months or more). Although
volunteer positions are unpaid, most programs offer free housing and food so your only
expense is the plane ticket and spending money. I'd
suggest defraying those expenses by teaching private English lessons on the side to make
your spending money.
O.K. let me rant and rave for a moment. I have come across a ton of websites on the
internet that post volunteer positions that require the applicant to pay $2,000 to $4,000
per month. Now, I understand that non-profits
generally don't have much money to work with, but I get the feeling that these programs
primary goal is to make money rather than actually concentrating on helping people and the
world. I mean, honestly, I'd rather travel
through a third world country on a $1,000 a month and hand out $2,000 a month to any
orphanages or churches I happen to pass rather than hand my money over to one of these
high priced volunteer programs.More
Information |
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| International Internship programs |
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| I was surprised, in my worldwide research, to find so many
Internships that offer paid positions. I
suppose, it's easier to process a visa for foreigners to work as an Intern rather than in
an actual job position but I really don't know the reason I came across so many that paid
a salary. Programs range from very small
organizations that need help year round (the positions are closer to what we would
consider working as a volunteer) to huge organizations that offer yearly Internships in
most every country on Earth. For the large
organizations, which have structured Internships every year, the usual time lag from
applying to actually working as an Intern can be from three to six months.More Information |
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| Teaching English, Au Pair, and Work on a Cruise Ship |
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The top three most sought after
positions for working overseas and traveling are teaching English, working as an Au pair
(a nanny), and working on a cruise ship. Each
has its own obstacle for gaining employment.
To teach English, you must have a Bachelors degree,
however, there are thousands of opportunities available.
Finding work as an Au Pair is difficult (but not
impossible) for U.S. citizens to obtain a work visa in Europe (where most Americans want
to work) because the Scandinavian countries and England have a highly organized industry
to market and connect their citizens with families in other European countries. We monitor the joblists of a handful of American
based companies that specialize in finding Au Pair jobs in Europe for U.S. citizens.
Finding work on a cruise ship is difficult because
there is such a high demand for these type jobs and so there are a lot of people seeking
employment. Most websites, that offer services
to get you a cruise ship job, are scams. In my
research, large cruise ship companies hire directly on their website and don't go through
recruiters to find employees. In
world-joblist.com, we list cruise jobs with small companies that only offer day trips;
like Catamarans that take out 60 to 80 people at a time; all of these boat crew jobs are
located in the Caribbean and in Hawaii. More Information |
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| Study Abroad, Study Overseas |
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| My personal study abroad experiences were in London,
England, Munich, Germany, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
I am a huge supporter of anyone that wishes to study abroad because it is
such a great way to travel, gain knowledge, and experience a foreign culture in depth. There are programs all over the world that offer
studies in every conceivable subject. Programs
range from 4 weeks to one year. In 2007, a
total of 223,534 U.S. citizens participated in a study abroad program. The top ten destinations were; England, Italy,
Spain, France, Australia, Mexico, Germany, Ireland, China, and Costa Rica. |
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| Language Study Abroad |
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| In our joblist, we have included quite a few language
programs that simultaneously offer volunteer and Internship programs; most of these
schools are located in Central America and South America and obviously you would be
studying Spanish. The great benefit of these
schools is that you can choose how long you wish to study and work...from one week to
several months to one year, you are in control of the duration. One important fact to remember is that the Spanish
spoken in Argentina differs from that spoken in the rest of Latin America. I studied Spanish in Buenos Aires and believe it to
be one of the more beautiful dialects of the language. |
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| Women Traveling Abroad |
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| Approximately 68% of U.S. citizens, that travel overseas
alone, are women. There are some safety precautions that you need to take, which
might seem obvious while you are still in the states but, while traveling, it’s easy
to let your guard down. If you are drinking out at a restaurant or bar, don’t
take any drinks that you didn’t see poured and don’t leave your drink on the
table when you go to the restroom (it could be drugged). When you are out walking,
stay in well-lit places and be observant of anyone “hanging out” near
alleys. If someone takes your arm, although smiling, and tries to pull you away from
where you are, then pull your arm away, smile back, and mutter something in English as you
move to another area. If you are lost, find a big hotel and ask the receptionist or
security where you need to go rather than going into a small shop or asking someone on the
street (who might offer to lead you there but actually have bad intentions). If you
are on a beach, which is deserted, stay near the exit road or stairway leading back to the
main road or parking lot (don’t walk down to the end of the beach and sunbathe in
such a remote area).More
Information |
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