Samples from the Book:

Congratulations on choosing to pursue a job overseas.  Everything that you’ve dreamed, is possible.  Follow your heart and travel the world.  I’m telling you this from experience.  And there have been so many...

 My Study Abroad programs:

Junior year undergraduate program: Vienna, Austria

Masters of Business summer program: London, England

Masters of Business summer program:  Munich, Germany

Personal study program (Spanish): Buenos Aires, Argentina

 My employment overseas:

Vienna, Austria

St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands

Jeonju, South Korea

The Reality of Living and Working Abroad

Working overseas is exciting, challenging, and the most rewarding thing you can do in your life.  You will see places that were once only a dream or a photograph you once looked at.  You will meet people, both foreign and fellow Americans that will become great friends.  You will develop as a person by surmounting the trials and challenges of living in another country.

Living in a foreign country will test your patience.  People in foreign cultures do things differently, they think differently, and they have different expectations.  Situations that you take for granted, like checking out at the grocery, or getting from point A to point B, or simply asking someone for the time, become almost insurmountable obstacles when you are navigating through a foreign country and having to communicate in a foreign language.  

Reimbursement for the flight overseas 

Most companies will reimburse you for the air flight overseas, some will pay for the flight upfront and send you the ticket, some will pay up to a certain amount and then you have to cover the rest, and others will not pay for the flight at all.  You need to get, in writing, how the company deals with employee air flight costs in the contract...even if the company does not pay or reimburse for the flight costs, get it in writing, so they can't come back at the end of the contract and try and deduct it from your pay.  Also, be sure to specify when the payment is made to you if it is in the form of a reimbursement.  Will they pay you when you first show up for work, or with the first check, or at the end of the contract?  I've never heard of any company that would pay half at the start of the contract and half at the end, so that would be an odd proposal.  One more thing to consider, in terms of flight costs, be sure you specify that the company will pay for the cost of the return trip back to the U.S., and that they will reimburse you or actually get the ticket to you on time so you can leave the host country; On that note, there are some pretty stiff penalties for overstaying a work visa past the final date stamped or printed on it from when it was intially processed.  I think in Korea, it was $80 per day, but it could be even higher now.  Apart from being in the hospital and providing an official document stating there was an emergency, you will have to pay any fines for overstaying a visa.