Michele is a graphic designer among many other things, she paints, draws, and she loves restoring and recycling things.
I was a banking lawyer, but now I only work in the hotel and spend time with my family. I am retired from any kind of office job.
My family moved to Lamay in February 2017. The adaptation was easy for me and Michele but not for our children. We lived in a very nice place in Lima. My sons did not understand why we had to move to this forgotten town.
Over time things started to change. Now they seem to be in a good mood. Our kids like it a bit more here day by day. They start seeing the benefits and I am confident it’s only a matter of time.
Interview with Julie MacArthur, MacArthur Productions, Digital Nomad
7 questions about her experiences and insights as a digital nomad
The term to me, means a person that does not actually have a permanent residence and considers any place with decent internet a possibility to relocate to. My office is not constrained by borders, and I am not required to be in the same location as the companies I work for.
There are a few other considerations when I look into relocation, such as visitor’s visas and how long I can stay, safety, is it a place that interests me and cost of living. Being here in Granada, I meet people from around the world, who inspire me to look at other destination and they also provide me more information that I would not discover on a website.
My personal experience from countless business interactions around the world was a useful starting point – but not nearly enough. I began to compile an extensive list of facts and inputs from a wide range of sources, from Hofstede, Trompenaars and the GLOBE study to negotiation-specific works, as well as many online resources like Executive Planet or Kwintessential, to name but a few. Based on the resulting collection of data, I structured the country-specific book sections such that they followed a consistent pattern and started writing. Inevitably, far more information is available for some countries than others, but I feel I ended up with at least a fairly comprehensive overview for all of them.
The final step was crucial: working through my network, I identified about 70 people with first-hand experience from working in one of the targeted countries, as well as in at least one other country, meaning they understood the difference between inside and outside perspectives. Everyone in this group was generous enough to review a country section and provide their feedback and suggestions.
It looks like the result proves the effort worthwhile: reader feedback has been very encouraging and today, the book to my knowledge is being used at more than 35 business schools around the world. Even the U.S. Marines and Air Force use sections of the book to prepare soldiers for overseas assignments.
What are the soft skills required to make it anywhere in the world? And how do you utilise these skills in a globalised job market? Here are three simple and easy to apply success factors from my personal experience.
In addition to your technical expertise your intercultural competence is crucial to the success of an overseas experience. Train your ability to understand underlying beliefs and values. Learn about the driving forces of your colleagues’, partners’ and customers’ behaviour. Put your own culturally determined view repeatedly to the test.
Highly qualified people go where they find excellent development opportunities and the best quality of life.
A study by the Boston Consulting Group reveals that there will be a shortage of more than 6 million skilled professionals in Germany alone by 2030. This labor shortage forecast applies to many other countries too. The demand puts businesses under pressure for attracting world class global talent. Read more