OPTIONS FOR MOVING ABROAD IF YOU’VE ONLY EVER WORKED IN RUSSIA: 2. Study overseas
Until recently, studying overseas was the most popular route to an international career. However, graduates of international business schools often discover that an international degree per se does not guarantee international employment.
Maria Markova worked in Russia for four years before doing an MBA in Oxford.
“I started looking for work while still studying,” Maria discloses. “I tried looking using business school resources and sent out my CV to lots of companies in the UK and in Europe, all to no avail. Recruiters were a much better proposition; they always check CV databases and quickly respond to candidates they find interesting.”
It took Maria very little time to find her current job (a senior associate in the finance area at PricewaterhouseCoopers). She put her CV on a website and received a call from a recruiter the next day.. She believes that she was considered interesting due to her work experience as an IT consultant inRussia servicing large banks.
Dmitri, a London Business School graduate, spent more than a year looking for work in Londonafter studying an MBA in the UK. Prior to that, that he had a successful career at a major Russian state-owned bank. He had hoped that the MBA would enable him to continue his career in the City, but this proved harder than expected. He claims the MBA was viewed with ‘suspicion’. In the end, Dmitri found work at the research department of a London bank after he removed mention of the MBA from his CV and left only his Russian PhD. “My two years of study and the money spent to get the degree have not helped my career development,” Dmitri says.
Tip:
Don’t expert to be hired just because you have an international degree, no matter how highly ranked it is. At times of crisis, recruiters look predominantly at your prior work experience. Studying for a degree will simply give you time to do some useful networking and help take case of visa hassles. If your work experience is not unique, look for Russia-related jobs after getting the international degree, as the chances of getting such jobs are greater.
