Moving to a different country?

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I believe a lot of us human beings are very resistant to change. I see kids who do not wish to go to a boarding school, young adults who have reservations about going ‘away’ to study, adults who do not feel confident enough to take up a new job in an unfamiliar country. And surprisingly, I see this as much in males as in females. While the resistance may or may not be gender driven, in girls it is largely a result of sheltered upbringing and what has been drilled into their heads by immediate family, whereas the boys/men manage to be more or less self reliant.

Add to this the overwhelming amount of advise shared generously by friends and well wishers, a lot of who may not be able to spot the new location on a map, and you have a cocktail of doubts in your head. Of course there is the other breed; we have hordes of people who go away to study and to work, but not all of them really like doing so. A very close friend of mine gave up an Ivy League scholarship because she did not like being away.

I really enjoyed reading Ikram Patel’s article ‘Moving to a different country for a new job’ on LinkedIn and thought of sharing it. I met Ikram a few years ago when he worked for Piaggio in Pune. There was a huge team working together for their participation in the Auto Expo and Ikram was one of the bright, young representatives from the client’s side. It was a surprise to read that he has moved, not just cities but also countries and managed to get himself to a place which would not really feature in the upmarket Indian’s list of ‘Top 10 global cities to work in’! Not only that, he has actually figured out the positives in his environment instead of lamenting about how different it is from back home. Way to go Ikram!

Flexibility and cross cultural sensitivity is a very sought after topic for training, specially in global organizations that move their human resources around. This article would be very helpful for all the young people who have to or want to look beyond the Indian shores for work.

Here is the link to Ikram’s article for you to peruse: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/moving-different-country-job-ikram-patel