I had not been abroad until my mid-20s. When I was in college, foreign exchange programs were still exotic and expensive. In fact, I did the poor man’s student exchange: I spent my junior year in college at what is now Towson University, north of Baltimore. The change from the west to east coast was invigorating to a 19 year old, and memories of exploring Baltimore’s haunts and day trips to DC made my year. I loved Maryland so much, I returned for graduate school.
Those were the days when I was convinced that I was going to become an academic, a professor of history. I thought I had it all figured out—and indeed I had a great time in graduate school, attending UMBC, a fine school with stellar professors. I graduated with honors, and ended up in a Ph.D. program. But after one year, I left—years of school in a poor job market, and budget cuts, halted that dream.
So instead I decided to move abroad. I was hired over the phone to teach in South Korea. I landed some gigs doing computer training, and in a nutshell, those 3-plus years in that country were rewarding. Freelancing abroad had its challenges, but I thrived and enjoyed the challenges of conducting business in a land where you were an outsider.
After returning to the US, I worked in the internet advertising industry for a while. I figured out that my company’s office in South Korea was lagging in serving its customers, convinced management to send me there to straighten things out, and the office finally was able to make sales and not lose its customers.
After the dot-com crash and 9/11, I was the last of the two in our department let go, but found myself in legal publishing. I increased usage of my company’s database and sales increased, and meanwhile, I found out that we had some users abroad. Figuring that usage, and therefore, revenues,would only increase, I made a case for adding East Asia to my territory—I made several trips there, and built a market that is still thriving in a tough economy.
I eventually landed at a business advisory firm and spent a year flying around the country until many of us were let go in early 2009 as the financial crisis led many companies to cut expenses—my company’s suite of services was a “nice to have” and the firm contracted accordingly.
The last 18 months, I have done freelance advisory work and churned out a lot of writing on sustainability issues on two different sites.
What I realize is that I miss the challenges of international business. Business development with an overseas territory is hard, grueling, and rewarding. Representing the interests of an organization that seeks more clients abroad is my passion. Whether it is training partners on my company’s services, speaking and manning booths at trade shows, or inspecting the operations of a suppliers’ factory, I see myself as the Attaché: the one my company can send away with confidence, knowing that opportunities abroad will increase while problems are solved.
The conference calls at odd hours, the long flights, and time away from home are all worth it.
