In the preceding post, I mentioned that the five-year mark is the moment of truth. This is the moment to decide whether to stay abroad or to return home. Most corporate assignments do not last more than five years. There are some reasons for this. First, the longer you are away from headquarters/home office, the more you are perceived as no longer a member of the department, team or group with whom you previously worked. Second, you have moved from a domestic career track to an international career track. Third, many US corporations send employers abroad just ahead of retirement, thus at the end of their assignments they are more likely to return home than stay abroad. Fourth, the cost of an ex-pat package has become extremely expensive and corporations are looking to cut costs.
But, if the decision is to stay abroad after five years, then you will have many more new experiences. The first five years are more about not losing contact with the home country and friends, and little about learning the nuances of the local country. Often during the first five years, one is traveling around the region and spending only a small amount of time in the local country. For example, I lived in United Kingdom for four years. I believe I visited Scotland and Wales each only once. Additionally, I did not visit many areas outside of the London area. Now that it is ten years since I left the UK, I still have not visited any of these areas. That was truly a missed opportunity.
A year before reaching the five-year date, my employer requested that I return to the US. I had worked for this company 11 years and the last 4 were in the UK. At that point, I was not ready to return to the US, so I took the decision to look for another job. First, I moved to Paris, and then a couple years later, I came to the shores of Lac Léman and I have been here ever since.
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