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The best places to work abroad according to expats

The best places to work abroad according to expats

Working abroad can be a fantastic experience for many people. Different countries offer different job prospects and ways of life. Even if it’s not something, you do forever, being an expat for a while is a lot of fun. If you’ve always fancied working abroad but have never made the jump as you’re not too sure where to go, then you’ve come to the right place – with so much choice and conflicting views out there, it’s difficult to know. However, the best people to listen to are the people who are there doing it themselves, take a look at the top three countries as voted for by expats.

Bahrain

In the recently published Internations survey 2018, Bahrain has remained at the top spot for the best place for working abroad. It was ranked first place by both male and females expats of which 72% said they had no problem at all communicating even without any local language skills.

Bahrain also ranked second out of 68 for friendliness, second for finding friends, and first for feeling at home. Quality of education was also praised coming in third place as well as the availability of childcare and education, however, 30% of parents did not regard education as easy to afford.

If you’re looking to work out there though then working in school could be ideal and pay well. As many are international schools, there is lots of opportunity from PE teacher jobs to administration.

Taiwan

Moving up three spaces from last year’s survey, Taiwan is now back in the top 3, ranking 2nd out of 68 destinations in 2018. 96% of respondents rated the affordability of healthcare positively, and 97% are satisfied with the transportation infrastructure – both contributing to a higher quality of life.

Job security has also been rated highly with over three-quarters of respondents saying it was positive compared to 59% in the rest of the world. People living in Taiwan are pleased with their work-life balance as expats in full-time positions spend noticeably less time at work than their global peers (39.9 h vs a worldwide average of 44.0 h/week).

Jobwise, teaching English is in high demand, and teaching jobs usually offer a housing allowance and health insurance.

Ecuador

From ranking 25th out of 65 countries last year, Ecuador is now third out of 68 countries overall. It has impressive results regarding finances, getting settled and even work, though 46% of the respondents were retirees.

 

Work is not a top priority for moving to Ecuador as a fifth said that their primary motivation for relocating was a better quality of life. Respondents particularly appreciate the socialising options and leisure activities and affordable healthcare.

 

However, if you are looking for a job over there then being bilingual in Spanish/English or Spanish/Mandarin will give you a better advantage than most and if you happen to have some form of specialist skills in a field not commonly offered by Ecuadorians themselves, then this may make your job search more productive.


Christine Buske is a former academic who left science at the bench, and now considers herself a woman in tech. She is a frequently invited speaker, and enjoys talking about career transformation (particularly leaving academia for the business world), tech, issues around women in tech, product management, agile, and outreach. She is a proud Canadian resident, and qualifies as a "serial expat".

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