Expatriate Stories and Strategies - Please Share Yours.

Over the years we've enjoyed reading many wonderful books published by expat authors as they've shared their experiences of life abroad, some of whom we will be featuring in our Thriving Abroad Podcast Series on expat authors.

We know it requires grit, determination and guts to take the idea of a book from inception through to reality. If you'd asked a year ago whether we would ever strive to follow them and write a book ourselves we would have looked at you in horror, after all we have always said, writing is not really our "thing"....

But never say never because....

We're now making it "our thing". With the synopsis written, deadline set and pens at the ready we are planning, interviewing, researching and pulling together the content of "our book"!

Thriving Abroad: The Definitive Guide to Creating and Managing Your Global Life

So how did we get here? Well together with a dose of madness, which we optimistically hope will be a bit of an asset, it clicked that after having penned well over 200 newsletters, blog posts and articles plus ebooks and courses our message has evolved to a point where we have a lot that we want to share on the subject of global mobility... and that writing is "sometimes" our thing.

Why is it important that we share what we have to say?

Over the years we have observed that perspectives between assignees and transfering organisations are not always aligned in the most helpful way. Outlooks and objectives can be contradictory or at least confused. The global mobility industry talks in terms of compliance, ROI and strategic direction, the assignee in terms of personal career advancement, financial, practical and emotional implications for themselves and their families. And yet everyone is working for the same objective, assignment success. Now, sometimes a bridge is built between the two sides of the mobility equation and support is judged as good to excellent, but all too often it falls short of the assignees expectations.

Our vision is to write a book that shares perspectives and builds understanding from both sides of the mobility equation.

The book is written for professional couples or self-initiated expats who are either living abroad already OR considering becoming expats. It is also a tool for global mobility practitioners to help them support assignees and their spouse/partner to proactively manage their global career.

It is a practical book that guides the assignee and family through the relocation process to the development of international careers and global lives. We will share best practice, advice and tips from both global mobility professionals and expats.

The book is divided into two parts:.

PART ONE: focuses on making a decision to move overseas that is right for the employee, partner and family AND creating a solid foundation for success.

PART TWO: focuses on managing careers in a global context for both the employee and the partner, helping to ensure that the partners professional and personal aspirations are not lost in the assignment process.

And this is where you come in. We want this book to contain the wisdom, insights and experience of the Thriving Abroad Community

How?

Each week we will pose a question and invite you to contribute. You will be able to do so in two ways:

By leaving a comment at the foot of the relevant blog post.
By replying anonymously to a survey on survey monkey.

We look forward to building a rich picture of your opinions and perspectives.

Now, we know that there is no better time to get started than right away and so we'd love to invite your feedback on two questions: