Re: RESEARCH REQUEST: OVERSEAS JOB SEARCHING

[Maury <alsacien -at- IBM -dot- NET>]

My own experience with overseas job searching is that if the position is
for a technical writer, understanding of the language of the country is a
precondition for employment. However, in the case of marketing personnel,
engineers, etc., this requirement is not essential. The reason: the
technical writer has the job of taking the raw information and making it
into useful information. That often means translating nearly unintelligible
information into lucid information, and that can often be within one language.

I served at a site abroad where I had to grapple with three linguistic
groups and to try to fuse the information from each into documentation. It
was a relief when the site closed before the product was released; trying
to find a common denominator between the groups was a task that would have
frightened a Nobel Prize winner.

Since then, I've looked for work in Europe in French-speaking countries.
However, even though I'm ethnic French, the companies seem to assume that
anyone who has not lived in a French-speaking country cannot manage there,
so finding work in these countries is often very difficult. In Québec in
Canada, the situation is not as daunting, but to qualify for a visa in
Canada can be.

- Maurice

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