Many expats who have built successful careers abroad share the same belief: if I could succeed there, in an unstable or challenging environment, surely I can succeed anywhere. And there is some truth to it. Working in difficult conditions teaches you to make quick decisions, navigate uncertainty and keep a business or career on track when circumstances are far from ideal. But there is a blind spot: assuming that employers, clients or partners in a new country will understand your achievements as you do. They may not, and this gap in perception can be particularly challenging for experienced professionals, former executives and entrepreneurs.
When preparing to move to a new country, it is natural to focus on everything you have already built: your skills, your versatility, your industry knowledge, and perhaps the pride of having created a business thousands of miles from home. Those achievements are real, and no one can take them away from you. It therefore seems reasonable to assume that they will retain their value wherever you go next.
But there is another factor that is rarely discussed. Succeeding in a challenging environment gives you confidence, the kind that comes from having already proved yourself. Yet that same confidence can make it harder to step back and consider how you might be perceived in a professional environment where no one knows you or understands your career journey. The stronger your track record, the less likely you may be to question how others will interpret it. That is precisely where the blind spot begins.
Recruiters, business partners and prospective clients in your new country will assess your background through their own frame of reference.
Your technical skills are usually the easiest to understand. Developing a product or service, managing cash flow, or leading a marketing strategy are abilities you can explain and demonstrate almost anywhere.
Your interpersonal skills may be harder to interpret. Attitudes towards hierarchy, time management, negotiation and conflict vary considerably between workplace cultures. What one country sees as initiative, another may see as a lack of structure.
Your status and professional network are even less transferable. They were built within a particular business environment and, in many cases, remain tied to it.
Another frequently overlooked factor is how your former country of residence is perceived in your new one. The same achievement may not carry the same weight depending on whether it was accomplished in Buenos Aires, Cairo, London, New York or Frankfurt. An unspoken hierarchy of countries and professional cultures often shapes how people value international experience.
As a result, some of your greatest achievements may not be recognized for what they are. Keeping a company profitable during a currency crisis in Latin America might make for an interesting story during an interview in Barcelona or Berlin. It may not be seen as evidence that you can succeed in that market.
This is what I call the “illusion of continuity”: the assumption that people in a new country will understand and value your career in the same way as those in your previous one.
The more successful your previous career, the stronger this assumption tends to be. And it can prove particularly costly when the reality only becomes apparent months, or even years, after moving. I see this repeatedly among the expats I work with.
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When a former entrepreneur returns to employment
This is where the perception gap can be particularly stark. It is also one of the least openly discussed career challenges.
Former business owners seeking work in a country where they have no professional history usually face three difficulties.
First, moving directly into a management position is rarely straightforward when your experience comes from a different type of company or market. Employers are often reluctant to place a team in the hands of someone whose references and leadership experience they cannot verify locally.
Second, workplace culture can vary significantly. Expectations around autonomy, teamwork and internal procedures are difficult to understand fully before you have worked within the local system.
Third, and perhaps most unexpectedly, your previous position can work against you. Someone who has founded and managed a small or medium-sized business may raise unspoken concerns. Will they be comfortable reporting to someone else? Will they remain in the role for more than a year, or eventually return to entrepreneurship? Will they continually push for greater control over their responsibilities?
These questions may never be asked directly, but they can still influence a hiring decision.
One increasingly common arrangement may appear to avoid these difficulties altogether: living in one country while working remotely for a company based elsewhere, often to avoid relying on local salary levels.
However, the underlying issue does not disappear. It simply moves elsewhere. A recruiter in Paris or New York will still assess a candidate living in Buenos Aires, Lisbon or Bangkok through the cultural and professional expectations of their own market.
There is also another blind spot. Remote work for an overseas company does little to establish your career in the country where you live. You may spend years there without building a local network, gaining locally recognized references, or developing a professional history that employers in the area can easily understand.
As long as the remote position continues, this may not feel like a problem. But if the relationship ends, you could suddenly find yourself without any of these foundations, despite having lived in the country for several years.
The illusion of continuity has not disappeared. It has simply been postponed, and the consequences may be even greater.
Understand the market before presenting your experience
Your first task when entering a new country should not be rewriting your CV. It should be understanding the market that will assess that CV. Until you know how local employers evaluate experience, qualifications and seniority, you are effectively presenting your career in the dark.
Before applying for jobs or approaching potential contacts, try to answer five questions:
Who is genuinely hiring in your sector, and at what level? An industry may be growing without offering management positions to professionals from outside the local market.
What evidence will employers expect? Depending on the country, you may need to have your degree officially recognized, obtain a local professional qualification, or provide locally verifiable references. Understanding these requirements early can save considerable time later.
Where does recruitment actually happen? Vacancies may be filled through public job advertisements, specialist recruitment agencies, professional associations or personal networks. The importance of each channel varies between countries, and focusing on the wrong one can make you virtually invisible.
What are local businesses looking for right now? Demand is shaped by their immediate priorities, not necessarily by the skills you most want to use.
What is the realistic salary range for your target position? The local market will apply its own pay scales, regardless of your previous earnings or seniority.
The quickest way to find these answers is to speak with local professionals and expats who have been working in the country for several years. A few well-informed conversations can save you months of unfocused applications.
Two further points are worth keeping in mind. The level at which you enter the market will depend largely on how easily local employers can understand your experience. If you remain in the same profession and industry, particularly within international companies that share similar standards, you may be able to retain your level of seniority.
If you change fields or move into a different type of organization, however, you may need to accept a position below your previous level. This often results from having no established history in the local market rather than a reflection of your actual ability. Rebuilding a useful professional network also takes time.
In 2018, after fifteen years in Argentina, I sold the inbound travel company I had founded and managed for a decade and moved to Spain. I had already decided to change direction professionally, and I approached the move with considerable confidence.
What I had not anticipated was the gap between my experience and how others would perceive it. Twenty-five years in international tourism and ten years running a company in a country facing almost constant economic instability did not automatically speak for themselves in Spain. My career was atypical, and I hadn't yet learned how to explain its value in a way that made sense in the Spanish market.
That experience taught me an important lesson about moving abroad. It also shaped the way I now support other expats through their own career transitions.
If you are preparing to move to another country after building a successful career, the key question is not simply what experience you bring with you. It is how you will make that experience relevant and understandable within an entirely new professional environment.
Ugo Gabert is a certified professional Coach, founder of Expat Atelier and creator of the EDPAT™ Method. After twenty-five years in international tourism, including fifteen in Argentina and ten running his own inbound travel agency, he settled in Spain. He has also lived in England and Egypt. He supports expatriates through their professional transitions, in French, English and Spanish.
