Here's a question I hope some of you may be able to help me with. If any of you recognise me as working at your company from the below, I will buy you any drink of your choice not to grass me up!!!
I am currently working in the motoring industry, and due to a combination of factors: itchy feet/boredom, desire to do something before I get old/earlyish midlife crisis, simple desire to earn more money in a different culture, I am looking at jobs abroad.
A favourite, as an emerging economic power and also having travelled it widely; is China. Dubai is up there, although I have a feeling it would be a "bit much" for me, but I have friends who work there who love it. Europe as well obviously; I speak French and German, I am degree-educated and currently a Customer Manager and also have some Marcomms experience. The car industry is the obvious choice as I love it as well as work in it, and have done for 7 years.
Any advice/tips/suggestions from experience?
Just thinking aloud really and you lot always seem to have sage advice on most things, even when I go off on one of my rants!
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If you go to France, try to join a company that's foreign to the country (e.g. a German-owned employer in France). Personal experience, and that of co-workers, has shown its hard for a non-Frenchman to get promoted in a French-owned workplace. The other option is to go in as a sub-contractor. To varying degrees, this seems to hold in most European countries outside the British Isles.
As for Dubai, Abu Dahbi has a similarly booming economy but a quieter social life with somewhat less emphasis on conspicuous spending (well, as much as is possible for a city that has its own private jet airline). Qatar is another option in the Gulf that may be worth a look.
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I have just got back from a motor-industry related job in China and I wouldn't recommend it under any circumstances. Not a pleasant place to live or work IMHE - you will only get to see the grotty and polluted industrial areas.
Germany is a great place to work and I do a lot of contract work there. I speak German pretty well, but many companies use English as their working language. Pay rates are generally pretty good and the working conditions and management competence are leagues ahead of what you will find in most UK companies. I have found them generally very receptive to UK employees and I know quite a few English employees at the BMW FIZ in Munich who really enjoy life there.
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> not to grass me up!!!
Well if your email address on your prifile is right - its too late.
A friend of Nicolle go itchy feet. Decided to teach english in places that dont. Just come back from a year in China and has now shot off to Qatar for a year. Aparently you dont need to speak the native tongue, you just need to speak and write very good english,
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Thanks for your feedback so far... no comment on e-mail address!!! : )
If I could be so cheeky, could I ask Aprilia how he got into what appears to be contract work in various locations (which would be ideal for me) and TVM: did l'ami de Nicole do a TEFL or similar, or did she just get a job without?
I do appreciate the comments about China, but short-term it would be an excellent base to see the nicer bits.... a bit like living in Crewe and visiting Alderley Edge, for example!
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Thanks for your feedback so far... no comment on e-mail address!!! : ) If I could be so cheeky could I ask Aprilia how he got into what appears to be contract work in various locations (which would be ideal for me)
Bascially I worked for a very well known motor-industry contracting company for a short while. I got to know a lot of people and branched out on my own. Basically been getting work through 'word of mouth' ever since. If you do a decent job they call you back. The motor industry is, in some ways, quite a small world and a lot of people in the German industry play 'merry go round' and end up having worked for all the big co's.
If your name gets known then you find yourself invited to all sorts of places (like China and Japan for instance!).
If you go to China then it is likely to be as an employee of a European company.
I do appreciate the comments about China but short-term it would be an excellent base to see the nicer bits.... a bit like living in Crewe and visiting Alderley Edge for example!
The snag here is that China is a very big place and the nice bits tend to be a long long way from the grotty bits. Not quite as per your Crewe analogy! The food away from the touristy bits is also quite awful - the shops selling dried seafood turn my stomach. Also seeing kids wandering around chewing at a dried lizard tied to a stick is something to behold...
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Aprilia, would you be willing (off-line) to tell me the name of the firm?
With regard to your second point: my analogies are usually ridiculous, that one was no different... : ) I know what you mean, but I am so bored at the moment a dried lizard would make my day!!! I have actually seen similar in Guilin, in fact having consumed far too much Tsingtao than is sensible whilst eating in a Guilin restaurant with no English menu, god only knows what I myself have eaten.....
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Aprilia would you be willing (off-line) to tell me the name of the firm?
Which firm?
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"Bascially I worked for a very well known motor-industry contracting company for a short while"
If you wouldn't mind, could you tell me the name of the contracting company? (Offline as I said)...
Cheers!
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If you wouldn't mind could you tell me the name of the contracting company? (Offline as I said)... Cheers!
Well, its a very long time ago now so I don't really mind saying publically - it was MIRA.
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Aprilia,
I hope you don't mind me asking, but what exactly do you do for a living, I was under the impression that you had your own garage business?
Thanks
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Aprilia I hope you don't mind me asking but what exactly do you do for a living I was under the impression that you had your own garage business? Thanks
My father used to own a garage and I worked with him from the age of about 4 years! We used to do general repairs, MoT's and sell a small number of used cars off the forecourt. Basically we were the 'old style' independent repairers, we employed a few mechanics and tended to 'unofficially' specialise in Mercedes and BMW - although my dad would tackle anything apart from Renaults and older Citroens (oh, and no 'warranty companies' thank you!).
When my dad early retired I took the opportunity to seek an easier living and go to university and ended up with a degree in engineering and then a PhD. I worked in the industry as a consultant for a while (mainly on engine management) and also studied for an MBA. This is all quite a long time ago now. I then started up working for myself again (didn't like working for half-witted toadying managers which infest UK industry) and have managed to secure a steady stream of work over the last 10-12 years, mainly in Germany. The working environment there is great and the pay is excellent - which means I really only have to work six months of the year to secure a decent income and so can spend lots of time with the kids (I don't normally work during any of the school holidays - this Easter excepted).
I like to keep my old spanner skills handy and because I have a large workshop and loads of kit from the old garage business I keep occupied the rest of year by working from home - buying and selling the odd Merc and BMW. In the last year or two I have also, for some reason, had a lot of people come to me to do work on Jap sportscars - performance mods and that sort of thing. It seems if you do one or two and people are happy, then word spreads and you get more work...
I've worked for myself most of my life. The rewards can be good, but it is quite insecure and stressful at times, particularly in a cyclical industry. Mind you, I look at my sister who is a teacher (and much more intellegent than I am) and she works very hard and has lots of aggro for about one-third my income (even allowing for sick pay, holiday pay etc etc) - so I know which side my bread is buttered!
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Interesting; nice to see a b.roomer that has industry/trade experience of what he/she is talking about and has been there and done it. Love your point about UK managers; so true!
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> l'ami de Nicole do a TEFL or similar
Yes she did a compressed TEFL - it was very quick
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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If you work for the company in your profile, and depending on what you actually do, enquire about working abroad for them???
I know one of the IT service managers there (he works for my employer now) and he has told me many interesting tales based on him moving around years earlier, e.g.
- Very rich American walks into a Rolls-Royce dealer in the USA with a big ribbon tied as a bow. Asks "have you got anything to fit this". He bought (for cash) a RR, and his minder came back with the bow to fit it, have it loaded onto a low loader and take it away. It was a present for his wife.
- RR/Bentley used to have (and might still do) have a dealer in the far east (could well have been Dubai) to service the vehicles of one of the royalty. He was the only customer!
In fact they used to rotate staff through the operation in the middle east. And there must be more. May have changed under VW though.
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