03/01/2026

Careers on the Move: Supporting Professional Identity Through Global Relocation

By Elizabeth M. Thomas

Global mobility is increasingly shaping the lives of both clients and the career professionals who support them. In 2024, 304 million people lived in a country other than their country of birth, representing approximately 3.7 percent of the world’s population and the highest number on record (United Nations, 2024). As migration becomes more common, career services providers are encountering new challenges for both themselves and their clients. Using the author’s relocation from the United States to Europe as a case example, this article highlights common professional barriers faced abroad and distills practical strategies career service providers can apply when supporting internationally mobile clients or navigating such transitions themselves.

Case Study: Navigating Barriers Abroad

When I moved from the United States to Austria to support a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity for my partner, I hoped to establish a new professional purpose in a new country. Doing so, however, proved far more complex than anticipated.

Although I devoted my first year in Austria to learning German, my language skills were insufficient for many roles, and competition for English-speaking positions was intense. Austria’s strict credentialing standards and protected professional terminology meant that I was not permitted to call myself a “counselor” or a “coach,” despite holding an advanced degree in counseling psychology. I faced a steep learning curve in understanding Austrian conventions around curricula vitae (CVs), job search strategies, and employment negotiations and contracts. Securing work authorization was also complicated by perceived logistical barriers regarding my residency status.

I later learned that these obstacles are common among internationally mobile professionals. Attempting to pursue the same work in the same way as one would “back home” is often unrealistic, requiring flexibility, creativity, and patience.

Over the past seven years, I built professional relevance by engaging in unpaid but highly aligned work, including founding a peer-support career group, writing a career column for an international women’s organization, consulting with an international school, and presenting for the U.S. Embassy’s Global Employment Initiative. Alongside this pro bono work, I pursued adjacent paid roles aligned with my background in higher education. While none of these positions included the word “career” in the job title, they allowed me to deploy transferable skills in new settings, such as international schools and universities, and gradually construct new professional identities. During periods of un- and under-employment, I further invested in my development by earning an additional credential as a Certified Career Counselor from NCDA.

Applying Lessons Learned

Drawing from this case example and research on expatriation and career development, the following framework offers actionable guidance for career service providers working with internationally mobile clients or preparing for international transitions themselves. While national contexts vary, these principles are broadly adaptable.

Assess the Landscape Early: Career practitioners should encourage clients to explore local labor market norms, work culture, and hiring practices early in the relocation process (McDonough, 2025). Strategies effective in one country may be ineffective, or even counterproductive, in another. This includes understanding expectations around CV length and format, cover letter tone, interview style, and communication norms.

Clarify Credential Recognition: Many countries offer formal processes to evaluate and recognize foreign degrees and licenses. These evaluations may determine what professional titles individuals may legally use, what services they can provide, and how compensation is structured. Career professionals can help clients understand credentialing pathways, legal restrictions, and adjacent roles that allow them to apply their skills while building local language proficiency and credibility.

Reframe Professional Identity: International transitions often require individuals to decouple identity from specific roles or titles. Identity reconstruction, rather than reclamation, is a key developmental task during expatriation (Kanstrén & Mäkelä, 2022; McNulty, 2012). Instead of attempting to replicate a prior position, clients may benefit from identifying core competencies, values, and transferable skills that can be applied across multiple contexts. Career professionals can support clients in articulating skills-based narratives that emphasize adaptability over role continuity.

Leverage Adjacent Roles: Periods of underemployment, wherein career identities cannot be wholly enacted, or a full range of skills deployed, are a common phenomenon during periods of expatriation, and can be just as damaging as unemployment (Betz, 2006). Pro bono work, contract roles, and strategic volunteering can serve as meaningful bridges, allowing individuals to remain professionally engaged while building local experience and networks. Career practitioners can normalize nonlinear career paths and help clients assess how short-term or unpaid roles contribute to long-term career sustainability and identity development.

Invest in Networks: Networking is often central to successful labor market entry abroad, particularly in relationship‑driven cultures. Building connections prior to relocation, whether through live or virtual networks like LinkedIn, and continuing to cultivate networks after arrival, can accelerate integration and reduce isolation. Global organizations supporting international professionals, such as the Professional Women’s Network, offer local chapters worldwide. Career professionals can guide clients in identifying relevant associations and developing culturally appropriate outreach strategies.

Identity Flexibility as a Career Competency: International relocation demands adaptability, resilience, and tolerance for ambiguity, essential career competencies in a global labor market. Career practitioners can help clients name and validate strengths developed through the process of expatriation, including creative problem-solving, persistence, cognitive flexibility, nonverbal communication, and cross-cultural awareness. Rather than concealing gaps related to international moves, clients can strategically capitalize upon these experiences on CVs and in interviews.

Reimagining Professional Identity

Whether by choice or circumstance, living and working abroad requires career professionals and clients alike to allow their identities to evolve. International transitions remind us that work is not defined solely by titles or paychecks, but by the intentional application of skills, values, and purpose across changing contexts. By reframing international career transitions as a developmental process rather than a loss or disruption, career practitioners can better support internationally mobile individuals, and themselves, by modeling adaptability and identity flexibility. In an increasingly interconnected world, the ability to reimagine professional identity across borders is no longer a niche skill, but a core competency for the career development field.

^{Career Convergence welcomes articles with an international connection.}

References

Betz, N. (2006).  Basic issues and concepts in the career development counseling of women. In W. B. Walsh & M. J. Heppner (Eds.), Handbook of career counseling for women (2nd ed., pp. 45-74). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kanstrén, K., & Mäkelä, L. (2022). Expatriate partners’ subjective well-being and related resource losses and gains. Community, Work & Family, 25(4), 523-550.

McDonough, P. (2025, October 1). Beyond borders: Cultivating culturally conscious career counseling. Career Convergence. https://www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/603206/_PARENT/CC_layout_details/false

McNulty, Y. (2012). ‘Being dumped in to sink or swim’: An empirical study of organizational support for the trailing spouse. Human Resources Development International, 15(4), 417-434.

United Nations. (2024). International migrant stock 2024: Key facts and figures. https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/undesa_pd_2025_intlmigstock_2024_key_facts_and_figures_advance-unedited.pdf

Elizabeth M. Thomas, MA, CCC, is passionate about supporting individuals with career concerns in international contexts. She has spent her career working in K-16 settings, including international schools and universities in Europe. Elizabeth lives in Oslo, Norway, where she is a Mentoring Program Manager for Professional Women’s Network Norway and continues to serve the career-related needs of the international community. You can find her on LinkedIn, and she would especially appreciate connecting with other career professionals in the Nordic region.