Career Transitions in a Global Context

What do international and cross-cultural transitions ask of us, and what might they shape in us along the way?

Photo by Ross Parmly on Unsplash

Eleven years ago this week, I walked into an office building on the outskirts of Amsterdam to begin a new job. I knew the company and its leadership well; I had been a customer of theirs for more than 10 years. Still, much was unfamiliar. I had left a job with an organization I loved in the United States, said goodbye to family and friends, and moved to Amsterdam with both excitement and anxiety. 

For the two weeks before I started my job, I navigated circular streets, foreign appliances, and the Dutch immigration system. I struggled to make sense of my surroundings. In the first month in my new position, I made one mistake after another - mis-steps that left me confused and questioning my abilities.

At the time, I was operating from a story we often tell ourselves about career transitions. I thought: I’ll take on this role, learn the systems, meet new colleagues, and gradually I will feel competent and capable. Over time, what feels uncertain will be manageable again.

However, when navigating international or cross-cultural transitions, that story often falls apart.

The role may be new, but so are the norms. Feedback is harder to read, and indicators that once signaled progress are suddenly unreliable. What’s more, those making international moves are often mid-level or emerging leaders looking to advance their career. They are navigating transitions without the formal authority that titles and experience can bring. 

These transitions are hard not because of a lack of capability. Research on international assignments consistently shows that performance issues are rarely technical. More often, they are relational, cultural, and psychological. Yet many organizations - and many individuals - view these experiences as problems to solve, not processes to understand.

When transitions are viewed as a problem, talented people look for solutions. They begin to question themselves. They second-guess their instincts. They assume that if the transition feels this uncomfortable, they must be doing something wrong. I would ask:

What if uncertainty during a global career transition is not a sign that you are unprepared, but evidence that you are learning something that will matter later?

Over the coming months, I'll explore lessons learned in my international and cross-cultural work experience. I'll be writing from the middle space that I inhabited during that time and in the years that followed: not entry-level, not executive, but still deeply formative. I hope to address some of the often unspoken dimensions of career transitions in an international context: establishing credibility without authority, communicating across differences, and understanding the costs and benefits of constant adaptation.

My international experience is the primary lens for my observations, but these lessons are portable, and not unique to international transitions. We experience cross-cultural challenges when we change jobs, or move to a new community, or pivot to an unfamiliar industry. I hope that readers will find something useful here, whether you’ve made an international move or are simply adapting to a new workplace culture in your home country.

My reflections in the coming months are not meant to offer step-by-step solutions. They are intended as invitations: to notice what is being asked of you in these moments, and to pay attention to what these transitions might be shaping.