Career Advice for the Professionals at the Heart of Africa's "Brain Sink".

I remember our shock some months ago at being told that our family paediatrician had relocated, when we turned up for a routine clinic check up for our young toddler. Dr "A" was an excellent, brilliant and dedicated professional, whose incredible flair for his craft, and passion for child health, had endeared him to our entire family for almost two decades. Here in Lagos, he was one of the very best. However, his is just one story.

The silent exodus of large numbers of Africans (the brain drain) migrating overseas for better living conditions and work opportunities has always been known. According to the African Union (AU) an estimated 70,000 skilled professionals emigrate from Africa each year. I suspect the numbers are much larger.

But since Covid-19, a new, much louder, exodus of professionals – I choose to call this the ‘brain sink’ - across all sectors from countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia and elsewhere is reverberating across the corporate and business world.

Here in Lagos, Nigeria, I hear the stories almost everyday; HR teams talk of struggling to recruit young talent, who, despite chronic unemployment, turn down job offers, preferring instead to seek hybrid or remote work; executives cite the challenges of retaining entire IT or finance teams who relocate to Canada or the US; everyday there are reports of banking apps failing and customer service help desks being understaffed because technicians are in short supply; hospitals tell you that for even basic procedures there are only 1 or 2 specialists in an entire state or region, because many medical professionals are exiting.

At the same time, I see mouth-watering offers from multinationals, global tech giants, universities luring young Africans with promises of fully funded scholarships, work-visas or relocation packages. The call for applications has become bolder. A recent one I saw talked about "hiring software engineers from African universities for roles in the US & Canada”. Not surprising since talent is global. Meanwhile an entire relocation consulting industry continues to evolve around these trends.

There are perfectly valid reasons for seeking an international career move; socio-economic, financial, health, insecurity, university strikes, and so on.

As someone who has relocated before, I understand the drivers.

My intention is not to lament the impact of these trends on African economies. That will be an article for another day. However, below, I offer some advice for thinking through your international career move, and hope it resonates with you.

1. Quantify and articulate the cost of your move.  More often than not, global career movers often underestimate the emotional costs of a move. People are often shocked when the job satisfaction they seek from relocating fails to compensate for the emotional void that might be created by such a major decision
2. Every geography has its living costs trade-off, understand yours! The convenience of  freeing yourself from the grid-locked streets of an African megacity like Lagos, may be balanced off by the impossible rental rates of  London or New York or 40%+ income tax rates in some developed countries.
3. A global career and a global network are not the same thing. You may be so fixated on the geographic relocation, that you forget the need to build new networks and adopt a different strategy for building cross-border relationships
4. Be clear-headed about your motivations for relocating. When the going gets tough, our motivations either become a force to help us push through challenges, or the source of  great regret. Either way, knowing your “why” helps you plan your new life with purpose and optimism.
5. Who is moving with you, and who isn’t moving with you? For the married career professional, the in-a-serious-relationship professional, and the working mums and dads, this is probably by far the single most important driver of a decision to move or the single biggest decider against a decision to move. Understand how your decisions impact family. 
6. An international move isn’t always career progression. Learn to differentiate between a change of location and a positive change in career prospects. Ideally relocating your career overseas should always be progressive, but for some it may mean starting all over again. Don’t be so caught up in the headlights that you fail to see where it’s all leading. 
7. Talent is global, but so is competition. A global career move can often shine a strong light on the gaps in our professional competencies. Moving overseas will see you competing with the best minds and talents from all over the world. Often, at that level, you will have to raise the bar. Go with confidence about what you bring to the table, but don’t be shocked that you have to work twice as hard to be counted.
8. “Culture shock” is a real thing. Corporate culture is highly geography sensitive. Don’t be ignorant of the need to understand business culture in new climes, no matter how exposed you think you are. You need to build your cultural adaptability skills, as this will help you navigate the levers of power and influence within your new organisation and environment

The intention here is not to dissuade aspiring movers. Infact, many of the pointers I share above assume you already have a job, and are finally taking in the life-changing implications of your move or planned move.  

Whether you’re thinking of moving your career overseas or have already secured a job overseas, I hope these pointers above help you think through some critical issues or set alight steps you need to take to smoothen your path. 

Let’s face it, almost everyone I know is for the very first time in a while considering the possibility of moving, but the thought of doing so, and the reality of seeing it through are two different things. 

R.A.F

#MultipleStreamsOfImpact - Career advice for the future forward professional