I am going to update this posting due to some recent requests about finding jobs in interesting places.
Let me preface this to say, I am in essence a traveller. I think I have a personality type that gets a buzz from up and moving to a new place with all new people every now and then. My friend Brady likes to travel alone because he thinks you can be whoever you want to be at these times, not tied to any expectations of your identity. I understand what he means. I have made three moves where I knew no one on the other shore, and I now know well the emotional trajectory such a move takes. I am sure Peace Corps have data some pretty interesting data about this too..
Basically, I arrive and at first I love it. I love the new foods, the new environment, the learning curve. Then I start to look around, and the shine wears off. Then I might hate it (it might be triggered by loneliness and questioning why I am there), and slowly I get out of my funk, off my sofa, out in to the world, and open up to people for who they are. Then I LOVE it. This process takes 6-12 months. I am convinced the second year is when the really good stuff happens, where you get in the swing of it so to speak. Inevitably though these things have a limited duration, jobs come to an end and its time to move on (ideally in my life after 2-3 years). Some corporations actually insist their expatriate professionals move after three years, to keep them "fresh"!
Moving overseas alone or with a partner is not a particularly easy thing to do, but I highly recommend it all the same. You will feel despondent and fraught at some point, but like all things, it too passes. I had a friend who moved with her partner to Thailand. They told their family 1 year, and told me that it was permanent. They were back within weeks. Apparently it was too crowded, too busy and there were too many bugs. I think about their experience in Chang Mai often. They commented that where they wanted to live was in a little shack on the beach and that of course, you can't work there. It seems like they really had not done their research on the size of Chang Mai, their expectations were high and the reality is that moving is expensive and stressful and overwhelming and there will be bugs. Lots of them. I think it helps to have a signed contract before you go. But I wonder if it was because there were two of them that they returned home. I think if you are with someone you are perhaps more likely to talk each other into jumping ship. I have to ask her about this again sometime. In my experience I always at some point want to ditch the whole endeavour and move back to where ever I came from. Above I say "I might hate it" - usually I did HATE it. I remember hoping for a non-fatal matutu (public transport- basically a crowded minivan) accident so I had an excuse to move back home. But fear not, the bad phase is temporary and my time in Kenya was on the whole amazing, sustaining and wonderful (you get the gist).
In Jonathan Safran Foer's "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" the narrator, a nine year old boy has a habit of writing one word in his diary to describe his day. I started to do this when I lived in Kenya picking each day one emotion word. One morning I wrote my word, looked at the list and realised I was happy, just like that. The darkness had passed without doing anything. All these emotions just roll through us, day to day. It was an enormous relief and realisation. All these things I feel will pass and without my doing anything they will get better. Happiness too will pass, but it will return. Going abroad will make you acutely aware of all these feelings. How can it not? Often you find you have so much time on your hands for thinking (my downfall). In Kenya I had no television, no internet and was usually home by 6pm which left a lot of time for reading and sudoku. But these moves, have been some of the best things I ever did, because they allowed for some of the best times in my little wonderful life. A new context allows you to push boundaries, redefine your identity (consciously if you so choose) and try new things that tend to get constrained, or at least are harder to achieve when surrounded by people who have known you forever and who have expectations for who you are and the roles you should play in their lives.
If you are an American (ASHA SLP) looking for international jobs.. here are some sites I check pretty consistently to see what is out there and I know they have had positions of interest in the past!
Let me preface this to say, I am in essence a traveller. I think I have a personality type that gets a buzz from up and moving to a new place with all new people every now and then. My friend Brady likes to travel alone because he thinks you can be whoever you want to be at these times, not tied to any expectations of your identity. I understand what he means. I have made three moves where I knew no one on the other shore, and I now know well the emotional trajectory such a move takes. I am sure Peace Corps have data some pretty interesting data about this too..
Basically, I arrive and at first I love it. I love the new foods, the new environment, the learning curve. Then I start to look around, and the shine wears off. Then I might hate it (it might be triggered by loneliness and questioning why I am there), and slowly I get out of my funk, off my sofa, out in to the world, and open up to people for who they are. Then I LOVE it. This process takes 6-12 months. I am convinced the second year is when the really good stuff happens, where you get in the swing of it so to speak. Inevitably though these things have a limited duration, jobs come to an end and its time to move on (ideally in my life after 2-3 years). Some corporations actually insist their expatriate professionals move after three years, to keep them "fresh"!
Moving overseas alone or with a partner is not a particularly easy thing to do, but I highly recommend it all the same. You will feel despondent and fraught at some point, but like all things, it too passes. I had a friend who moved with her partner to Thailand. They told their family 1 year, and told me that it was permanent. They were back within weeks. Apparently it was too crowded, too busy and there were too many bugs. I think about their experience in Chang Mai often. They commented that where they wanted to live was in a little shack on the beach and that of course, you can't work there. It seems like they really had not done their research on the size of Chang Mai, their expectations were high and the reality is that moving is expensive and stressful and overwhelming and there will be bugs. Lots of them. I think it helps to have a signed contract before you go. But I wonder if it was because there were two of them that they returned home. I think if you are with someone you are perhaps more likely to talk each other into jumping ship. I have to ask her about this again sometime. In my experience I always at some point want to ditch the whole endeavour and move back to where ever I came from. Above I say "I might hate it" - usually I did HATE it. I remember hoping for a non-fatal matutu (public transport- basically a crowded minivan) accident so I had an excuse to move back home. But fear not, the bad phase is temporary and my time in Kenya was on the whole amazing, sustaining and wonderful (you get the gist).
In Jonathan Safran Foer's "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" the narrator, a nine year old boy has a habit of writing one word in his diary to describe his day. I started to do this when I lived in Kenya picking each day one emotion word. One morning I wrote my word, looked at the list and realised I was happy, just like that. The darkness had passed without doing anything. All these emotions just roll through us, day to day. It was an enormous relief and realisation. All these things I feel will pass and without my doing anything they will get better. Happiness too will pass, but it will return. Going abroad will make you acutely aware of all these feelings. How can it not? Often you find you have so much time on your hands for thinking (my downfall). In Kenya I had no television, no internet and was usually home by 6pm which left a lot of time for reading and sudoku. But these moves, have been some of the best things I ever did, because they allowed for some of the best times in my little wonderful life. A new context allows you to push boundaries, redefine your identity (consciously if you so choose) and try new things that tend to get constrained, or at least are harder to achieve when surrounded by people who have known you forever and who have expectations for who you are and the roles you should play in their lives.
If you are an American (ASHA SLP) looking for international jobs.. here are some sites I check pretty consistently to see what is out there and I know they have had positions of interest in the past!
Singapore jobs - The Singapore speech and hearing association: http://www.shas.org.sg
This is the direct link to the jobs page: http://www.shas.org.sg/cos/o.
I'm not sure what the visa requirements are.
Australia jobs (enter speech pathologist in key words)
http://www.seek.com.au/
You might find recruitment firms that will help you with your visa. I am pretty sure Speech Language Pathology is one of those professions that is on the priority visa list. These jobs are looking for an immediate start.
New Zealand also has a site: http://www.seek.co.nz/?cid=sk:main:au:nav:nz
You might find recruitment firms that will help you with your visa. I am pretty sure Speech Language Pathology is one of those professions that is on the priority visa list. These jobs are looking for an immediate start.
New Zealand also has a site: http://www.seek.co.nz/?cid=sk:main:au:nav:nz
South Africa
This is the South African speech, language, hearing association site:
There are also openings in Qatar which you can google, I'd imagine you can similarly find positions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai this way. Sometimes there are positions open in Saudi Arabia. I don't have a good and consistent source for finding positions in the Middle East.
Guam - Not technically international, but you still get to live on a beautiful tropical island. The Guam speech and language community is made up of about 15 professionals who meet regularly. Guam would be a nice place to live with awesome weather, good hiking, amazing scuba diving, great beaches, a lively nightlife, did I mention the weather? Relatively expensive, but all the benefits of living in America, without living in America. Oh right. It IS America. There are certainly a lot of Americans and 10,001 military men. All the salaries of all the speech therapists are posted online (public information) so you can get a sense of the salary range. Department of Education https://sites.google.com/a/gdoe.net/personnel/home/employment-opportunities-and-status
Saipan - Gorgeous place, lovely families, good money for the job and the cost of living (rent can be $400/month, more if you want an ocean view) and the expectations for your work are very low including a tiny caseload. I am happy to give you a direct contact if you email me info@yellowhousechildrens.org
Saipan - Gorgeous place, lovely families, good money for the job and the cost of living (rent can be $400/month, more if you want an ocean view) and the expectations for your work are very low including a tiny caseload. I am happy to give you a direct contact if you email me info@yellowhousechildrens.org
Hawaii - Also not international, but a lovely (though expensive) place to be.. Easter Seals (google Easter Seals Hawaii for the post) were hiring in December 2013, there were also government SLP jobs.
Other - Sterling/Magnum medical usually have international positions. At the moment they have openings in Japan and England. These are civilian positions on military bases with nice relocation packages (~$5000 to cover moving costs for car and furniture, or money to buy car/furniture as needed) and salaries of about $85,000 p.a. for a three year contract. I hear that housing on military bases is subsidized. I am happy to give you a direct contact if you email me info@yellowhousechildrens.org
Other - Sterling/Magnum medical usually have international positions. At the moment they have openings in Japan and England. These are civilian positions on military bases with nice relocation packages (~$5000 to cover moving costs for car and furniture, or money to buy car/furniture as needed) and salaries of about $85,000 p.a. for a three year contract. I hear that housing on military bases is subsidized. I am happy to give you a direct contact if you email me info@yellowhousechildrens.org
I'd also recommend you join ASHA's SIG 17 - Global Issues so that you are on the list serve. Sometimes opportunities are posted there and its a chance to hear about the work that is going on here, there and everywhere.
CUSO (VSO Canada) has volunteer positions you might also want to look into http://cusointernational.org/volunteer. These tend to be 2 year placements with paid flights, housing and a stipend. You can live on it, but if you have a lot of debt it might not work for you to take this kind of position. There have recently been positions in Rwanda, but you might find positions for an SLP in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia (Africa) or Guyana (South America).
There is also interesting speech therapy work going on in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh (volunteer opportunities available), Vietnam (Australians can apply to work/volunteer in the program here), Cambodia, Bolivia, Ghana....
My suggestion would be to know the following before you start contacting people:
- when do you want to go?
- where do you want to go?
and start building connections from there. Like with most things, the less debt you have the more freedom you have. It may be you need to take a year of two to pay off debt, get rid of some/lots/all of your personal belongings and then apply. What ever you decide.. know that its going to be a fun fun fun adventure and you will meet some wonderful friends along the way.
Good Luck!
