Advice from Contractors: Family Considerations of Working Overseas
When we conducted our 2010 market survey about the overseas contracting industry, we asked contractors to offer any advice to others. 1152 people took the survey and about 370 left comments. I’ve decided to present them here in the blog, broken down by some broad categories that seemed to appear naturally.
I kept the comments pretty much as they were written. To me, any repeated ideas represent common concerns for and from contractors who take overseas jobs. Each vertical colored line represents a different person’s comments. This first post is the shortest and concerns what I call Family Considerations of Working Overseas. Read more
Working Overseas Longer Gives You a Job Search Advantage
I receive emails from people all the time who say they want to pop overseas for a few months or a year, make some big money, then head back home to their real life. If only finding an overseas job was that easy.
The reality is much harsher, especially for new people trying to find contracting jobs overseas for the first time. You’re up against people already working overseas, who have experience, passports and a foot in the system, but most importantly they already have a good network of people to help them. Read more
Iraq’s Drawdown Drives the Future Overseas Job Market
The most common questions I receive are about what the future holds for contracting. Where are the jobs going to be? What should I do now to prepare for the future?
Stiff competition caused by thousands of experienced contractors steadily downsized, the decline of available overseas jobs, plus official recommendations to hire cheaper local and TCN labor is the future in a nutshell.
And it all starts with the drawdown in Iraq. Read more
Introducing Guest Blogger Bruce Diggs: Walking the Walk on Paper
DZJ Editor’s Note: Bruce Diggs worked in human resources with KBR in Iraq, and Fluor in Afghanistan. As a guest blogger, Bruce will share with DZJ readers some of the common mistakes he saw from job applicants and offer advice on how to have better success in the job search process. His website is LOGCAP4JOBS.com, where he helps contractors craft resumes that get noticed. Read more
Where Does Overseas Contracting Stand Today, Part 2- Industry Trends
The first part of this series looked at the breakdown of contractor numbers in the CENTCOM area of responsibility. This part looks at some of the responses from 1150 contractors to our 2010 market survey on the state of industry on several issues. I have kept them in chart format so they are easy and quick to read. Read more
Where Does Overseas Contracting Stand Today, Part 1- Contractor Numbers
I’m going to look at where we stand today: numbers of contractors, some of the issues facing contractors, and the outlook for the future. This first part is about the breakdown and trend of contractor numbers in the CENTCOM area of responsibility. Read more
