Where in the world would you be prepared to work?

Ex-BP Chief Exec Tony Hayward (of Gulf Oil Spill demonization fame) has recently invested in a company called Genel, which has struck an exploration deal in the oilfields of Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. Earlier this year I went on holiday to Erbil, one of Kurdistan’s main cities, to visit someone who had recently joined its growing ex-pat community. Kurdistan is attracting investment across a number of sectors, although its oil and mineral wealth are the real economic drivers.  The city’s skyline is changing rapidly and there are now a couple of gleaming shopping malls that could rival the likes of the new Westfield centre at the London Olympics site. Iraq’s untapped carbon resources are believed to be huge so I’m sure we’re just at the start of things.

If you have your eye on a training contract with an international law firm then you should start considering how keen you are to work overseas during and after your training contract. And when I say overseas, I am talking about an overseas location of your employer’s choice – a choice that will depend on how much live business exists from region to region.

Trainees’ overseas seats have had a somewhat lower profile over the past few years. A decade ago all the talk was of coveted assignments to New York, Paris or Singapore. Training contract applicants commonly cited the chance to work abroad as one if the key things that attracted them to a firm. Trainees viewed an overseas seat as positively beneficial for their qualification job prospects: it was a badge of honour, an acknowledgement that they were a talented trainee. What has happened in the last three or so years is that Western European and North American overseas seats have reduced in number, and to an extent have been replaced by additional openings in the Middle East and the oil and mineral-rich parts of Central Asia. This shift came at a time when trainees were also facing poorer qualification prospects back at home in the United Kingdom following the financial crisis. There was a noticeable shift in trainees’ attitudes towards overseas postings, partly resulting from concerns about being away from the home office and the firm’s key decision makers. Few trainees wanted to be away on an overseas secondment - out of sight, out of mind - when qualification jobs were allocated.

The business needs of international law firms have shifted with the changes in the world economy. Think Gulf States not United States; Asia or Africa not Europe. Firms need to recruit future trainees who will (i) declare an interest in working overseas and (ii) still be keen to go when the time comes to pack up their flat and engage in a bittersweet kiss goodbye at Heathrow. Firms despair at thin excuses as to why a trainee doesn’t want to accept an overseas posting.

If you apply to a firm that flags up its overseas business in recruitment materials then do make sure that you are prepared to go and live somewhere else for a few months during your training contract, or perhaps even a few years after qualification… maybe even somewhere like Erbil or Baghdad.