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When an International Assignment Ends Abruptly

by Rebecca Falkoff
Monster Contributing Writer

You've moved abroad, settled into a new job and home and are looking forward to a long-term stay. But then you get the word that you'll be going home sooner rather than later. What do you do?

One Ex-Expatriate’s Story

For Brandon Cohen, who moved to Paris to work as a technical recruiter, this was exactly what happened. He came to Paris to build a European recruiting base for Trilogy, an e-commerce software solutions company. Cohen and his team networked on European college campuses to recruit new talent. "There were maybe 10 or 12 people on staff full-time when we got there, and we brought it up to 60 people full-time," he recalls.

In addition to the work, Cohen reveled in the company's atmosphere and the diversity of the staff. "It was a cool place to work -- laid back, no dress code, mostly young people," he says. "There were 16 different nationalities in the Paris office. And I love the absolute beauty of Paris, what you feel when you walk around, the spirit of the city."

Settling in, Cohen expected to stay in Paris for at least one year. It didn't happen. "Basically, the economy went down," he says. "We realized that we were going to have too many people." When layoff time comes, the recruiters are the first to go.

Although Cohen was disappointed when he found out that his Paris job at Trilogy was eliminated, the company took care of the logistical hassles of leaving Paris and paid for his moving expenses, health insurance and return flight. He had one month to prepare for his departure from Paris, and in that time he was able to take care of everything. "Trilogy was phenomenal,” he says. “For as bad a situation as it was, they handled it as well as they could.”

After learning of his layoff, Cohen considered staying in Europe. But part of his severance agreement was that he would return to the US and not seek other employment in Europe using his work visa. "I took the opportunity to go back and lead 15-year-olds and 16-year-olds on a trip through the western United States and Canadian Rockies," he says.

Lessons Learned

Even though the Trilogy assignment ended sooner than Cohen had hoped, he gained a great deal from the experience. "I feel like it is really humbling to work overseas," Cohen says. "You could be speaking with someone, having an intelligent conversation, and you realize that the person is speaking in a second, third or fourth language and I'm speaking my native tongue. It made me realize how important it is to learn another language."

While there is no good way to escape a bad economy, you can take some consolation in the fact that corporations that take on the costly endeavor of maintaining US employees overseas are unlikely to pull out of the investment early. Most early terminations do not result from budget cuts, but from employees' difficulties in adapting to new cultures /articles/3470/19112/1/home.aspx, particularly when employees are relocated with spouses and families.

For Cohen, getting recalled may have been the end of a dream, but in many ways, he still sees the assignment as a gateway to new experiences and opportunities. As the French say, C'est la vie.