Too awkward to work abroad?

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I've been thinking for awhile about working abroad somewhere. I can't afford to travel unless I'm working while doing so. Problem is, most of these work-abroad jobs tend to favor NT skills - teaching English, working in pubs and resorts, teaching skiing, etc. Not to mention, a lot of these travel opportunities pretty much require you to live in hostel conditions - either staying at a hostel or living in dorm rooms with other young employees.

Are there any jobs that aspies might enjoy that allow us to work abroad? (Aside from, say, becoming a technical expert and being sent by your company to work in another country). I'd love to live somewhere else because it would give me a cultural excuse for not belonging, and take off the pressure to "settle down" back home...

Going overseas is cool! You'll pat yourself on the back for it later. BTW, nice username.

Yeah - i'll appreciate it later, but will I hate it when I'm there? All that communal living!

On a positive note, I like being able to externalize my weirdness - you can always write it off to being a foreigner.

I certainly hope that you would not hate to be where you go. Communal living does have its drawbacks. Only you can determine if you can deal with it. What coutries were you considering?

If you really wanted to, you could see about applying for citizenship in a different country. Dual citizenship laws are quite lax these days, and it is often a prerequisite for many different types of jobs abroad.

Well.. what country are you in now?


As far as jobs.. usually the only ones you can get from abroad are technical ones or those in which you have a long history of experience in or those of manual labor.. countries usually don't like to import the common worker because their locals can do that job.

Like you, I love to travel and I really want to live in a different country just to experience it. Ive been in the US for 10 years and I think ive absorbed all I can .. wanted to move to Japan but the jobs were impossible to get and worse, you needed the language (which is rather hard!). Now im working on moving to New Zealand .. hope to be there by late 2009 if all goes well.

Teaching English is an easy job to get in Asia, and the pay is probably better than any other nontechnical job for a foreigner (especially compared to local salaries in countries like China). In some cases you need a university degree, but there are always schools that will accept you without one as long as you're a native English speaker. This is probably the route I would most likely explore as it's one of the most lucrative and allows the most independence in living arrangements (your own room in a shared apartment).

There are also a number of programs that give a 1-year working visa to young people (usually under the age of 30). Through the SWAP work abroad program you can get a visa for a number of European countries, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, China, Brazil, Canada, US, and probably a few others. But generally unless you have a technical skill and speak the language the jobs are typically in hospitality or pubs - great jobs for social people but not for the rest of us. Plus people in these programs typically live in hostels or other communal living arrangements, which makes me hesitant to go this route.

Another option for going to Japan - there's a website called boobooski.com that recruits English-speakers for hospitality jobs in beach/golf/ski resorts in Japan. You need some Japanese knowledge to do the beach/golf jobs, but you can apply to the ski resort with no language skills as long as you register for the company's language course before you go.