Both of them were deeply enriching experiences. Mostly good and some not so good, like the case in India where someone filed a case against me claiming I had put a knife at his throat and asked him to sign some documents. And the judge thought this was worthy of examining and asked the cops to investigate. (I was not even in India during the said year.)

I am hoping to write a book on my experiences, as a guide to small and medium sized industries seeking to expand their businesses to developing countries.

Your post is so timely for me. I thank you.

Sometimes, a little creativity can do wonders as well. I have a friend who took a year off to be a stay-at-home dad. When he started recirculating his resume, he left that year in his job history and described his position as “domestic engineer.” He said he received more phone calls from HR reps about that statement than he did about his qualifications – of which he had many. He had no trouble getting hired.

Bubelah, I agree with Fecundity. You could spend 5 minutes with a financial terms dictionary and know them all easily if you needed to, since it’s your native language. My point was just that if you plan on interviewing for a business position, better be ready for the technical terms. I have the opposite problem in German – I am very conversational but I couldn’t talk business to save my life. It’s all just context….