How to highlight your international professional experience for a job in Africa

Many candidates are looking for an international professional opportunity to boost their career and enhance their skills. Experience abroad is a considerable asset on the job market, especially if the candidate in question is able to justify to a recruiter or future employer the professional and personal skill acquired during this experience. Having international experience on your CV is an asset for many companies in Africa and the Middle East. Have you just completed an international experience, or are you starting to think about your future on the African continent? Here are our tips for highlighting one or more of your international professional experiences and attracting African recruiters. 

Presentation and coherence of your career path

International mobility is generally viewed positively by recruiters. However, it is important to ensure that candidates are able to present their career path clearly and concisely. Professional experience is an added value that can set you apart from other candidates: use this experience as real professional springboard. On your return, you need to identify the personal and professional skills you acquired during your expatriation, so that you can be constructive in your dealings with recruiters. You need to be ready to defend your mastery of these skills with concrete examples. 

Update and optimize your resume 

Once you have identified the skills learned during your international experience, update your CV to share your skills gains with recruiters.

Tailor your CV to the vacancy, giving it a title that corresponds to the job title or the title most commonly used to describe the position you are applying for. Use keywords to present your background, as they will help you stand out from other candidates and make your resume easier to read. To attract the attention of recruiters, you need to make your CV easy to read, both in terms of content and form.

Update your personal information, such as contact details and language skill, from the last time you updated your resume. Present the missions you have carried out and illustrate them with the results you have achieved. You can go into detail about your assignments by presenting your responsibilities, but be careful not to overload your CV.

Even more important than the chronology of your career, the key skills you have acquired through your international experience are your passport to an interview. Here again, give preference to concrete examples, highlighting your most important achievements in your previous positions and emphasizing them with figures or relevant data to back up your statement. 

Enhance your soft skills

In addition to your technical skills, international experience also enables you to develop your interpersonal skills. The soft skills you have acquired represent real added value for your job applications, as they set you apart from other candidates. Preparing for an international experience often means stepping out of your comfort zone, developing your skills and gaining in confidence and autonomy. As well as preparation the discovery of new culture, language and customs enables you to take a different look at your own culture and those of others, and travel encourages open-mindedness and intercultural communication. These skills are highly sought-after by recruiters, enabling them to grasp a wide range of professional situations, so it is essential to promote and communicate them.

Optimize your LinkedIn profile

With a strong presence on LinkedIn, recruiters conduct their searches for new employees on this professional social network. Updating and optimizing your LinkedIn profile is essential if you want to be consulted by recruiters and headhunters. Moreover, sharing your international professional experience with your network encourages co-optation and therefore your chances of finding an opportunity.

Once again, the choice of your keywords is decisive to ensure good visibility, so adapt them according to recruiters’ main searches. Adapt your title according to the most frequently used terms qualifying the position you are targeting to appear in recruiters’ searches.

International work experience is a real springboard for career development and job opportunities on the African continent. However, it is important to prove the benefits of this experience to recruiters. Moreover, you need to be able to present to recruiters the skills you have acquired during your expatriation. It is important to update your CV and LinkedIn profile and optimize them accordingly. 

Fed Africa is a recruitment firm specializing in top and middle management positions in Africa and the Middle East. Our consultants have an expert view of the market in which you wish to evolve. In addition to advising you, they support you throughout your recruitment process and act as ambassadors for your application to their client. Looking for a job in Africa or the Middle East? Send us your CV via our spontaneous application form. Consult our current vacancies available on our website and on the Fed Africa LinkedIn page.