Mexican Executives Working as Ex-Pats

Aug 20th, 2009 | By Fernando Espinosa | Category: Job, Manufacturing

By Fernando Espinosa.

As a member of a LinkedIn group, I saw a member from Mexico inviting fellow group members to describe what led them to decide to work outside of the country and if the right opportunities existed to return to Mexico – would they? And if so, under what circumstances?

The answers were very interesting: Some very passionate while others were personal, and some anecdotal, but at the end all of them were very authentic and offered some interesting conclusions. I conducted an informal survey of my own and found many of my results to be very comparable to those in the LinkedIn group. I would like to share the results of this informal survey as follows:

1. We know that most all the people that have left Mexico to go to work overseas in the “developed world” did it in search of better career opportunities and upper mobility and they were able to find those career opportunities overseas. These same people are now integrated to those countries economic systems, culture and various social dynamics and in the majority of cases, I found that most of them still miss Mexico or some aspects about the Mexican culture in a great way.

2. Most people that responded agreed that high tech industries in Mexico such as biotech, software or banking related industries still do not offer enough good quality career opportunities to give them optimal upward mobility.

3. I found that many of those surveyed believe that some jobs in Mexico related to supply chain and accounting and finance disciplines offer significant opportunities for career development.

4. People that left Mexican maquiladoras or manufacturing companies in Mexico to work at divisional or corporate headquarters locations in the manufacturing industry have mixed stories. (My survey group in Mexico came from mid-level professionals and senior executives within aerospace, automotive, medical devices, metal mechanical, plastics and food / beverage industries.) Some of them continue to do very well in their host country and some of them have had to return to Mexico for a variety of reasons (visa expiration, end of assignment, etc.) and in most of these cases they are looking for a job when they return to Mexico.

I am very interested in expanding this topic and getting more opinions from others. Only 25 people participated in the survey I refer to above. We can all get a bigger picture of the local trend by asking similar questions to all the people we know regardless if you are Mexican or not. Please send me your comments to the following questions:

If you are a native of Mexico, or another nation, have you lived outside of your country? If so, please let me know what your host country was and for how long?
How would you describe your experience?

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the “most satisfied”; how would you rate your experience in the host country?

If you missed your home country or your home culture, please explain what aspects you missed and what the timeline was in your experience?

Fernando Espinosa is an Executive Recruiter in Qualifind, Inc. and is Mexico’s only member of the prestigious Pinnacle Society. You can share your responses with Fernando by e-mail at: fespinosa@quali-find.com

Qualifind, Inc. provides professional and executive search services for specific disciplines and industries throughout the U.S. and Mexico. We are a U.S. based firm with our corporate offices in San Diego, California. We have branch offices and recruiting staff in the U.S. (i.e Chicago, Austin) and Mexico (i.e. Monterrey, Mexico City).