Relocating to USA and Dual Citizenship (was Job Market in the USA)

["Robert L. Stallard \(News Lists\)" <rlslists -at- ev1 -dot- net>]

Greetings Again Colleagues:

Sean  Brierley wrote:
   > There are jobs, but I'm not sure whether your overseas
   > experience will make you less competitive.

Thomas Burke wrote:
   > Why on earth should overseas experience be
   > detrimental to the competitiveness / ability or otherwise
   > of a Tech. Author?  Or is this just another case of US-
   > centric nonsense??

And Lisa Roth wishes to relocate back to the USA...

My experience as a dual citizen proves to me that achieving a degree in a
foreign University and working abroad to later return to the USA, in my
case, was detrimental to my competitiveness in the US technical writer job
market.   Allow me to share my story on this topic.  I will be as brief as
possible.  Everything I state below is solely my opinion and is based upon
my unique experiences.

First, about dual citizenship:  I was born in New Jersey (USA) to an
American father and a Venezuelan mother.  I acquired both nationalities by
birth right in conformance with legislation in both countries.  Until as of
five years ago, when I moved to Houston, I had no problems using both
passports in either country.  As a matter of fact, immigration officials at
airports would joke at me.  Venezuelan officials would tease, "This guy is
dangerous; he has two passports.  He must be from the CIA!"  At US
international airports, they would simply shrug, smirk, or give little
importance to the fact.  (On few occasions I received a shakedown or a
complete search.)  Likewise, when I went to the US Consulate in Caracas to
renew my American passport, they too accepted my dual nationality without
asking me to surrender either.  Authorities advised me that my dual
citizenship status would be affected only if I were to serve in the military
of either country or if there were to be a war between the two countries.
Since then I have renounced to my Venezuelan citizenship for reasons that
are not pertinent to this topic --or this list for that matter.

I have moved back-and-forth between the US and Venezuela (South America) all
my life, which was a great, invaluable experience for me.  This experience
formed me into a bi-cultural, proficiently bilingual professional -and a
citizen of the world.  I have learned that professionals and people in
general are the same everywhere.  Many graduates from Latin American
universities, as well as US universities, can compete with the best anywhere
in the world, especially in technical and scientific disciplines.
Unfortunately in the US, technical communications is misconceived as a
language-specific, geographically localized profession with the exception of
translation, which is usually conceived as unidirectional from one language
to another and not bi-directional.  Many US employers, or their HR
functionaries at their charge, (mostly because of ignorance --my opinion)
believe that technical writing skills cannot be transferred over borders,
cultures and languages.  A technical writer who lived half his life in a
non-English-speaking country or without professional work experience in the
US cannot compete with technical writers who have always (or mostly) worked
in the US, especially if their college degree is not from an American
university, and even more so if from Latin America.  I suspect that
discrimination may play a part, but I cannot prove it.

This attitude is understandable in cases of reciprocity.  Unfortunately, in
my case, reciprocity works against me since my US education was rejected in
Venezuela as is my Venezuelan education and professional experience brushed
off by some here in the US.  I studied through tenth grade and a semester of
college under the US system, and I have a five-year degree (plus thesis) in
Industrial Management from an accredited Venezuelan university.

I arrived to Houston in 1996 adventuring without any job prospects and
without any local contacts.  I figured that with my 10+ years of
professional experience as a bilingual technical writer and organization &
methods consultant would be an asset.  I had the latest knowledge of
manufacturing quality system documentation and conformance to standards such
as ISO 9000 and API Q1 (American Petroleum Institute), authoring documents
in both English and Spanish.  Nonetheless, it took me seven months to find a
local job in technical writing, in an area which I had no previous
experience: specialized hardware and software.  In the interim, I survived
from translation jobs given to me by former clients in Venezuela who wanted
to help me out.  You would figure that superior Spanish skills in addition
to English technical writing would be a plus for Houston employers who do
business with Latin America.  But this is not true.  As a matter of fact,
even my current employer (for whom I have worked for two years, left to
another job, and then was rehired two years ago) will not admit that my
Spanish skills have been of enormous competitive advantage for them in Latin
America, since I author the documentation in both languages.  I do not have
a better salary because of this, despite also saving tens of thousands of
dollars a year in translation and Spanish editing costs.  Previous to this
employment, even prospective employers I interviewed with in Houston who do
business in Latin America insisted that localization of documents in
Spanish-speaking countries was not an issue.

Despite that US businesses are increasing their participation in
international markets, they still need to mature some more and learn to
objectively assess professional talent (especially technical writers) with
foreign experience and who can communicate proficiently in languages in
addition to English.  I strongly recommend US technical writers not to work
abroad for an extended period of time (unless you are sent by a US or
transnational company) or achieve a degree from a non-US university.  Not
only will it be difficult to find a job, but also you will need lots of
money for rent deposits (minimum three months prepaid), transportation, job
searching expenses, bank accounts, tech writing tools, and so forth, since
many places will reject you for not having credit.  Even if you pay cash,
you may not be able to purchase a new car or other items for some time after
you have a job.  If you live in metro Houston, public transportation is not
available throughout the city.  Therefore, you may need a vehicle.

There is much more to this topic that affects our profession.  However, I
think I have already said too much, IMHO.

Take care,

Robert L. Stallard
Technical Writer
Houston, Texas, USA
-- Citizen of the World & Child of the Universe --



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and 
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe.  http://ieeepcs.org/2001/

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.