Guest Column | Thinking About Working Abroad? Don't Let 'Escaping the Present' Be Your Decision

This article is written by career coach Sunny. With years of experience at multinational companies overseas, Sunny now lives in Hanoi and specializes in helping cross-border professionals navigate career decisions.
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A lot of people assume that working abroad will automatically upgrade their career. But as a career coach, I've seen too many people become even more lost after making the move.

Some end up regretting — not that they didn't go abroad sooner, but that they ever believed going abroad would fix everything.

Going Abroad Can Be a Solution, but It's Not the Only One

If you're planning a trip, you need to think about what kind of experience you want — the why and the what.

- Who's going? Solo? With a partner? A family trip with kids?
- How long? A gap year? A short holiday squeezed into a work break?
- What's the budget? Backpacking on the cheap? Best value for money? Money is no object?
- What's the vibe? Nature exploration? A food tour? History and culture?

Only after you're clear on what you want can you start planning how to get there.

That's why posting "I want to go abroad — how should I plan?" online gets you a hundred different answers. Everyone's starting point is different.

The same applies to careers. When someone asks "Should I work abroad?", what they're really expressing isn't a question — it's unresolved anxiety.

Everyone weighs things differently, has different priorities and resources, and naturally takes different paths. Only you can answer what kind of experience you want from your career.

There's no right or wrong choice — as long as you know what you're choosing and are willing to own the consequences.

You Need More Than Motivation — You Need Judgment

In three years of career coaching, having spoken with well over a hundred people, I've heard motivations like these:

- "My current job isn't going well. Maybe a change of scenery would help."
- "The company culture is terrible. I've heard management abroad is more open."
- "Taiwan's market feels so small. I can see the ceiling. I want to go out and try something bigger."
- "I'm exhausted. I do a lot but nobody notices. I need a bigger stage."

Motivation answers the question: "What's wrong right now?" But strong motivation never equals a clear path. These statements describe a current state, not a future direction. Judgment asks a different question entirely: "Where will this step actually take me?"

Consider three things:

- Role: In this move abroad, who do I want to become? What kind of life do I want to build?
- Path: Is going abroad actually the best route toward that role and that life?
- Transferability: Will this experience give me something I can carry forward and keep building on?

Motivation reminds you to pause and think. But if you use it directly to make a decision, you may just be moving from one place that drains you to another that will drain you just as fast.

One client stands out in my memory. She'd spent over five years at a well-known company in her industry. She said she felt suffocated and wanted to start fresh somewhere new.

But through deeper conversation, she realized what was consuming her wasn't the work itself — it was the socializing demands, the performative culture, the rigid seniority hierarchy. She was deeply burned out.

Staying meant playing by rules she didn't believe in. Leaving meant uncertainty. But she didn't want to lose herself for a job.

So I asked: "It sounds like finding a company with the right culture could solve this. If that's the case, would you still want to go abroad?"

She hesitated.

Changing Location Usually Changes How You Feel, Not the Outcome

Moving to a new place can bring temporary relief. New surroundings, a different rhythm — it feels like you've finally left the place where you were stuck.

But in career terms, changing location usually affects how you feel, not the underlying structure. What actually shapes your career trajectory comes down to three things:

What role does this move put you in?

No matter which country you're in, the market will label you. If you've been bouncing between jobs in peripheral roles, going abroad won't change that pattern.

Are your skills transferable and stackable?

For example, I spent ten years in commercial real estate in mainland China. When I moved to Vietnam, I became a fully remote career coach working for myself. I had to assess which skills from my corporate past could transcend industry and geography and carry over to a completely new career path. And then, which new skills from coaching could open further doors.

How will the market read this chapter of your story?

This hits hardest for Taiwanese expats on overseas assignments. Strip away the title and the language advantage — what's actually left? Or are you trapped by the high expat salary, unable to leave but unable to go back?

Changing countries might give you breathing room. But only changing the structure moves your life forward.

The Real Question Isn't Whether to Go — It's Honest Self-Examination

Whether it's Vietnam or any other country, going abroad can be a great option. For some, it's an important and necessary career experience — one that brings new market perspectives, a different pace of life, and a clearer understanding of where you stand internationally.

What really needs examining is never "Should I go abroad?" The deeper question is: what exactly do you hope this move will replace?

If you just want to leave an environment that feels exhausting, limiting, or hopeless, then yes — a new location may take the pressure off temporarily.

But if you haven't also figured out what role you want to build toward, what skills you want to stack, and which path you want to be on, then that feeling of "not knowing where I'm headed" will likely just resurface later, no matter where you go.

This article isn't arguing against Vietnam, and it's not questioning the value of expat or cross-border work.

The one thing I really want to say is this: don't rush to make "leaving where I am now" the basis of your decision before you've figured out where you actually want to go.

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So if you've been going back and forth lately — "Should I go work abroad (in Vietnam or anywhere else)?" — instead of rushing to a conclusion, try asking yourself:

What do I hope going abroad will solve?

Is it escaping an exhausting environment? Fleeing a path with no exit? Or do you just want to know if there are still other possibilities out there?

And then push one layer deeper: if the location stayed the same, what is the one thing I'd actually want to change?

There are no standard answers to these questions. But being honest with yourself is where finding the right path begins.