Skills in science, technology and maths likely to help land you an international job

IF YOU dream of working in New York or Hong Kong, there are some simple skills that can take you there. Here’s what global companies are looking for.

There are a few simple skills to learn if you want to score a job in New York.

IF YOU’RE interested in taking your talents overseas, you need to put your tech skills front and centre.

Skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) make up nearly half of the 10 abilities most commonly found among professionals who have moved to other parts of the world to pursue career opportunities in the past year, according to new research from LinkedIn.

Specifically, life sciences, mechanical and aerospace engineering, Java development, and software engineering all ranked in the top 10, BusinessNewsDaily reports.

The study, which analysed LinkedIn members who have moved to new countries for jobs, revealed that some skills were twice as likely to be found on a mover’s profile compared to a non-mover’s.

The top 10 skill categories that tended to be unique to movers in the past year were:

• Social media marketing

• Mechanical and aerospace engineering

• Java development

• Life sciences

• Military, defence and national security

• Foreign language translation

• Public policy and international relations

• Software engineering management

• Retail and wholesale

• Management consulting, business strategy and analysis

“If you’re looking for a career that will allow you to see various cities around the world, you might want to focus your studies in a STEM discipline,” Lindsay Ahearne, insights manager at LinkedIn, wrote on the company’s blog.

Science, technology, engineering and maths are the most sought after skills for international jobs.

In addition to those skill categories associated with international relocation, the study uncovered the specific job functions that were most and least likely to lead to an overseas move.

Those job roles included business development, marketing, research, media and communication, and product management. The job functions that were least likely to entice an employee overseas were ownership and entrepreneurship, administrative positions, security and protective services, health care services, and accounting.

The study found that as a percentage of the country’s total workforce, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) saw the most talent from around the world coming into the nation.

“This might reflect the region’s fast development and the increasingly busy skyline,” Ahearne wrote. “We noticed that the vast majority of members who moved to the UAE (75 per cent) came from outside of the Middle East.”

Software and social media were also sought after skills by international companies.

Overall, just 3 per cent of the U.S. employees in the study who moved in the past year went to an international location. That’s considerably less than Switzerland, which saw 69 per cent of its movers leave the country.

“So, what can we conclude from this?” Ahearne wrote. ”Well, if you want to work all over the world, you might [need to] have a strong set of STEM skills, be a social media marketing expert, and/or aim for [a] business development role in a technology company with offices in the UAE.”

The study was based on the analysis of 300 million LinkedIn members worldwide and the 20 countries that saw the most migration activity.

This article was originally published on BusinessNewsDaily and is republished here with permission. Also on the site:

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• Want to relocate careers? Move first, hob hunt second