Smart Moves: Up sticks and fly to fulfilment

When your grass is too wet to mow for the second weekend running and you are sick of commuting, the thought of living abroad can seem tempting. Finding a job abroad has never been easier and right now 10 million Britons are overseas, with Europe, the USA and Australia being the most popular destinations.

Most experts agree that the growing globalisation of business will lead to an increasing number of international jobs for expatriates. There is a high regard internationally for British workers of all kinds: for professionals, technicians and skilled trade workers. If you possess skills, qualifications and experience that an overseas employer needs and can't find locally, then you have a good chance of finding work.

Overseas Jobs Express is a good place to start. Its publication, available on subscription, offers 1,500 new vacancies each fortnight. New subscribers receive a 120-page book entitled Working Abroad which provides country- specific information on opportunities, living, immigration, education and job-hunting policies.

David Creffield, its publisher, is excited about the service his paper provides. "We publicise vacancies that are open to non-citizens of the target country," he explains. "But our service extends further than pages of advertisements. We have launched a website called the Partner tool, which supports job-hunters in their search for work."

As well as all the jobs that appear in the paper, Partner includes work- related and location-specific news and information. More importantly, you can purchase batches of country- and business-specific address labels so that you can mail off your newly prepared CV to the appropriate companies and agencies. In a section called Jenny's Picks you can see her choice of top tools and sites for job-hunters.

September will see The Expatriate Network celebrating its 10th birthday. The organisation grew out of a need for a trade paper for engineering professionals who wanted to work on short-term contracts abroad. Sheila Hare is one of the founders, now working as editor of its monthly Nexus magazine, which comes as part of the membership package it offers.

"We offer a complete support service to members. Not only do we advertise hundreds of vacancies, but we can help with anything from dealing with con- tractual problems to ordering and supplying goods through our gift service," she says.

The Expatriate Network has 5,000 members, all of whom are interested in the job-hunting aspects of the service. The majority of advertisers are based in the UK and have block visas available, so that new recruits have no problems acquiring their own visas.

But wouldn't it be nice if you could leave the research, tailor-making of CVs, cover letters and application forms and the stamp-buying to someone else? Management recruitment and exec- utive selection group, Michael Page International, may have the answer. Thanks to its 23 years' experience and 55 offices worldwide in 12 countries, it is well equipped to support and advise candidates, while liaising with the employers on your behalf.

"We are very strong on knowing the employment prospects in each country,' says Richard Spencer of Michael Page. "We have launched Michael Page Online, a job-search tool that allows job-seekers to see what vacancies are available and submit their CVs online. Applications are directed to the local office dealing with each vacancy, where those recruitment consultants take over. By the end of the first week we had received 200,000 page impressions as well as 1,000 additional CVs to add to the 5,000 we already had."