How International Experience Can Benefit Your Domestic Job Search

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I am especially interested in how to address a language expertise/long expertise in a country other than the States when you don't want to be limited by that in the job search (for me, I spent 7 years in Japan and am fluent in Japanese). Not considerably is going on concerning Japan these days - it is all about China - and men and women appear to not know what to do with me as my resume/experience is extremely Japan heavy.

I do not know how recently the questioner was in Japan, but the even more current, the even more weight the Japan expertise will have. I also don't know how long in proportion to other experiences the questioner was in Japan, but if the questioner has additional years in Japan than elsewhere then the Japan experience will also carry additional weight. Finally I do not know what the questioner does, so some sectors are much more amenable than other people to the benefits of international experience and language abilities.

That stated, this question is certainly about framing what you have carried out in the context of what you want to do. A particular skill or experience does not necessarily limit you. It may give the recruiter a predisposition, but that is up to you to alter. The questioner is responsible for translating her Japan experience to whatever she wants to do. She can not assume that the recruiter must realize the value of the experience in and of itself or that the recruiter will know how to translate the experience to the job at hand.

The questioner needs to actively and deliberately market herself. Know what jobs, organisations and industries you want, and craft a pitch about why your Japan expertise (and the rest of you) is an asset. Then, talk to people in those jobs, firms and industries till they see you as a peer, an market insider. Your Japan experience will be at worst just yet another intriguing detail and at greatest value-added evidence of why they completely have to have you.

Finally, tactical assistance aside, I also see lack of confidence in the subtext of this question. To me, substantive international experience and fluency in a language as demanding as Japanese is an enormous selling point whatever the job in question. The way this question unfolds, the questioner is practically apologetic about it. It appears in parentheses like a whisper, when I would be screaming it from the rafters like that scene from Network - I speak Japanese...and I'm not going to take it anymore! For that reason, before pursuing the tactical advertising assistance above, I recommend that the questioner get excited about her Japanese language skill and expertise. The excitement have to precede the sell.