Applying for a job without knowing it

The year is 2013, my husband is working for a multinational, we are about to get married and he gets an offer to move from Brazil to Panamá. It would be a huge move, as we would have to leave everything behind, but we were pretty excited about this opportunity.

Before accepting the offer, my husband’s boss invited us for a dinner. According to my husband, his boss wanted to meet me personally. My first reaction was: “What a lovely boss has crossed your career. So kind of him”.

I’m a very enthusiastic person, who is prone to see the upside of every situation. It can be helpful, but also tricky. After my excitement, my husband looked at me and said: “there is something more than just being kind…”. Enthusiastic can also be very innocent, and that was the case.

The fatidic day arrived, and we were supposed to pick his boss up. As soon as he got into the car, without knowing it, the “interview” started. He asked me everything about me and my background; It was the longest interview I’ve ever been, even though I had no idea what position I was applying for. But this men knew. As an intelligent, experienced and result driven professional, he knew exactly what he wanted to find out about my profile. I was about to become a trailing spouse.

According to Cambridge dictionary, trailing spouse is: “the husband or wife of an employee who is sent to work in another country” . Cambridge states that: “ (1) If you want to hire top people, the trailing spouse issue is a continues challenge. (2) More enlightened employers are realizing that the happiness of the trailing spouse is crucial to the success of any foreign secondment”

According to P&W, an expat can cost almost 2 times compared to a local employee. Besides all costs related to the move, expats has benefits such as house allowance, cost of living, school fees, international health insurance, among others.

That said, after 4 moves, 3 different continents, 2 pregnancies and 8 years as a trailing spouse, I can completely understand why I had that long interview for this challenging position.