Abstract

With the advent of globalization, the world has become relatively small and career opportunities abroad are not a rarity anymore as many corporations search for qualified, competent and internationally oriented professionals all over the world to meet their strategic manpower needs. More and more people are now developing an orientation towards internationalism in both subjective understanding and objective reality of their careers. The recent publication of a number of special issues documenting the phenomenon of international or global careers (Harris & Dickmann,2004; Inkson, Lazarova & Thomas,2005; Morley & Heraty,2004) justifies the growing interest in this phenomenon. Indian professionals, too, have changed their mindset in terms of the availability of opportunities that they may pursue. The Indian manager no more restricts himself within the geographical boundaries and wants to explore options in areas of higher education as well as jobs. Even though globalization has compressed the world into a global village offering endless opportunities, the decision to choose or reject these opportunities resides in the hands of the managers. Thus, the primary objective of the study is to understand the level of preparation and identify the reasons for the choice or rejection of an international career by the students of University of Jammu, J&K state in India, pursuing professional courses like MBA, MCA, engineering and medicine using the Careers in Global Management Questionnaire: Assessing Your Preparation and Interest. The findings suggest that managers or professionals take up an international career because of a multitude of reasons like the cross cultural experience and personal growth, money, career advancement, good location, satisfying life, job implications etc. The rejection is because of reasons related to spouse and family, length of contract, location problems, disruption of life in home country, etc.