The intrigue of international assignments: if you're prepared, career advancement, leadership opportunity and a diversified experience can be yours.

IN 1994, WHEN BELINDA MILLER EMBARKED on a two-year assignment as director of human resources for Swissotel Beijing, she envisioned an alluring experience awaiting her in a country rich with history and culture. For the most part, that proved to be true, but her international sojourn was not without a few bumps.

Miller, a Norfolk, Va., native, was shocked one day last year by the reaction of a Chinese employee to a piece of innocent advice that she had given. "I calmly explained to her how she could have handled a particular situation better. She became extremely upset and started crying," recalls Miller, whom hotel employees respectfully call loaban, or boss.

Although Miller spoke to the woman as she would to any American employee, she quickly learned to use a subtle, more Socratic approach. "I had to phrase things differently, such as `Have you thought about what is the most effective way to perform this task?'" It was a lesson she would not soon forget.

Being sensitive to cultural differences and nuances is just one aspect of an overseas assignment. Today, recognizing those differences is crucial, now that more and more companies target fast-growing foreign markets while requiring their managers and executives to have international experience.

According to a survey by the National Foreign Trade Council, the number of Americans working overseas, most commonly referred to as "expatriates," jumped 30% in 1995. Of the 74 companies the NFTC polled, 71% said they expect this growth to continue. While the vast majority of American expatriates are male, the percentage of women venturing overseas has increased substantially in the last four years, from 4% to 12%. Many of those who work abroad, like Miller, see an international assignment as an exciting, rewarding, sometimes even glamorous career move. Still, gaining those new-found business and management skills may come as a culture shock for the uninitiated. It can also mean a loss for the company that doesn't utilize the skills of these wayfaring employees upon their return.

PREPARING FOR THE JOURNEY

Three factors are necessary for a successful assignment overseas, says Martin F. Bennett, senior partner at Bennett Associates, a cross-cultural and global management training firm in Chicago. First, you must evaluate if an international assignment is right for you: Then, be sure to get cross-cultural training. And finally, you must utilize and apply those skills after your return.

Both employee and company must be clear on the reasons why the assignment is being undertaken and what is expected. It's also important to determine how an international experience fits into your lifestyle and career plans, emphasizes Bennett. The successful expatriate is an open-minded flexible individual, someone willing to take risks. In other words, you need more than just professional and technical skills to thrive--you must also have the ability to adapt to different cultures.

That's where cross-cultural training is important. Yet, despite the increase in the number of overseas assignments, many U.S. firms don't provide employees with cultural and language education. A recent survey conducted by Runzheimer International, a Rochester, Wis.-based management consulting firm, found that only 42% of the 54 multinational companies polled had any formal training program for acculturating expatriates with their host country.

Even those employees who are independent and well traveled should get some form of cultural or language training before departing, according to Bennett. For example, some expatriates may expect America's strong work ethic to cross all borders. As a result, they may misinterpret the more relaxed attitude towards work seen, for example, in many European countries as laziness. "The key to global competency is to develop the skills to cope, and that means integrating into the dominant culture and realizing how to properly interpret and analyze behavior," says Bennett.

READING THE SIGNS

Miller certainly had her job cut out for her in China, the leading destination for international assignments among emerging countries. The 35-year-old Wharton School of Business graduate landed the job of recruiting, training and managing employees--a job traditionally held by ethnic Chinese--quite by accident.

In 1991, Miller was wooed away from her job as a director of travelers cheques marketing at American Express by the Swiss hotel firm. Working as a marketing advisor at Swissotel locations throughout the U.S., Europe end Asia, she was assigned to China for a six-month stint in 1994. Her mission: to develop strategies to increase hotel revenues and make the five-star Swissotel Beijing attractive to the international traveler. Her ideas were so impressive that after five months, she was asked to stay and implement them. With a $1.5 million annual budget, one of Miller's main areas of focus was to train the property's more than 1,000, mostly Chinese, employees in the art of first-class customer service.

Despite having worked in Turkey, Amsterdam, Zurich, Dusseldorf and Seoul, Miller was surprised by the cultural differences in China. In a country where people are fed information, memorize it without question and don't take well to criticism, "I had to learn not to be too direct with my employees," she recalls. Miller, who didn't start taking formal language classes until nine months into her assignment, says that learning the semantics of the language gave her important clues about the culture. "The Mandarin word for `question' is the same word for `problem.' Knowing that helped me better understand that people who ask too many questions, or are too challenging, are viewed negatively."

In retrospect, Miller says that while she could have benefited from some form of cross-cultural training, she has no regrets. Her naivete led her to attend certain social events as well as personally recruit from the area's vocational schools, both functions normally attended only by native Chinese. These forays--however accidental--gained her a high degree of popularity among her colleagues and also showed her respect for the culture.

GETTING OUT

Regardless of their locale, a common mistake many expatriates make is staying within the circle of the emigrant community. This practice is especially pronounced in South Africa where there is an ever-increasing African American expatriate population. J. Eric Wright didn't want to make such a mistake in a country with 11 official languages, and, at least, that many ethnic groups.

"When I arrived in South Africa, I went to the townships of Soweto and Alexandria and met South Africans there and built friendships," says the manager of international capital markets for Citibank in Johannesburg. He befriended two Soweto families, and now mentors a 15-year-old boy, preparing him to attend college in the United States. Wright says he could have remained in the comfortable confines of the African American suburban community, but reaching out helped him to better understand social mores, such as the custom of young people not looking their elders in the eye. "It's considered a form of disrespect," Wright explains. "I wouldn't have known this if I didn't watch South African children interact with their parents." As a result, the 31-year-old Wright says that he now knows to behave respectfully when he encounters people older than him.

A maverick of sorts, Wright went to Africa after getting his M.B.A. in finance and entrepreneurial management from Wharton in 1992. He went as an independent lacking the security blanket of a multinational firm.

The Berkeley, Calif., native knew that getting there and starting his own business wouldn't be cheap, or easy. He convinced MBA Enterprise Core, a consortium of 20 business schools in the U.S., to sponsor his trip. His initial destination was Accra, Ghana, where he launched the investment bank, Gold Coast Securities Ltd. After conceptualizing the business and developing a plan, and wading through months of the tedious regulatory procedures that haunt many developing nations, his company was anchored.

By the summer of '93, he and three other Americans began working on the process of privatizing many of Ghana's nationalized entities. Gold Coast Securities' first major project was its involvement in the $500 million privatization of the Ashanti Gold Fields.

Although Wright's eye was always on South Africa, it wasn't until President Nelson Mandela took office in 1994 that the country seemed poised for economic growth. An urge to travel and do international investments led Wright to leave Gold Securities and join Citibank. Today, he is charged with structuring transactions for South African companies courting international investors in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the U.S. Going overseas not only spurred his entrepreneurial career but it also helped him learn a new marketplace from the ground up.

LEAVING FAMILY BEHIND

International assignments hold tremendous appeal for the young and single, but they can be quite daunting for those who are married and have children. Still, an offer from New Orleans-based Doley Securities last September to become a market maker on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange proved irresistible for Ralph Wright (no relation). Consequently, Wright, 45, is now the only African American trader on the floor.

Nonetheless, taking the job was a hard decision for the Marlboro, N.J., resident and his close-knit family. With an 18-year-old son in college and another son, 24, in the workforce, the separation proved to be a painful, albeit, educational experience for all. "Initially, my sons thought life would be great with their parents away but they eventually missed having us to come to for advice." Wright and his wife Sallie, a homemaker, telephone their sons at least twice a week, and a bevy of aunts, uncles and neighbors check on them periodically.

Family obligations are the No. 1 reason that many overseas assignments are refused. Taking into consideration the toll on loved ones is crucial, particularly for young children, who may be relocating or spending long periods of time away from one or both parents.

MAKING ENDS MORE THAN MEET

While an international assignment doesn't always involve an increase in salary, it can still mean a jump up the economic ladder, depending on where you live. After allowing for taxes, Miller's salary is comparable to the $90,000 she earned while working with Swissotel in New York. Her expenses, including meals, laundry and living accommodations, are covered by her employer.

Most firms do give cost-of-living stipends, along with lucrative leaves and vacations. Miller, who works six-days a week, gets about two weeks off a year, plus an 18-day vacation. Her company foots the bill for her trips home once a year.

Individuals in the U.S. who have positions similar to Eric Wright's make upwards of $100,000 a year. Since the cost of living is so low in South Africa, Wright says that his current lifestyle is better than it was in the States. His company also provides car and housing allowances and annual trips back home.

ON THE REBOUND

Many companies claim to be committed to globalization but most don't take advantage of--or can't quantify--their returning employees' newly acquired skills, such as flexibility, diversity management and interpersonal growth. As a result, many expatriates remain on the international circuit for much of their careers or start their own businesses. In fact, 20% to 48% of expatriates leave their companies within the first year of returning from an international assignment, says Bennett.

In a Business Horizons survey of 135 repatriated employees, only 39% felt their firm used their newly acquired skills; a meager 29% claimed that the assignments helped their careers. Bennett says such post-repatriation dissent occurs because goals were not discussed before commencing the assignment, and most employers fail to properly re-acclimate their world travelers.

On the flip side, many employees who have been on overseas assignments assume that they are a special or "chosen one," and expect to be treated as such when they return, warns Bennett. "Instead, they come back and move right back where they were." With international assignments becoming more commonplace, few companies are implying that there is any career advancement on the horizon for taking one. But that doesn't mean the rewards are not significant.

Many African Americans say that international assignments have been the promotion they otherwise would not have had. For others, it's a way to escape the sometimes blatant, often subtle, racism and sexism here at home. Bennett recalls one black senior executive on assignment in China who remarked that "for the first time in his life he felt that his success was based 100% on his efforts and not on EEO."

Many whites get their first taste of racism when they go overseas, particularly in countries where they are the minority, says Bennett. When they return, many realize what minorities have been going through for years. Frequently, as a result, they become active in the diversity efforts of their organizations.

While it might take some time to see the payoff, an international assignment oftentimes spawns career advancement. Few know that better than Taran Swan, vice president of channel development at Nickelodeon International, a subsidiary of Viacom in New York, one of the world's largest entertainment and publishing companies.

In 1993, Nickelodeon sought to penetrate the German cable market. Swan, who previously worked in studio planning at Disney, was brought on as director of business development to spearhead international ventures. The Berkeley, Calif., native commuted weekly between New York and Dusseldorf, Germany, analyzing new markets, developing business plans and joint ventures and formalizing entry strategies for the network.

But last August, as completion of the project neared, Swan needed to be in Germany more often in order to finalize the operation. Weary of the 16-hours of travel each week, Swan took up temporary residence in London, Nickelodeon's European hub, for the last six, most critical months, of the launch. Instead of spending days on end in Dusseldorf, she now had a three-hour shuttle, two or three times a week, between the two cities. (Her husband Roy, an investment banker with Salomon Brothers, also got a temporary transfer to his firm's London office.)

With Nickelodeon now seen in over 15 million German cable and satellite households, Swan, 35, is expected to repeat that success in Latin America and Canada. She has until this fall to establish Nickelodeon as a network for Latin America's 20 countries and 11 million existing Spanish and Brazilian cable households. Swan faces steep competition from the likes of Disney and the Cartoon Channel. Nonetheless, she is up for the challenge.

"I'm always in a growth mode," says Swan, who hoped to work in an international setting after graduating from Harvard Business School in '91. At the time, her limited international experience and foreign language skills did not whet the appetites of corporations scouting candidates for international assignments. "With Nickelodeon, I saw a great opportunity to get in early on the company's international expansion, especially being the first person hired for the international business development group," adds Swan. Now, with Latin America on her plate, she may be moving to Miami, Mexico or Argentina. Swan could very well be managing this market inside of a year.

But for those, like Miller, who will return to the U.S. this spring, contemplating a return home can be tinged with melancholy. "Here in China, I am a big fish in a small pond, looked at as an expert in my field, but when I return, I will lose my 'star' status," Miller laments. Yet, she adds, she'll leave knowing that the knowledge she imparted will reap immeasurable benefits for her Chinese employees.

Those benefits also await African Americans willing to join the fray. Many agree, it's an experience that can neither be matched nor outdone at home. And once undertaken, the rewards tend to far outweigh the losses--especially now as once impenetrable borders surrounding the burgeoning global marketplace are slowly dissolving.