If you're here because your partner is, continuing with your career isn't always easy. Here are some tips on creating a job you can take with you.

It's fine for the expatriate employees. They simply pitch up at a new office in a new country, spot a few familiar faces, are shown to their new desk and start work. But for the rest of the family, particularly the accompanying partner, life might not be so simple.

It is increasingly likely that an accompanying partner will have chosen to sacrifice or downshift a career in order to support the employed spouse.

Dual-career couples do not really have a place in the fast moving expatriate world. Few companies choose to employ both partners and so the stay-at-home spouse is forced to create and maintain a different kind of career if he, or she, is to continue with a mobile lifestyle.

I call this kind of career 'a career in your suitcase', and for the last five years have been writing and speaking extensively on the subject.

First find your passion

I believe that if a portable career is to withstand the tests of time and frequent upheavals, then you must choose work that you love, that inspires you and fills you with energy.

It takes about two years to establish a new business in the non-expatriate world. It is vital that a portable career can be kick-started by your own motivation and excitement.

If you love what you do you will be enthusiastic. If you are excited about your work others will become excited too; they will want to know more and this, in turn, will become success. Believe me, most of us lose sight of our natural talents in the mire of the rat race and the pursuit of income sometime in our 20s.

Manage your expectations

It's unlikely that you’ll be able to move smoothly from place to place without needing to rethink what you will do professionally. Uninformed and unrealistic expectations are one of our greatest sources of discontent. So manage your expectations appropriately. Don't assume that your transition to another culture will be easy.

Anticipate challenges and even temporary setbacks. The better you prepare beforehand the more easily you'll make the move into your new environment. Find out what opportunities may be available to somebody with your talents, skills and training.

Through a buddy or mentor, try to discover what kind of work, paid or volunteer, other people in your position are doing. Also check on whether there are places to study, and check the availability of affordable childcare, good Internet connections and reliable transportation.

You may need to recycle some skills, return some to your 'suitcase' for a while, or acquire a few more before you are truly set for your new location. If you know what to expect, you won’t be setting yourself up for disappointment.

It is worth adding here that any time you spend on research and planning will not be wasted. Find out in advance whether your brilliant idea is viable in your new location, if at all.

Plan it out, imagine that you have the career of your dreams and live with it for a few days. See if you still consider it to be ideal after a few days. It is always wise to look at your idea from all angles and do thorough investigation before spending any money.

Listen to people

Sadly, few jobs come to us. We have to go out and find them. It is likely that you may have to create your own work wherever you go.

One of the best ways of finding out what goods and services people in a given area need and want is to go out among the local community. Chat with people who have been around for a while to find out what they are complaining about.

In my village, people are always wishing they could find reliable babysitters, gardeners, cleaners and window cleaners. While you yourself may have no desire to baby-sit, garden or clean, you might like to manage a team of other people to do such jobs.

Problems are opportunities in disguise, so find out what gaps exist in the local market and see if you might be able to fill them.

Of course, a newcomer may not be immediately privy to such information so think about kick starting the process by attending networking meetings, social events and civic gatherings. You can also read the local paper to see what people are doing, what advertisements are posted and what people are asking for in the ‘wanted’ sections.

More than three quarters of all positions are found not through agencies or advertisements but through networking.

Go the library and see what is being advertised on the notice boards, and which local amenities have placed their brochures there. You may notice a service that seems to be missing in this community that you’d taken for granted elsewhere.

It was only when I realised that people, including myself, were moaning about not having a portable career, and not knowing how to create their own career on the move, that I came up with the idea for A Career in Your Suitcase.

So go out there and start listening.

This is an abridged section of Jo Parfitt's book A Career in Your Suitcase 2, available from www.career-in-your-suitcase.com.

Subject: Relocation