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[northernacademic]

I have the impression there are a number of you out there who have spent several years working abroad, particularly those of you in the UK community. I’ll start with the question: when is it too hard to go back to an American university/college or more generally to the US?

This question can be considered from either the specific perspective of applying for a position at an American institution and trying to package into a nice, neat cover letter that comprehensively covers the experience you have acquired and that in some way indicates how your foreign experience relates back to working at an American institution, as well as trying maybe to address the cultural experience you have had of living abroad, which may be an important additional quality given the interest in cultural diversity expressed in many US job announcements (I work in the sciences, so this valuable ‘life experience’ is formally outside my degree area); or the perspective of simply being too entrenched in the academic system of the country in which you work; or more generally that you have become too entrenched in the country where you live, and there are too many other factors that make moving to the US for a position too complex (for example, children in school).

[expatinuk]

A couple of years ago I was applying in the US. I just did my CV as I would normally do a CV, with 'translations'. For example on my CV where I've listed an American college... I put in brackets [University Sector], because in the UK, a College is usually a place where 16-18 year olds go before heading off to University.

And I had to define Reader [a rank between Associate Professor and Full Professor]

I ended my cover letter with a statement about working overseas and wishing to return to the US.

I did get several interviews... which considering I was at the Reader stage was pretty good (I thought). Now that I'm a Professor, I doubt if I'll return to the US.