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“My wife and I talked about working and living abroad,” he recounts. “We decided it was time to see what was out there. Not only because of my great childhood experience in Germany, but because expatriation had a lot to offer — and we wanted our daughters and the whole family to live this fascinating life experience.”
A determined job hunt ensued. Eventually, Bonenfant struck gold: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) accepted his application for an online posting. In September 2003, Bonenfant moved with his family to Rome, where he would manage the finances of some 90 UN offices around the world. Bonenfant was enchanted by what he describes as “living in an open-sky museum.” His family traveled the length and breadth of Italy, soaking up the history and ambience.
After three years in Rome, Bonenfant was called for an interview at the United Nations Education, Sciences and Culture Organization (UNESCO) head office in Paris. Job promotion in hand, Bonenfant found himself bound for his current posting in Brasília in October 2006. The modernist Brazilian capital has proven very different than Rome. “One is the oldest capital in the world, the other is one of the youngest,” he explains. The city’s wide, shady motorways feel far removed from the high crime rates associated with other cities in Brazil. “It’s a safe city. I feel good about raising my family here. There are some good schools.”
His new, wide-ranging job involves managerial oversight of procurement, budgets, accounting, human resources and IT. “The initial language challenge was somewhat interesting, as my team is comprised of 70 Portuguese-speaking Brazilians,” he laughs. Fortunately, Bonenfant is blessed with a gift for languages as well as math. He quickly added fluent Portuguese to his French, English and Italian. No need to build new accounting skills, though: the UN’s reliance on international public-service accounting standards makes his life considerably easier.
“Living and working in a foreign country is rewarding from a personal and professional point of view, but it also comes with its share of challenges,” Bonenfant admits. “For the first few months in Italy, my wife had a hard time with the fact that her role had changed and that she was now depending on me for income.” Andrée had been used to holding down her own job in IT and industrial relations. While in Rome, she got involved in volunteer and school activities, and started taking cooking classes. Bonenfant says she gradually became acclimatized to living abroad.
Bonenfant strongly encourages his peers to consider a foreign posting. Canadian accountants, he states, “have an excellent worldwide reputation and are perceived as being of great value on the international job market.” Bonenfant’s first piece of advice to fellow accountants is to read up on the politics, history and economy of the country where they’d like to work. “If students are interested in an international career, accounting is one way to get there, but you need to be perseverant. You might be trying to land a job that 250 people around the world are also trying to get. You’ve got to prepare as if you were going to the Olympics.”
Caroline Martel, CA and her husband at Lake Geneva
Caroline Martel, CA
It’s important to learn about the daily life and cultural peculiarities of any country you’re thinking of settling in. As expatriates often say, it’s the little things in a foreign land that can be hardest to deal with. For Caroline Martel, a CA currently employed as an accounting and consulting manager in Geneva, this meant getting accustomed to the slower pace of life in the Old World.
Born in Québec City in 1980 but raised in Montréal, Martel did her bachelor’s at HEC Montréal, one of the country’s leading management training schools. She received her BAA in 2001 and a graduate diploma in public accountancy in 2003.
Martel says she’d always wanted to move outside of Québec — a goal shared by her husband, a CA at PricewaterhouseCoopers. When he was offered a transfer to Switzerland, the couple jumped at the opportunity. In early April 2006, barely three weeks after their wedding, the young couple moved to Geneva. Caroline had a brother who already lived in the city, and he was able to help them settle in.
— Caroline Martel
Given that Geneva is in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and that French is the couple’s mother tongue, they assumed they wouldn’t have much trouble adapting. As Martel puts it, however, “people are really different here than in Montréal!”
For a start, leisure time is considered sacred in Switzerland. In Canada, the prevailing philosophy is to stay open for business seven days a week, an attitude that extends to store and office hours. “Here, people are very, very sensitive about their quality of life,” states Martel. “They don’t work on weekends. Sundays are for family. And all the stores close at 6 p.m. every night except Thursday. So you really only have Saturday to do your shopping. It’s really hard to get used to.” Cultural shock aside, Martel loves her life in Geneva. She is currently employed as an accounting and consulting manager for Peberfin SA, one of several subsidiaries of Pebercan, a Canadian-run oil company that operates significant concessions in Cuba.
Switzerland’s central location has proven a bonus. “We picked it because it’s in the middle of Europe and you can travel all around,” she says. “We wanted to see a lot of things.” Martel and her husband currently have no children, but when they do, they may consider returning home. Québec, she points out, offers more generous maternity leave. Geneva is also relatively expensive, with prices roughly double what they are back home.
That said, Martel is an enthusiastic booster of the overseas experience. “It’s really easy for chartered accountants to go somewhere and find a job,” reaffirms Martel. She adds that Europeans love the Canadian work ethic: “Canadians are really appreciated in Europe.” It seems that this appreciation extends wherever the ambassadors for our accounting community choose to call home.
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