What if Your First Big Job is Working Abroad?
Let’s talk about Biff. Of course, Biff is not his real name, but he thought it sounded funny as his cover name for us to use. We told him it didn’t sound believable, but he chose that name anyway. Meanwhile… “Biff” had a radical encounter with God that transformed his life as a young man. Before long he started to feel compelled toward the world who didn’t know Christ. He had studied as a automations engineer, but didn’t know if he should quit his career and become a missionary. He pursued that for a while, but couldn’t shake the though that perhaps his career might give him access around the world to people that don’t have access to the gospel.
Before long Biff was on Linked In looking for jobs half a world away, and within weeks he got two job offeres, and started packing his bags. He’s been one of our Global Marketplace Multipliers in a major world city nearly two years.
While some are like Biff and have a radical mission in mind, others of his generation just want to see the world. A survey of American college seniors found that 81 percent were interested in working in another country. Seventy-five percent said they would be more likely to accept a job with a company that offered opportunities to work abroad. More recently, a 2025 Harris Poll found that 63 percent of Gen Z Americans had considered moving outside the United States within the next two years.
Of course, there is a difference between considering an international move and actually packing your bags like Biff did. Still, the interest is real. Many young adults are not merely dreaming about taking a vacation abroad. They are imagining building a life, developing a career, and doing meaningful work somewhere else in the world. Nineteen percent were definitely planning to move or had seriously considered it.
What if the Church helped them see that interest as more than wanderlust? What if their career could become part of their calling?
That is the vision behind Global Marketplace Multipliers, or GMM. We help Christians pursue professional opportunities in other countries while intentionally participating in global disciple-making.
This is not only for pastors, missionaries, or people with specialized ministry degrees. It is for teachers, engineers, business leaders, healthcare professionals, technology workers, entrepreneurs, designers, and graduates from nearly every field.
We want them to do their work well for the glory of God, somewhere strategic for the mission of God.
A recent book gives young adults another helpful way to imagine this possibility. In Tithe Your Career, Paul Van Der Werf and Katy White invite recent graduates to invest the first two years of their careers in practical, missional service among our global neighbors. Through stories and a concrete roadmap, the book argues that the early twenties are a uniquely mobile season in which a degree, professional skills, and the beginning of a career can be offered to God for global impact.
One line captures the book’s message: “You don’t have to choose between a meaningful life and a successful career!”
One young woman shows us what this can look like. While attending Indiana Wesleyan University, she participated in a short-term NEXT trip to the Czech Republic, one of Europe’s most secular countries. During the trip, she served alongside a local Czech school. The school eventually offered her a job.
After graduation, at only 21 years old, she returned to the Czech Republic and began working in a public school. Her education degree opened the door, but her love for Jesus shaped what she did once she walked through it.
With encouragement and support from Global Partners, she became more than an American working overseas. She lived intentionally, built relationships, stayed connected to the larger Kingdom, and participated in God’s mission through her everyday life and work.
She spent four years there before recently returning to the United States. That is a win for everyone.
It is a win for the university that prepared her. It is a win for the school that employed her. It is a win for the people who encountered her in the country. It is a win for the local church and global mission. It is also a win for a young Christian who discovered that her profession and her participation in God’s mission did not have to compete with one another.
This is why Christian colleges, churches, ministries, families, and professionals should pay attention to Gen Z’s international interest. Our young people may already be looking toward the nations. We can help them understand what God might do when they get there.
Global Marketplace Multipliers comes alongside Christians who feel a nudge toward working abroad. We help them discern their next steps, explore career possibilities, prepare for cross-cultural life, connect with Christian community, and remain intentional about disciple-making.
We also want to connect with Christians who are already working internationally. Some moved abroad for a job without ever realizing that anyone could help them connect their work with global mission. They may already be teaching, managing, designing, consulting, coding, researching, or leading somewhere strategic.
They do not necessarily need to quit their jobs. They may need help recognizing that God has already sent them.
Generation Z is interested in working abroad. The global marketplace is opening doors. The question is whether the Church will help this generation walk through those doors with purpose.
Learn more at gponline.org/GMM
You can also read about Biff’s firsthand experience on a Subway while working abroad here: https://www.globalpartnersonline.org/sydneygod-story/
Note on stats cited: Graebel Companies, “Undeterred by Fears of Terrorism, Most ‘Generation Z’ College Seniors Want to Work Abroad,” September 13, 2017, based on a survey of 500 U.S. college seniors; The Harris Poll, American Expats Survey, February 2025, 11, based on a nationally representative survey of 2,131 U.S. adults, including 304 Gen Z respondents