Gain a Business Trip Abroad - For Junior Engineers in India

So you are a junior engineer in the team and you want to travel abroad on a business trip. You have expressed this aspiration to the management but you are not getting one.

The leadership usually has the need to travel in the interest of expanding the business or a project. But junior engineers/developers rarely do and it need not be a rare phenomenon if you have exhibited certain qualities and have hit certain milestones in your short career.

There could be various reasons why the management would feel the need to send a junior employee abroad and you will need to understand what they are looking for before you express your aspiration to travel.

Onsite/Travel opportunity to abroad (a business trip) is something that software engineers in India look forward to all the time. This is because there are a lot of benefits traveling abroad and working there for some time.

Some of the benefits of traveling on a business trip are:

1. You get to meet people from different countries and learn about their culture.
2. You develop connections with different people working over there.
3. You gain experience... and a lot more.

But the real problem is that you will not be sent for a business trip by just working like everyone else. You need to demonstrate certain things and then you will be considered for a travel. (politics aside)

Things You Should Demonstrate

1. You need to demonstrate that you communicate well with stakeholders and other employees.

   Always remember, the one who communicates very effectively is highly trusted by management and they tend to listen to what the person has to say. Present in meetups, tech sessions, and other occasions. Constantly update the management about what you are doing. Communicate well with employees sitting in other countries and obtain good feedback from them. Being able to communicate well also demonstrates your self-confidence.

2. You should have contributed a major part in the project.

   Nobody will send you abroad if you're just doing small bug fixes. You should demonstrate concrete technical skills and contribute a lot to the overall project. You should be a key member of the team. You must have written a lot of code or should have introduced a process change that enhanced the system.

3. You must have developed a good relationship with co-workers & management.

   If you are not maintaining good relationships and constantly creating trouble, the management will reject your aspiration to travel right away. They want the person who travels abroad to develop good relationships with the employees working in that country also. Good relationships are always beneficial to the project/team.

4. You must have gained trust in the team & from the management.

   If the management trusts that you have the ability to get the job done, they will offer you a travel opportunity. Some ways to quickly gain trust: Constantly completing work on or before the deadline. Always be available to resolve roadblocks. Show interest and stay focused on project goals, milestones, and activities.

5. You should know about the overall project, the goals, timelines, and the roadmap.

   If you do not know about the project roadmap in detail, what value are you adding by your travel? The management thinks: What's the value add by sending this employee? Is the project going to be successful? Will the person bring constructive changes? Is the person knowledgeable to answer/make project-related high-level decisions while abroad?