Working Overseas & An Accident Update | Ed Doherty | Episode 963

Ed Doherty | Episode 963

Ed Doherty is a production potter currently living in New York State. Ed also spent over a decade living overseas in India where he dove into the local culture ceramic community. This is his story.

Before we go any further, if you are interested in supporting me and my family as I go through my eye restoration, then here is the link to the GoFundMe campaign that my good friend, Ben Carter of Tales of the Red Clay Rambler started for us:

gofundme.com/f/help-paul-blais-recover-from-eye-surgery

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Why should a cross-cultural experience be valued?

I think it is continuing to find our way. The more connections you make, the better we will all be.

Do you think working overseas helped build your self-esteem?

Oh, one hundred percent! Yeah, super confident as a result. And as well as my children also. You know you can overcome anything. We have definitely been in situations that were sketchy, and you work your way through it and everything comes out beautifully.

Because part of your journey resulted in full language emersion, do you feel like that helped you become a better communicator?

In India most people speak English so it was really easy. The also speak Tahmal as well, but because the country is so diverse with language, English kind of ties it all together. But I think culturally you still have to navigate that as far as being clear and how you approach mutual understandings. Because whether you understand the language or not, meaning can become culturally gray. I think I would say that I have become more proficient in connections, even more so than language.

When you look for a job overseas do you think there are a lot of opportunities with the ability to get paid?

Everywhere! Anyone that is interested contact me and I will help you. They need teachers overseas and it will change your life. I definitely suggest people looking into it.

Does a job overseas help to build a resume for something else that they want to do later down the road?

I think If it works, it works. In like you stick with what works, and then you adjust based on what is right for you versus what you think is right for your career. As long as you stay true to what you believe in and what you are passionate about, everything will work out.

Do you think you will work overseas again?

For sure! We love where we are right now and we are super happy. We will always come back here, I will always have my studio here, but one day I can see doing spring, summer, fall here, and then somewhere else in winter. I don’t know if I would live full time overseas, but anything is possible. I’d like to live in Pakistan for a little while, or other places that we didn’t have an opportunity to visit. We will definitely be overseas to some degree.