The CEO 'Gap' Year- Could It Fast Track Your Career?

Can a break from the norm in the form of an overseas posting fast-track your career to the c-suite? For some its been a sure-fire way of climbing the corporate ladder.

- Jessica Mudditt

Like a refreshing year off after high school to travel and learn more about yourself before launching into the next stage of life, there’s a school of thought that points towards the value of C-suite members making a move overseas during their career to inject a new energy and perspective, not to mention kudos with peers and prospective employers.

For Sharon Melamed, her ‘gap year’ working for a Japanese multinational in New York during the dotcom boom and bust of the 1990s, was a truly formative experience in her business career, and lead her along the path she has followed ever since.

“The speed and agility of the market and the entrepreneurial culture was incredible. It shaped my approach to business,” she says.

Melamed is fluent in Japanese and also headed up her company’s international business development department in the US. She also made 41 trips to Tokyo during her decade abroad before she returned home to Australia in 2005. Within two years, however, the lure of being overseas beckoned once again, and she spent a year in Israel as a consultant.

“Israel is known as the start-up nation: I wanted to be immersed in its culture of innovation and entrepreneurism.”

After returning to Sydney permanently, Melamed founded the online business-matching platform Matchboard. She based the business on a trust model that she discovered in Japan, whereby she relies on suppliers to divulge the value of a deal facilitated by Matchboard.