As the army of unemployed university graduates marched around the country looking for work I decided to take an alternative path. I have always had something of an interest in foreign countries and their cultures, thus it was a natural choice for me to move abroad and continue my research work on local economic development policy, first in Germany and thereafter in Ireland. My years as a post-graduate researcher taught me a lot and provided me with numerous valuable experiences many of which were to be very useful as my career developed.