When Radim Svoboda accepted an offer to move to Moscow earlier this month for a top position with Grey/G2, an international advertising agency, he unwittingly joined a small but growing group of Czech professionals: expatriate managers.

Though demand for experienced executives in the Czech Republic isn't cooling, the country is losing an increasing number of native managers to lucrative offers abroad. For the past fifteen years, it was the British and Americans who moved east on corporate hardship packages to fill gaps in the labor pool, but times are changing.

Today, Czechs are going abroad to share their knowledge and management skills in less developed, primarily eastern markets — and they're gaining valuable international experience along the way.

Peter Uzunov of the Sauter Consulting Group, an executive search company, says that each year more and more managers accept assignments farther east, in Russia or Ukraine, for example.

"That's where the hardship packages are," he says.

Indeed, though Svoboda wouldn't disclose his salary in Moscow, it's many times more than he was earning in Prague at another advertising agency. For him, the move was an easy choice.

"From a professional perspective, moving was a no-brainer," says Svoboda, 33. "Marketing plays a major role in Russia like it did in the Czech Republic 10 years ago."

International experience important

Like many Czech managers, though, it was about more than money and the opportunity to work in a larger market. After all, the cost of living in Moscow is steep, and Svoboda will have to pay around $2,500 (56,375 Kč) a month for a small apartment outside the center.

"The salaries here are higher than in Prague," he says. But "at the end of the day, the disposable income is comparable."

His decision to move was also about gaining vital international experience.

At this stage in his career, with more than 10 years' experience under his belt, Svoboda was starting to notice that his lack of foreign assignments were becoming a handicap just as friends with experience abroad were being moved up the ladder quickly.

Indeed, in today's economy, having foreign postings on your résumé is essential because companies want employees who are able to work smoothly and efficiently with various groups of people, says Derek Cummins, managing director of information technology company Dimension Data's Czech office.

"International experience is the biggest gap for Czech candidates," he says.

This is partly because the labor market isn't very mobile. Many Czechs aren't willing to move for work from the towns where they grew up, much less the country.

But it's becoming clear to some that spending time abroad is key to getting ahead.

Petra Šubrtová, who is now a brand manager for SC Johnson in Düsseldorf, Germany, but started her time abroad in Poland after being transferred from the company's Czech office, says it's important to learn how to deal with people from a variety of cultures and backgrounds.

"Working abroad makes you a stronger person, especially if you're living in a country where you don't understand the language," she says.

Proving yourself

Šubrtová's case is common in that she moved after being transferred. Svoboda is unique because he did it himself.

Realizing that if he didn't go now when he's single, he never would, Svoboda set his sights on China. But after a friend convinced him there were more opportunities in Russia, he posted his résumé on a Russian job board.

Within weeks, Grey/G2 offered him a position as client services director.

After making the decision to go abroad, Czech expats have similar experiences to anyone going to work in less developed countries. Svoboda says most of his friends thought he was crazy for voluntarily choosing to relocate to Russia.

"Not many specialists want to rush east," he says.

But Svoboda says his experience is different than that of the foreigners who took cushy gigs here with housing allowances and huge salaries after the 1989 revolution, many of whom were resented by their Czech colleagues.