![]() ![]() I learned, as a result, resilience – and that not only do we survive, but often thrive as we achieve much more than we ever thought we could. Living abroad in itself is a challenge in stepping outside your comfort zone. Invariably there were challenges associated with living in a foreign country that I had to overcome and never anticipated. ![]() Living overseas, for example, strengthened my resilience. ![]() My global experience opened me up to new ways of thinking and approaching life, and new experiences to leverage. Since returning to Australia, my time spent abroad has become successfully integrated in to my work and life. My international life has profoundly shaped who I am both personally and professionally. When people return ‘home’ (and I say ‘home’ in inverted commas because sometimes Australia doesn’t feel like home after living abroad for a long time) how do we actually articulate our international experiences and leverage them for the benefit not only ourselves but also for the organisations that we work for? The Insync Network community was born out of that collection of people who I found were navigating a similar path. And a big part of that is linked to the repatriation or re-entry phase of the journey. I ultimately chose to focus my time on people advisory, workforce planning and training, which became the impetus for launching my own business.Īs part of my initial work and the business I have built over the past 12 years, there has been a constant passion and interest in supporting both individuals and organisations that have a global workforce. While this reinvention process was not an easy path to navigate at the time, this process enabled me to think carefully about how I wanted to architect my life and work. Upon my return I found myself having to reinvent myself and rethink how to articulate this experience in another market and in a new city (Melbourne not being my ‘home’ town). Moving onto a large consulting firm I moved into an Operations Director role with the Capita Group which effectively saw me rebuild a ‘tired’ business line and establish and lead new teams during a period of business acquisition and high change. After deciding to extend my trip after the first year, I was offered a role in recruitment and talent management within the education sector, and my career pathway quickly progressed. I started my career as a teacher, and when I arrived in the UK, one of the great things about having a skill set such as teaching was that it was easily transferable. I had to kick-start my career again, build new professional networks from scratch after almost a decade abroad, while grappling with a sense of belonging to two different places at once. However, when I eventually returned to Australia, like many repatriates, I completely underestimated what that international transition involved. Re-entering my home country was my decision, and being anchored to this decision meant that my return journey was an exciting one I was ready to undertake. However navigating the return journey home presented a unique and unexpected challenge. Not only did I change careers when I was abroad, I was afforded the opportunity to hone my skill set and enjoy a soaring career trajectory. It was a remarkable and life changing experience my personal and professional growth flourished in the fast-paced commercial and creative environs of London. ![]() Recently I have been asked to share my personal story and the motivation for creating the Insync Network Group, which prompted me to put pen to paper and provide some more insight into my own global transition which you can read about below. But it wasn’t until seven years later that I eventually made the journey ‘home’. I embarked on a trip to the UK for what I thought was going to be a 9-month working holiday, planning to return home by Christmas. My global story began like many Australians. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |