{"id":4352,"date":"2020-05-05T21:21:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T11:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insyncnetworkgroup.com\/homeward-bound-managing-global-career-transitions\/"},"modified":"2023-07-03T02:00:13","modified_gmt":"2023-07-02T16:00:13","slug":"homeward-bound-managing-global-career-transitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insyncnetworkgroup.com\/homeward-bound-managing-global-career-transitions\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeward Bound: Managing Global Career Transitions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThere is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.\u201d <\/em> Nelson Mandela<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Career junctures of any sort are rarely straightforward. Arriving at the moment of \u2018what\u2019s next\u2019 often causes us to reassess what is really important and how we would like to architect our lives. This question takes on an additional layer of complexity when it comes to international transitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes these junctures can be lifestyle driven, other times the tug of family (such as aging parents, children entering a critical time of school), or work opportunities can be the catalyst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many within the Insync Network Group community, my significant career juncture came when I made the decision to return \u2018home\u2019 to Australia. After seven years in the UK, I was considering my next career move and was presented with a great role along with the salary and benefits to match. I had loved living in the UK but ultimately, I knew that I wanted to return to Australia. Given the organisation did not have a presence in Australia there was no option of relocation, so the decision to leave this opportunity behind was not a light one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My time in London afforded me incredible opportunities both personally and professionally. My career took on a soaring trajectory with the prospects seemingly endless (both internally and externally), and brought with it challenge, diversity and perspective. If there were two words that characterised my career at that point, it was growth and momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family and lifestyle largely drove my decision to Australia and as a result, little consideration was given to the true impact on my career. I felt the additional knowledge and skills and global experiences and perspectives I had gained aboard would support me in my next step \u2013 regardless of where that may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, the extent of planning my return started and stopped with managing the logistics and social aspects of the move on each side of the world. Arriving home, I was looking forward to taking some time to consider what the next step was and how I could leverage my experiences acquired to that point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came the cold hard realisation that I had completely underestimated the challenge of moving my career back to a significantly smaller and highly networked market \u2013 one that I had no presence in, no networks in and in a city I hadn\u2019t lived in. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many returning Australian\u2019s, I spent countless hours attempting to convey my professional story with little or no traction in the market. Whilst fully cognizant that I may have to take a sideways or slightly backward step to re-enter, the reality I might have to disregard my offshore experience altogether was alarming. This left me feeling shut out of the market and wondering if I could make the permanent move home work at all. Compounding the challenge was that my experience had been built in a market that largely didn\u2019t exist in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no doubt that my failure to plan my career transition was at best, na\u00efve and at worst, ignorant. It was one that proved incredibly costly in terms of how I positioned myself to the market and the level at which I re-entered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I have ultimately rebuilt my career and do not regret my decision to return to Australia, there are many things that I wish had considered and planned for prior to loading all my worldly goods into that shipping container. Doing so would have helped me prepare more effectively both socially and professionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6 Key Tips for Managing an International Career Transition:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n