When Kerryn Colen and her family repatriated back to Australia from Canada after 11 years overseas during COVID, hotel quarantine was a silver lining.  A silver lining that turned into a silver bullet to getting all the repatriation admin done in two short weeks.

Kids enrolled in school, check. Kids football club logistics, check. Great job, check.

What took longer, was feeling ‘normal’ which took nearly 12 months for the family of four. 

In this podcast, Kerryn talks about how the family adjusted and the difference in feelings between parents, who were ‘coming home’ and the kids who were going to live in a place that to date, had just felt like the land of ‘beach holidays, Christmas with relatives and fun times’ - despite their Australian birth certificates.

Kerryn used preparation time and hotel quarantine to sort out the anchors for her family’s new life back in Australia.  While for Kerryn this was a job and volunteering, for her kids it was sorting out school and a football club.  For Kerryn and her partner, getting the family’s ‘non-work’ lives sorted as soon as possible was a key strategy to making the family, the kids in particular, reconnect with life back in Australia as quickly as possible.

Adam Ford describes his approach to the job market after coming home as ‘pretty proactive because I knew it was going to be pretty difficult’.

Adam was coming home to Australia with a North American finance career but what he really wanted was a role in the for-purpose sector.  To achieve this, he knew he had to convince a parochial hiring market NOT to put him in the finance box.

Fast forward a few short years and Adam has successfully swapped boxes. 

He now leads the International Association of Privacy Professionals in Australia and New Zealand.

In this podcast, we talk about how Adam has ‘relaunched’ himself a number of times in his career in both the US and in Australia to align with his changing interests and as part of a dual career family.

This is a great discussion for expats who want to come home and want to pivot their career. 

Going from a small fish in a large pond, to a larger fish in a somewhat smaller pond sounds like a good idea, until you are that fish.  Adam talks through his strategy of taking what could look like a sideways step on the surface, but really was the step that helped him rebuild and pivot to the professional and personal life that he loves right now.

Udo Doring’s ‘normal’ adult life is not ‘normal’ for most Australians, but  ‘normal’ for a person who grew up as a third culture kid with parents raising children in Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong and mainland China.

Which makes him a perfectly “normal” pick for CEO of the Advisory Board Centre, an organisation born in Brisbane but with a presence across the globe.

In this episode we cover Udo’s life as an expat-repat “lifer” and the growth of Advisory Boards and opportunities for globally experienced Aussies.

Advisory boards have doubled globally in the last two years which means opportunities are booming. Unlike corporate boards which are responsible for governance and decision making, advisory boards are used for “problem solving” and it's not just corporates using them.  Today government departments and universities are increasingly employing advisory boards.  International and deep sector experience is often sought, and no longer are advisory boards just the domain of people in their 50s and 60s. Digital marketing, cyber security and AI are just some of the areas advisory boards are now leaning in to, providing new opportunities for younger professionals.

In this podcast, Udo and I talk about these opportunities, current sector trends and how interested expat-repats should approach getting involved. The decision by the Australian government to mandate that aged care operators have an advisory board is leading many to believe more industries will follow, creating many more opportunities for returning expats to leverage their expertise and keep their international experience alive.

Many of my guests leave for overseas for a job opportunity…but few come home for one.

Jason Whiley is one of the lucky few who after 18 years overseas, didn’t just come home with a job with global Security Tech company Giesecke+Devrient – but he came back with a newly created APAC role, which he now does from his home on the Gold Coast.

In this interview, we talk about Jason’s time overseas in Europe and the Middle East which saw him work for two employers, both of whom he has worked for, for nearly three decades.

Having tenure and strong relationships with both employers meant when it was time to come home, Jason could have open conversations about his return and his willingness to work on any opportunity to leverage his experience.  The result of these conversations led him to a role with G&D who were looking to expand in the region.

During the podcast, we go into the conversations Jason had with his employers and the planning that when into the role that Jason helped create.

And an early heads up, the process was not quick!  But for the patient, Jason’s story has some great lessons for those who find themselves with great, global employers keen to capture their value…even if it is from the other side of the world.

When Bec Macdougall returned to Australia after nine years in London, she never imagined her journey would lead to a rural life in regional Victoria.

Her time in London unlocked a passion for brand curation, where she took on a series of formative roles with the likes of Elle Macpherson’s lifestyle brand The Body and organisations such as Quintessentially, a luxury brand experience consultancy.

It was at this time Bec envisaged her future, developing a collective of brands in the wellness and lifestyle space with experience at the core. She wrote her first business plan in 2007 but it was ‘top drawed’ for quite a few years as  her practical career flourished.

Upon her return to Australia, Bec initially took on a series of corporate roles that combined this love of luxury brands and events, but there was always a yearning to revisit the business plan that was sitting in the top drawer.

Not long after meeting her husband, Angus they bought a farm outside of Benalla with a view to a long-term restoration project and Dunmore Farm was born.

With aspirations of creating a UK Soho Farm House offering, Bec also drew inspiration from the likes of Daylesford Farm in the Cotswalds and The Newt in Somerset, UK.

Today - more than a decade after writing her original business plan - Bec’s vision for a portfolio of lifestyle brands is being realised.

I’m looking forward to exploring with Bec how these international experiences continue to influence her career and business ventures today, and how this former city gal has transitioned from bright lights to starry nights in regional Victoria.

The stories of accompanying expats, often go untold. With a focus on careers as the primary driver for relocation, it is important to remember the families of those that transition.

When Andrea Barton's husband was offered a relocation to Lagos, Nigeria, Andrea was forced to think about her career and how she could reshape it. Throwing herself initially into community initiatives Andrea explored her passion for writing and storytelling. Over the next 13 years and multiple moves, Andrea’s writing drew inspiration from the people, places and communities she and her family found themselves living in.

Five books later, Andrea's writing has continued to shape her career and move with her now that she has returned to Australia. Since arriving ‘home’, Andrea has been working on developing her literary network, starting her own company and finalising her novel.

Her debut novel, The Godfather of Dance, was published this year and is available now.  

With a 25-year career bridging the worlds between Australia and the Middle East, Adam Malouf is now forging a new path, in a new sector and creating a new, albeit familiar life for him and his family.

The possibility of unchartered opportunity first attracted Adam to Dubai in 2004, long before the UAE was frequented by the volume of expat Australians who now work and live in the region. Initially attracted to the region as a way of fast tracking his legal career, Adam's career rapidly expanded through a series of investment roles and engagements on multiple board and committees, including the Australian Business Council in Dubai and the Australia Arab Chamber of Commerce and the AICD Middle East advisory committee – reinforcing his contribution in both regions.

It was on a family holiday back in Australia when his kids uttered the words ‘Dad we think it’s time, we want to come back to Australia’ that the idea of returning was planted. Having already repatriated once before, Adam knew it was going to take more than a couple of calls to recruiters and a scan of the jobs page in the weekend paper to land the right opportunity. Determined to return with a role - and a meaningful one at that, Adam set about putting together a robust plan to leverage his networks – both in Australia and abroad - as he explored what was possible.

The plan worked and Adam returned in 2023 to the role of COO of the University of Wollongong.

When Chelsea Guy came back from Tokyo, and the work experience of the lifetime, she found she had still a pay cheque but didn’t have a role.

Chelsea had worked her way through various marketing roles at Toyota when there was an opportunity to put her hand up for a coveted secondment. Her assignment – digital marketing to support Toyota’s sponsorship of the Tokyo Olympics.

For Chelsea, not even being struck by the COVID curse, could diminish the experience she gained working with an international team, on the world’s biggest event while learning a new skill in digital. However, when she returned to Melbourne two years later, she found she and her new experience didn’t quite fit, even in the office she had worked for, for many years.

Her Japanese experience unleashed her passion for major international events, and 18-months after returning home, Chelsea strategically forged a path to secure a coveted role at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Chelsea has managed to carve out a career that harnesses her global sponsorship experience, elevates her international connections and supports her passion for delivering world-class events.

Today, I talk to Chelsea about how her international experience not only lit her career flame but how she has combined all her experiences to create a pathway to her her dream role.

When Angella left Australia at aged 29, she knew she would be gone longer than two years.  With expat parents and grandparents, a life overseas was always on the cards.

But she didn’t know it would be 22 years.

Or that her time overseas would include 13 years in Bahrain.

Or that when she eventually came home, she would change her professional identity.

For someone who had always worked in talent management and workforce design, and whose career had led her family’s choice of where to live, changing her career path was particularly profound.

It was also the result of an evolution not revolution.

In this podcast, Angella shares how coming home to Australia and starting again, forced her to evaluate her career path and the turn it took next.  She shares her philosophy of ‘saying yes to everything’ to build knowledge and networks and how it is okay for someone who manages careers to ask for help managing their own.

Leonora was extremely excited when she landed in Hong Kong.  A dynamic, exciting and unique place with family connections it had the potential to be her forever home.

But in 2021  Covid made Leonora feel uncomfortably isolated from family and confirmed for her that Australia was where she wanted to base herself.

But she didn’t just flick the switch and jump on the next flight home.

That would be too risky for this risk professional.

She took the same structured approach that she has used to manage a career in risk and financial services, to managing her move home both professionally and personally.

In short, Leonora treated finding a job, like a job and six months later found herself juggling opportunities for employment, business and a board role with a not for profit.

For those expat-repats who find comfort in structure, she is a great example of how to build your own confidence in your move back home – by using the skills you already have.