Thinking of moving overseas

Supportive people are the best! You know the ones in your life that encourage you to take big leaps. Moving overseas for a career or life opportunity can have a profound emotional impact on you. The experience is often a mix of excitement, anticipation, challenges, and a sense of adventure. Having lived in a few countries now and worked across many more, I must say it has been the highlight of my life. This adventure would not be possible without the support of amazing bosses, colleagues, family and friends.

If you are considering moving overseas, go into it with both your eyes and heart open. From my experiences, here is what I wish I had known and also what I am grateful for, whether it was fun, difficult, frustrating or exciting. ?

Excitement and Anticipation

The prospect of exploring a new country, culture, and work environment is so exciting and filled with anticipation. Use this as motivation to make it happen.

Career Advancement

All the variety of experiences working in different countries, languages and people opens your career up to amazing opportunities and personal growth.

Anxiety and uncertainty combined with some cultural adjustment

The fear of the unknown and concerns about adjusting to a new culture, language, and lifestyle can lead to anxiety. Be open, ask questions, let your good intent be known, and you will navigate your way through unharmed and definitely with some good stories. Cultural disconnects, these can be both super funny and embarrassing, as you may miss cultural norms, traditions, and habits in your new country. Ask questions, get advice and remember to smile (especially with the local Police).

Homesickness

This often comes in waves and isn’t always openly talked about. Being away from friends, family, and familiar surroundings can trigger feelings of homesickness. Modern technology is great to help you connect, however, it never beats those priceless in person moments when you visit home or they visit you! It is ok to be homesick, acknowledge it and call a loved one.

Loneliness

Expat communities are great for building a social circle and support system and this takes time, and the initial period may be marked by feelings of loneliness. Navigating new social dynamics at work and in the community can be challenging. The good news, you will find special people that become lifelong friends. In my years living overseas, I picked up a few new “brothers” that I could not live without, I am the Godmother of beautiful Polish kids and an "EU" of friends from the continent and further afield.

Let’s talk guilt

No one really talks about the guilt you feel living overseas while your parents get older, you miss big milestones, accomplishments of your loved ones, births, deaths and marriages. We don’t talk about how hard it is to chase your own dreams and life, while missing the life you had at home.

Adaptation and Resilience

This you will get in abundance as working and living in new environments, learning to navigate cultural nuances and even things such as new languages, will help you develop strong adaptability and resilience. It is all a wonderful learning experience!

Identity and Belonging

Moving abroad may prompt you to question and redefine aspects of your identity. I am so proud to be an Australian and will always be grateful to have been raised in the “lucky country”. This pride grows stronger every year I live overseas. What moving overseas also showed me though, is a love for all the places I have lived and worked, as they all have something special, the British, the Swiss, the French, the Germans, the Singaporeans, the Americans, the Costa Ricans, the Brazilians, the Turkish, all amazing people, places and that list of countries goes further. Developing a sense of belonging in the new location may take time and effort. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen, and you will feel great. ?

Workplace Dynamics

Understanding and adapting to new workplace dynamics can be emotionally demanding. Over time I adapted how I communicated to adjust to the international variances and understanding, to ensure the message I intended landed the right way. It doesn’t always work perfectly, and humans tend to jump to assumptions quite quickly (we are all guilty of this at some point). Be flexible, be open and work to make improvements.

Adventure and Discovery

Living in the UK, the volume of times I get asked “why would you leave Sydney to live in London”, is so high that I wish it was revenue generating. The answer - there is so much joy and satisfaction in exploring a new country and making a “United Nations” of wonderful friends from different countries. In the northern hemisphere, I can have a whole range of experiences that I can’t in the Southern hemisphere, and vice versa. I am looing to get the best out of both worlds.

Taxes

So annoying and they follow you everywhere!!! Each country manages these differently and you’d be surprised how much time you spend trying to work it all out. Find the right expert and they will be worth their weight in gold. I never thought that a change in the street you lived in Switzerland would reduce my tax bill. Part of the weird and wonderful experiences of living in different countries.

And finally, fear

The fear of moving overseas is real. What if I fail? What if something goes wrong? All normal questions to ponder. Fear can stop you taking amazing adventures. Do some good planning and preparation and this will help to remove fear. You can always move home and know that you tried.

Overall, the emotional impact of moving overseas for a career is multifaceted and varies widely among individuals. While challenges exist, the potential for personal and professional growth, along with the excitement of embracing new opportunities, often outweigh the initial emotional hurdles. Building a strong support network, both personally and professionally, can be essential in navigating the emotional aspects of an international relocation.

To the bosses that helped make it happen for me - Merril, David and Duncan and created a space where I could follow this dream, thank you so much!