Is it time to consider an overseas career adventure?

Moving overseas is one of the most exciting but also daunting experiences you can ever do. Believe me, I've managed to do it with a husband, two kids, two dogs, and a cat! We also made the move to a country we've never visited nor spoke any of the local languages. Have we ever regretted our decision? Not one second. This is despite the high and lows that come with the experience of uprooting to an unfamiliar country on the other side of the world (sight-unseen by the way as I've never visited Luxembourg prior), away from family and friends. I often get asked how we managed to do it, here are some of my reflections:

Don't catastrophise or you won't go anywhere: As we were leaving Sydney to move to Luxembourg, we said goodbye to one of my husband's aunts, and sadly it turned out to be the last time. She was very excited for us but reminded us we can always come back if things didn't work out. Moving overseas is a very big deal but nothing needs to be permanent. Maintain perspective that there will always be options and possible solutions in life and it will make the move less scary. When we moved to Luxembourg we were asking ourselves all kinds of things "what happens if our kids fall behind in school?", "what happens if we need to go to the hospital but don't speak French/German/Luxembourgish?", "what happens if something goes wrong with our pet transportation?". You may even find yourself spiraling into a pattern of catastrophising before you even leave and I do think that is possibly what holds many back from embarking on these kinds of adventures. I recommend seeking inspiration and assurance from those who have succeeded in making a similar move rather than those voice in your head that may suggest it could be a bad idea or worse, seek advice from those who have never done it/never will do it.

Plan: Logistics and Finances need to be sorted. I always think about the lifestyle that I want then work backwards from there. With hybrid-working becoming the norm, you need to assess how near or far you want to be from work or schools. We arrived with a few bits of criteria for a house: pet-friendly with a (preferably large) yard, 3+ bedrooms, within an hour commute from the office, walkable distance to school. It was tough criteria and our relocation consultant was definitely challenged as landlords can be strict with pet owners especially with one of your pets is a 50kg Rottweiler (poor Ted). Through getting ahead of searching early and locking in the first available place ticking our boxes, we were able to move right in 2 days after landing. I don't want to give the impression this was easy, I took the risk of inspecting the property via WhatsApp videos and bent the budget in order to not compromise on what I perceived our family needed.

Lean into your desire to see the world: We were simply bored of our day-to-day life in Sydney. The pandemic exacerbated this. We knew this was our chance to see as much of Europe as possible and we made the most of it. Luxembourg has an extra 5-6 days of annual leave to Australia and if you don't use it, you lose it! We visited 23 countries and over 100 cities/towns! My highlights include witnessing the Northern Lights in Tromso, doing Graffiti in the Berlin wall, watching the Greek sunset from our balcony, epic roadtrips through Italy (Cinque Terre, Como, Puglia, and Amalfi Coast), and climbing to the top of the South of Tower of Cologne Cathedral, and tasting the culinary delights of Morocco. List goes on. We would never have been able to see this much of Europe and North Africa if we never lived here. It would have been too expensive to have multiple trips from Sydney.

Cross-cultural experiences benefits all leaders: I went from an Australian based role with a local team to moving into a pan-European role with a geographically dispersed team. In addition to that, all my directs were living in countries that weren't their home country. I love seeing the cultural differences and ways of working come into play with our team dynamic but also respect the nuances based on the lived experience of all individuals. Coming into Europe, I got to witness a more mature, complex and broadly scaled region of Amazon. I went from managing a team that handled absolutely everything Operations related in Australia to one that was managing the corporate hiring of Amazon Transportation Services but expected to deliver 150+% of what we did in Australia in 2021. I went on a rollercoaster leaving a business on hyper-growth trajectory in Australia to managing through the reduction-in-force period in Europe. To support my business I had to quickly familiarise myself with employment law for a number of different countries my business areas operated.

Be curious: Prepare to be wrong, different, frustrated, but above all humbled. Living somewhere new is vastly different from having a brief vacation. No doubt you will emerge with new perspectives. Through curiousity you'll end up wondering/asking why things are done differently rather than expect things to be done your way. Often you come to appreciate differences even though you don't agree such as retail shops generally being closed on Sundays in Luxembourg. This is typically errand day in Sydney where you would do your grocery shopping for the week ahead. I've now come to love my Sundays as its typically family day. My husband and I have made it a tradition to do a long run together through the Petrusse Valley then later stroll around the city to take the girls for a sweet treat (restaurants are open) or take the dogs on a walk as a family.

Prioritise: Ask yourselves, what do you want most out of this experience? I remember arriving in Luxembourg most excited about travel. Even a 20 minute journey to Ikea meant driving over the Belgian border which is mind-boggling to an Australian. However, I found myself getting sucked into wanting to 'keep up with the Joneses' seeing all the nice cars, designer bags, and fancy winter coats that everyone seemed to own. Fortunately, my financially conservative husband kept me in check and we'd periodically review our travel and entertainment budget. We wanted to use these funds to see as much of Europe as possible while we're here. Everyone is different but we decided to run with the mantra 'experiences rather than things'. I know the travel we've managed to do would have given me more joy than buying the Lexus SUV I had my eye on when we arrived.

Here are some more of our family photos (there are literally 10,000 of them):

Apologies for the long read. Very difficult to capture all the sentiments of the happiest and most rewarding two years of my professional life in a succinct way.

If you are thinking of moving overseas, I highly encourage you to do it.

You've got this!

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