Boomeranging: Expat to Repat

In this special podcast episode Margot and Simone chat about the findings of their recent Australian Expat Career Survey and the release of the report ‘Should I stay or should or I go?’  that explored the role work and job plays in an Expat’s decision to come home.

With 450 Australians answering the call to take part, they share their 5 key take-aways along with some insights on who took part, how long they’ve been away, what expat's experiences with recruiters and hiring managers has really been like and just how long the average Aussie spends pla...

‘Forget Sydney and Melbourne and you’ll be happier’, is the message from podcast guest Liz Ritchie, CEO of the Regional Australia Institute, for expats living overseas and thinking about moving home.  The  Institute is an independent thinktank and Australia’s pre-eminent source of research, information and policy advice on regional Australia.  And according to their research, people living in Australia’s regions are happier than our city-dwellers.

Right now, there are more than 70,000 job vacancies advertised in the regions, and factoring unadvertised positions, this number is likely to be double. The most in demand jobs are skill...

If you were an Aussie living overseas who managed to navigate your way home during COVID, chances are you are very familiar with the Aussie Expats Coming Home Facebook page and its founder LJ Ferrara.

What started as a group to help LJ navigate her own journey home in 2018 after 20 years overseas, became a vital source of information and support for thousands of Australians trying to get home during COVID.

At many points during the pandemic, LJ and her community were providing answers to expats and their questions faster than what th...

Deborah de Cerff’s career is supporting the careers of expats.  For the last 30 years, she has helped individuals and organisations move lives and careers across the world and back again.  She is now Founder and Chair of The Employee Mobility Institute advocating, promoting and growing the talent mobility industry throughout Australasia.    

Over her career, she has seen many changes to how organisations view and treat expat assignments but no period has offered up more changes than right now. The global talent shortage is forcing many organisations to re-think how they view and support traditional expat ass...

Senior Australian expats with global experience are highly sought after for positions on Advisory Boards according to Lousie Broekman, founder and CEO of the Advisory Board Centre.  Louise founded the Centre 10 years ago and has grown the Centre to be one of the leading professional bodies for the advisory sector globally with a presence now in more than 20 countries. 

In this episode, we discuss how Australians with knowledge and experience working in international markets are highly sought after by organisations using advisory boards more and more to test and manage growth opportunities. Louise discusses what org...

Has the new era of flexible and hybrid working opened up new opportunities for C-suite expats looking to return home? Co-founder and Chief People Office of Leaders on Demand Julia Van Graas certainly thinks so.

Julia leads a team of experienced, hands on c-suite executives who deliver on-demand support to CEOs and organisations looking to scale.  In this podcast she talks about working with the on-demand team, 85% of whom are Australians who have lived and worked overseas, and the experience they bring to Leader on Demand clients in Australia.  And why this style of work, is...

Career, lifestyle and financial goals are all linked and so is the planning.  John Versace is a financial planner at Apt Wealth and leads their expat practice. For the last six years he has talked to Australian expats every day in all corners of the globe, expats carving out careers in tech, medical fields, advertising, entertainment…even a few vets!

Australian expats come to John and his team at various stages of the ‘coming home’ process and while the initial inquiry is often financial, work and lifestyle tend to dominate the early conversations.  Knowing where someone i...

While the headline of a ‘skills shortage’ appears to be welcome news for any Australian expat planning to come home and find a new role, CEO of Advance.org Joanna Pitman warns it may not be the silver bullet expat think it is.

Johanna speaks from her experience not only as CEO of the professional network for global Australians who works with industry, government and Australia’s overseas expat community, but also as a 15-year expat herself who returned home in 2007.

Expats who are specialists in their field or who have spent 10 to 20 years a...

Working overseas in much bigger countries and markets for many expats advances their career, however as Jan Lynch discovered when she came home to Melbourne, sometimes this overseas experience can advance yourself out of a career. This was what happened to Jan when she brought her e-commerce career from Hong Kong and China home in 2017.  According to Jack Ma, e-commerce in China is the ‘main meal’, in the US it is the ‘desert’.  When Jan came home, she realised in Australia, e-commerce was still considered a ‘side-dish’.

Not content to work in a ‘side-dish’ industry, Jan decided to start to abando...

Data and tech.  It is hard to find a skill and an industry in higher demand right now.  So when Wage Reis came home in March 2020 after two years working for Facebook in London working with the world’s largest advertising agencies she too was confident that having this juggernaut brand on her CV would at least start some conversations.

Only it didn’t. After six months of reacquainting with family and sending her CV to 20 recruiters and struggling to get even a phone call returned, she realised getting a job back home was going to be much h...