Boomeranging

Wage Reis has quite literally turned a small market in to her next big opportunity. When she returned to Australia, Wage went from feeling like an imposter in her own country to creating career options that she admits, she wouldn’t have been able to do in London.

Like many repats, Claire Pales experienced her fair share of challenges with the recruitment market upon her return. However it was these very challenges that delivered Claire her ‘gap in the market’ opportunity and led her to start her own cyber security advisory business.

Coming home and settling in Brisbane, Kate thought she would continue her career in financial services only to be told that her opportunities were near zero. So she retrained as a landscape designer and horticulturalist, started her own business and reconnected with Australia through our plants … and she has never looked back.

When Scott Cooper landed in the US the first thing he did was ditch his engineering career for digital marketing world of start ups. This experience and his subsequent ‘mastery of the hustle’ shaped his risk appetite and approach to scaling businesses which he believes now puts him at an advantage in the Australian market.

When Trena Blair first moved to New York, the doorman was the extent of her network. When she returned home, her extensive network became the foundations to a new business – and most importantly helped maintain ties to the city she loves.

Chris Edwards family wasn’t the only thing that grew during her 11 years in Singapore, so too did the group of publishing and digital businesses she founded which took the plans to return home to a whole new level.

Podcast producers Margot Andersen and Simone Pregellio share the expat stories from both the podcast and six months of conversations with Australians who have been part of the 600,000 contingent who have come home during COVID.

It was the Aussie sense of adventure that took journalist Prue Clarke to New York in 2000, it was the American dream that kept her there for 19 years.

Andy Whitford acknowledges just how ‘lucky’ he is to return with an MD role after 15 years in Asia. It was however a deviation to his original return strategy of building out a portfolio and board career.