Returning from abroad
All good things must come to an end but returning from a stint overseas can be bittersweet. In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Matt Smith looks at the benefits and challenges of coming home.
Coming back after a lengthy stint working overseas isn’t always easy – and it’s not just the returning expats that find it tough going.
At the Mumbrella360 conference in June, Stuart Gregor, director of Liquid Ideas, expressed his frustrations with returning workers. “Does the fact that you’ve worked two years in New York or London mean that when you come back you have the right to patronise we who don’t travel? I say no to that. There’s a bit of that in our industry which is ‘I’ve had two years in London so I know everything now’ and it’s bullshit.”
When asked to elaborate earlier this month, Gregor was slightly more guarded. “All I said is it doesn’t matter if you come back from overseas with your crappy, fake Kylie Minogue transatlantic accent. You’re not the be all and end all of everything.”
Interesting article. I spent close to fifteen years abroad, working in account management and strategy at a local then pan-European and global level with tier one agencies, working with a range of household FMCG and industry-leading brands. I’d been based in a handful of outpost and central markets, and was keen to apply my diversity of skills and experience to working at “home”.
When I returned to Australia I was shocked at the level of conservatism and obsession with who you knew locally (something I clearly lacked). I was similarly dismayed at the number of interviews where it was assumed alternately that I’d either be bored working in Australia or that very little of my international experience was deemed to be relevant.
The chips on shoulders towards my suggestion that there might be a fresh approach to something and the incredible adversity to risk taking has been sickening for its ability to stifle the sense of fun and achievement most of us got into the industry in the first place for.
I wish it was different, but if I hear another talk or read another all-staff e-mail about “innovation”, “insights” and “ideas” when the prevailing culture actively quashes these things and only seems to reward those who maintain the status quo and keep their head beneath the parapet – I think I’ll be ill!