Let me share with you my discussion with Eric, global manager in the bank sector based in Singapore.

After 24 years spent in a corporate bank with 18 years working abroad, Eric has decided to stop living out of a suitcase and play his own career path.

Therefore he seized a professional opportunity in Singapore: he switched from an expat assignment to a local contract.

To the question: what were your main motivations for change, Eric answered:

“My drivers for change were personal and family motivations to stay abroad and the willingness for a new and interesting assignment.

Then he anticipated his future changes and built a project “well thought out” based on serious motivations and on his professional path.

“A change from expat assignment to a local contract does not mean a change of life standard. If so, you have to base your professional mobility on strong motivation like the attractiveness of a specific place, a strategic career decision or a familial project.”

Eric thinks that he “got lucky” when he started the change process.

Indeed one first company approached him, and then a head-hunter contacted him and finally helped him to find his new job. But as I pointed out during our chat: Chance favours the prepared mind*.

Eric found this particular period extremely fulfilling. He took this opportunity to assess his skills, to think about his own career’s desire and to rediscover his value on the labour market.

As he said: “When you have spent a lot of time in the same position, in the same company, "they" tend to forget you”.

But to take this decision is not easy and according to Eric the best skills to initiate change would be an open mind, a desire for change, a realistic ambition and a clear project.

At least, to the question “Do you have any advice for people who want to consider such a change?’ Eric responded, “ The motivation has to be positive: a project, a desire of boosting the career or drawing up a life program, etc. Definitively this cannot be an escape or a default option.

Thanks to Eric for having shared with us the ins and outs of a career change in the new challenges of working abroad

*Louis Pasteur

F.Carbonnel

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