Published in About Me Stories·PinnedAbout Me — Wendela ElsenHello, my name is Wendela Elsen. I am originally from the Netherlands but I left my country in 1997 and have lived abroad ever since. …About Me6 min read
Published in The Expat Chronicles·PinnedHow I continued my career in TaiwanI had survived my first day of our look-see visit in Taipei. It was an amazing experience to wander the streets and take in all these new impressions. It was so different from back home in the Netherlands, nothing I had ever experienced before. …Expat Life4 min read
Published in The Expat Chronicles·Oct 18, 2021Why coping is not good enough and why expat partners should act nowI keep going on about this; if you are an expat partner and you feel professionally unfulfilled because you had to leave your job behind and are currently not working in your host country, please, please, please do something now. You can push your feelings and emotions away and keep…Expat5 min read
Published in The Expat Chronicles·Aug 17, 2021Five requirements for finding employment as an expat partnerWhen your partner is offered a career enhancing assignment overseas, you have to decide what you want to do with your career. Some lucky accompanying partners get the opportunity to either join the overseas branch or subsidiary of their current employer or continue their job from abroad via distance working…Expat8 min read
Published in The Expat Chronicles·Jul 1, 2021Wanting to work as an expat partner? Do you really want to?When your partner is offered a career enhancing opportunity abroad and you decide together to take the step, the family will enter a whole new phase in family life. If you are happy to leave your job behind and look forward to spending more time with the family and building…Expat6 min read
Published in The Expat Chronicles·Jun 11, 2021Giving up your job to become an expat partner — how will that impact you?Not everyone outside the expat community responds positively when you talk about being an expat. Sometimes judgement is apparent; you are seen as a spoiled, stay-at-home expat partner with no material needs or wants, spending lazy afternoons at the pool-side sipping cocktails with friends. This may or may not have…Expat5 min read
Published in The Expat Chronicles·May 20, 2021Reflections of a TCK mum — will I ever know if I have done the right thing?I am far from being a Third Culture Kid. I was born and raised in the same town in the Netherlands, in the same house even. I left that house when I was 18 and my Dutch parents continued living there for another 25 years. …Third Culture Kids5 min read
Published in The Expat Chronicles·Apr 2, 202111. Reflecting on six years living and working in TaiwanI always think of my time in Taiwan with a smile on my face. It was our first overseas posting and definitely a very good one. I knew very little about Taiwan before we went. It turned out I wasn’t the only one. …Expat4 min read
Published in The Expat Chronicles·Mar 18, 2021I made a quick sidestep to land the next perfect jobMy son was one year old and I had just left my job, that required me to travel frequently, for a role in a local Taiwanese HR consulting firm. I was hired as the only non-Taiwanese in an office of about 80 staff and my job was to penetrate the…Expat6 min read
Published in The Expat Chronicles·Feb 27, 2021I am on a mission and have been for most of my working lifeMy life’s mission is to take away barriers and offer support so that women can develop themselves, follow their ambitions and create the lives for themselves that they aspire to. I am currently working with expat partners, usually women, who give up their jobs to accompany their husbands abroad and…Expat8 min read