The career we can carry with us
From Denmark to Vietnam, Jannie Aasted Skov-Hansen explores how internationally
mobile professionals can rethink the traditional career path - building a portfolio of skills,
connections and experiences that can travel with them wherever life takes them.
Photograph: Mizuno K on Pexels
Here we go again. For the third time, I said ‘Yes’ to my husband: I will follow you to Asia. And here I am, settling into our new life in Vietnam and exploring how to balance family life and continue my career. With + 20 years of experience in HR and project management, with the majority of these spent on advocating for the dual career opportunity, the challenge is again very real. How do I stay relevant in my field and keep my CV updated so I can start preparing my return to the Danish labour market now? The repatriation challenge is all too familiar for many of us, I assume.
This concern alone makes us wonder how we imagine a career. As a linear career model: Find a job. Build seniority. Move country. Find the equivalent job again.
But international life rarely behaves that neatly. Our sometimes chaotic globally mobile lives are often anything but linear. Our partner gets relocated. A visa changes what work is possible. Local employers value different experience. Professional networks disappear overnight. Qualifications don’t translate perfectly. A move happens at precisely the wrong moment, professionally. Enter the portfolio career opportunity.
A portfolio career is professional diversification
We understand diversification financially. Depending on a single asset creates risk. Yet many of us effectively put our entire professional identity into one asset: one employer, one industry, one title or one national labour market.
International mobility exposes that vulnerability. That is why I advocate for globally mobile professionals to stay in charge of their own narrative and build their personal and professional portfolio. A portfolio might combine employment with board work, advisory roles, teaching, speaking, mentoring, consulting, entrepreneurship, community leadership or a side project. Not everyone needs all of these, and employment can remain the largest part of the portfolio.
The benefit is that your professional identity doesn’t disappear when one component does. A portfolio career offers another model. Instead of professional identity depending entirely on one employer or job title, you build a portfolio of competencies, relationships, projects, advisory work, entrepreneurship, consulting, learning and employment that can be recombined as circumstances change.
“Don’t wait for Denmark - or any country - to validate your previous career before continuing to build it.”
What I’ve learned from my experience
The community of dual-career couples and accompanying partners that make up Here We Are Global has endeavoured to shift the notion of networking from “Who can help me?” to “Where can I contribute?”
Rather than networking purely around job opportunities, we suggest asking: Where are the interesting conversations happening? Who is building things? What communities can I contribute to? What can I learn from people here? Who can I connect with somebody else in my network? In networking terms, this latter competency is known as being a ‘super connector’. I am always in awe when I meet these people and thrilled when I see my connections benefit from meeting each other to explore common ground and magic suddenly appears.
In essence, this is about contribution before transaction. It reframes networking from something uncomfortable and extractive into participation in a professional community. And this is precisely where portfolio careers have an advantage: projects, advisory roles, collaborations, volunteering/pro bono services, entrepreneurship and knowledge-sharing create more reasons to meet people than simply saying, “I’m looking for a job.”
Putting the theory to work in my new setting
Now it’s time to build another layer of my professional network and find ways to contribute while expanding my competencies. At the same time, it feels both thrilling and daunting. In practice, I keep a record of my existing professional ecosystem and consider how I wish to broaden my circles in Southeast Asia. Where can I use my skills, and what can I take with me a couple of years down the road? This takes curiosity, energy and grit. Right now, I am not sure exactly where I am headed. My focus is to create a meaningful schedule and slowly shape my work week. And that is ok as I find peace in my identity as an entrepreneur, coach, consultant, network marketing newbie and professional opportunity explorer.
I actively choose not to let my fear of the future (read: becoming unemployed upon my return to Denmark) guide my current decisions. However, I am mindful of the need to remain strategic and intentional about what I add to my portfolio and how I can make it relevant to a future employer. And, alongside that, stay open to opportunities for life to take me in other directions.
Sharing some insights with internationals
So, how can you relate to my story and take something away from this piece? Knowing each situation is unique, and that your aspirations for life in Denmark may differ in many ways, the strongest message here is not that everyone should become an entrepreneur or freelancer. It is that you may benefit from seeing your work life as a portfolio of experiences and potential avenues waiting to be explored, regardless of how and if you are employed currently.
Don’t wait for Denmark - or any country - to validate your previous career before continuing to build it. Perhaps the most valuable career question when we move country isn’t “How do I continue the career I had?” It is “What parts of my professional life can travel with me. What can this place add to them, and what can I build here that I will carry into wherever comes next?”
