In March 2012, TV producer Rosanne Surie moved to Kenya to join her partner. She was confident she’d be able to continue her career in Africa, and soon found work at a TV production firm. Unfortunately, the job didn’t meet her expectations and she quit. Global Connection helped her find an alternative.
Rosanne had lived and worked abroad before, but now she realised that going to another country for her partner’s career was quite different. Not having a work permit, which she had hoped to obtain through an employer, complicated the situation.
Top-five solutions
Global Connection coordinates expat partner support on behalf of HEINEKEN, the employer of Rosanne’s partner. After Rosanne got in touch, a designated Global Connection consultant conducted a needs assessment and follow-up meetings to help Rosanne chart her interests and intrinsic motivations. Based on this, Rosanne made a ‘top five ranking’ of possible solutions.
Organisational skills
In the end, she opted to run her own furniture company, which is not as strange as it may seem. The meetings with Global Connection had revealed that Rosanne owed much of her success as a TV producer to her organisational skills. Without realising, she had been using this talent when she had approached local craftsmen in Kenya to make European-style furniture for her home.
Business is thriving
Nowadays, she takes furniture orders from expat clients and puts local craftsmen to work. Rosanne’s business is thriving and she says: “I now know that if we continue to accept foreign postings, I will always have to look for something that is close to my heart, even if it is something that I have never done before.”
