Dual Careers across Borders  

"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

Virginia Woolf: A Room of One's Own

When you decided to move across borders for your partner's work, you knew it could take time for you to find relevant work locally. You would need to settle in, find your feet, get used to a new location, and maybe settle the kids in at school. 

But you never expected it to be this difficult to secure relevant work. 

You're highly skilled, just like your partner. You are motivated to work, use your skills, and contribute to society. Yet, you seem almost invisible here. You worry about the widening gap in your CV, knowing that with every passing month, your ties to the formal workforce weaken, and your CV gap gets more difficult to bridge. 

You feel like an important part of you has been ripped away. Because your professional identity matters to you, it's a cornerstone of how you see yourself and your place in the world. If you can't be a professional - who are you?

Maybe you have taken on more of the responsibility at home, too. What was always intended to be a temporary division of labor: your partner earning money at work from day one and you taking charge of the practicalities of relocation and the home before stepping back into work, is becoming more established as time goes by. It's a lot. 

Maybe you feel frustrated, emotionally drained, or lost. 

This website can help you learn about managing dual careers across borders. 

You'll find research summaries relevant to cross-border dual career couples, links and summaries of books, websites, podcasts, and organizations. The 'blog' is home to some of my previously published texts.