Rebuilding Your Professional Identity After Moving Countries and Thriving Through Change
- Brainz Magazine
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
Written by Lindy Lelij, Founder of Mpowerme Coaching
Lindy Lelij is the founder of Mpowerme Coaching. With more than 30 years of leadership and international experience, she helps people navigate migration, cultural transitions, and identity to thrive personally and professionally.
Moving countries is rarely just a logistical challenge. Sure, there are visas to sort, schools to research, and houses to find, but the hidden impact is far more personal. Your professional identity, the one that has defined your confidence, status, and sense of purpose, can suddenly feel invisible. Work experience that once spoke for itself may no longer be recognised, leaving even the most accomplished professionals questioning their value.
This identity disruption is rarely acknowledged, yet it underlies many stalled careers, self-doubt, and frustrating transitions experienced by immigrants, returning citizens, and globally mobile professionals.
The hidden challenge
When choosing to immigrate, it is essential to recognise that cultural differences can significantly influence how your professional history is interpreted and valued.
Work is one of the greatest sources of identity in modern life. We introduce ourselves through our roles. Our sense of capability, contribution, and status is wrapped up in what we do. And if English, even at a high professional level, is spoken with a foreign accent, this can further mean that, often unconsciously, many of us find ourselves struggling to be heard in meetings, second-guessing emails we would once have written effortlessly, or feeling strangely smaller than we ever felt before.
This article looks at why that happens, how it affects both new immigrants and returning citizens, and, most importantly, how it is possible to rebuild a strong, future-focused professional identity after crossing borders. I will share my own experience, along with the story of an expat client I coached, with details changed, to illustrate both the emotional and practical sides of reclaiming one’s professional self.
My experience
Following a sabbatical in New Zealand in early 2003, HJ, my husband at the time, and I made a life-changing decision to immigrate from the Netherlands with our two young children. During our stay in Auckland, HJ met with several recruitment agencies, and the feedback was consistently positive. He was confidently assured that, given his senior leadership experience and solid career progression in the Netherlands, finding a similar role in New Zealand would not be too difficult.
I, too, felt optimistic. I planned to pursue a career in residential real estate and, having previously traded with New Zealand as a wine importer, I believed I understood the local business landscape well enough to integrate and succeed without too much difficulty.
What we did not yet understand were the subtle but important differences between the Dutch and New Zealand employment markets. While the smaller scale of business mattered, the bigger factor was the weight placed on local networks. Professional credibility was closely tied to who you knew, and at that stage, we were complete outsiders.
Despite an intensive four-month search, HJ was unable to secure a senior leadership position that matched his background. Eventually, and not without some reluctance, he accepted a middle-management role. I vividly recall his initial disappointment. It seemed like a step backwards, being perceived as junior rather than experienced.
His long-established career in the Netherlands suddenly carried very little weight. Without “New Zealand experience,” he had to prove himself all over again, starting from the middle of the hierarchy. He did, but it took time, and it took energy.
My own professional journey had similar challenges. After two years in real estate, I stepped away feeling exhausted and disheartened. Despite my efforts, I struggled to gain momentum. I often misread situations, misunderstood unspoken expectations, and interpreted people’s intentions through a European lens that did not always translate well locally.
I eventually shifted into a more independent role as a property developer, a move that proved far more successful. While there were still hard lessons along the way, I found myself sharpening essential skills, listening more deeply, reading non-verbal cues, and consciously checking assumptions rather than relying on instinct alone.
Alongside this, I began volunteering and initiating community projects as a way to better understand the social fabric from the inside out. I cannot overstate the value of volunteering when adapting to a new culture. It offers a rare window into how a society really works, including how people communicate, what is said directly, and what is left unsaid.
Over time, I found my place, both professionally and personally. What initially felt like loss and disorientation ultimately became a profound learning journey, shaping the work I do now as a Personal Performance Coach and the way I support others navigating complex transitions across cultures and careers.
Understanding ‘professional identity’
Professional identity is strongly influenced by culture. It develops over time through the roles we have held and the way others have perceived us in those roles. It is shaped by the achievements we have accumulated, our personal and professional networks, the language we use to describe our work, and what we know our industry values.
When we move countries, these familiar anchors can loosen, sometimes all at once, leaving even the most capable professionals questioning how, and where, they now fit. The new immigrant arriving may think, “I am the same capable professional I was yesterday.”
But the new environment does not yet recognise them. This gap creates emotional discomfort, a sense of being “unseen,” “misunderstood,” or “not quite enough.”
Qualifications may be interpreted differently.
Communication norms shift.
Local experience is suddenly a requirement.
You may have smaller or non-existent networks.
Recruiters may not understand previous organisations or job titles.
Identity, not just jobs
What many others and I experienced during an international career transition goes far beyond the practical task of finding a job. It often includes a loss of belonging, as familiar professional communities disappear, and a loss of confidence when expertise is no longer immediately recognised.
Yet identity can be consciously rebuilt, strengthened, and expanded. The key lies in moving away from a title-based identity and towards a strength-based, impact-driven sense of professional self.
The three steps to reclaim confidence after immigration
1. Recognise what’s still true about you
Your strengths, values, and ways of thinking do not disappear just because your job title does not translate neatly. Ask yourself:
What am I consistently good at?
What energises me?
What impact do I create for people?
What feedback have I received throughout my career?
Let these answers become the foundation for your new professional story.
2. Translate your story into local professional language
Every country has its own way of describing jobs and success. This translation often involves:
Reframing job titles so they make sense locally
Describing achievements in terms of the new market values
Understanding workplace norms around formality, communication, and hierarchy
Using local language and keywords on CVs, LinkedIn, and in interviews
This is not about losing your identity. It is about being understood.
3. Claim your unique value as a global professional
International experience is a strength, not a weakness. Immigrants and expats often bring:
Adaptability
Cross-cultural intelligence
Resilience
Broader worldviews
Multilingual strengths
Creative problem-solving from diverse environments
When clients begin seeing these as advantages rather than obstacles, their confidence returns, often stronger than before.
Real stories, real lessons
Not only immigrants struggle. Repatriates do too.
James moved back to New Zealand after eight years in a senior operations role in England. He imagined transitioning easily. After all, he was “coming home.”
Instead, he found the job market smaller, flatter, and far more relationship-driven than he remembered. His international experience impressed employers, but it also raised doubts about whether he would fit into the “Kiwi way” of working.
He felt caught in between, no longer fully aligned with his UK work style, but not quite fitting back into the New Zealand system either.
As he put it, “It feels like New Zealand sees me as too much and not enough at the same time.”
Together, we worked on:
Reconnecting with the strengths that supported his overseas success
Deciding which parts of his UK professional identity he wanted to keep
Translating his leadership style into language that resonated locally, relational, collaborative, and hands-on
Rebuilding a sense of professional belonging
He eventually stepped into a role that valued both his global experience and local understanding. His reflection said it all, “I finally feel like myself again, just with more range.”
From loss to expansion
What these journeys have in common, whether arriving or returning, is a period of disorientation followed by profound growth.
People discover that:
They are stronger than they realised.
Their identity is bigger than one country.
They can hold multiple cultural identities at once.
Their professional story becomes richer, more layered, and more global.
The discomfort of transition often leads to a deeper, more powerful sense of self.
As James reflected after re-entering the New Zealand workforce, “Coming home didn’t shrink me. It expanded what home means.”
The leadership edge
Looking back, the greatest challenge of transition was not the change in role, status, or market. It was the largely invisible loss of professional identity, confidence, and familiar reference points. At MPowerMe Coaching, this understanding sits at the heart of my work.
These losses are rarely named, yet they underpin many stalled careers, quiet frustrations, and self-doubt experienced by immigrants, returnees, and globally mobile professionals.
In my coaching work, I have seen that sustainable success does not start with strategy alone. It starts with acknowledgement, making space to recognise what has been left behind before stepping fully into what comes next.
This is where cultural intelligence becomes a core leadership capability rather than a “nice to have.” Leadership is not universal. It is contextual. The ability to read unspoken norms, adapt behaviour, and build trust across cultures determines whether experience becomes leverage or a limitation.
So:
Map your core strengths. They travel with you.
Translate achievements into local professional language.
Leverage international experience as a unique advantage.
Build networks intentionally. Credibility grows through relationships.
Volunteer to understand cultural nuance and integrate faster.
When my clients approach transition with curiosity rather than certainty, and reflection rather than self-judgement, they do more than integrate successfully. They expand their leadership range for life.
Read more from Lindy Lelij
Lindy Lelij, Founder of Mpowerme Coaching
With Māori and European heritage, Lindy knows firsthand what it means to live between cultures. She spent over four decades abroad before returning “home” to Aotearoa New Zealand.
Today, as founder of Mpowerme Coaching, Lindy helps people navigate migration, cultural transition, and identity. Through positive psychology, deep journaling, energetic tuning, and narrative reframing, Lindy offers clients practical tools for growth and resilience.
Backed by more than 30 years of leadership, governance and business experience across Health, governance and international trade, she brings both professional expertise and lived wisdom to her work.
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