Jessica Morari is an experienced expat and career transition coach who has lived abroad for many years. She recently sat down with Her Expat Life to discuss her journey and insights on living and working abroad. Jessica shared her tips on how to make the transition to living in a new country smoother and more successful, and her advice on how to build a successful career in a foreign country.
1: Tell us how you started your Expat & Career Transition Coaching career? What was the catalyst for this business development? What does a discovery session with you entail with clients?
Starting this business has been a natural development of my personal experience – I have been an expat myself for the past 8 years, and my passion for helping people with their personal & professional growth. Nowadays, moving to another country is quite common, yet there are still very few services that help you to face this transition from an emotional point of view. And this is what I do with my coaching programs for expats. I help them overcome emotional instability and create their inner home to strengthen their independence and make the most of their experience abroad. During a discovery session, we make an assessment of the current situation to understand if coaching is what the person needs and we see if there is a connection between us.
2: You have lived in some incredible places like Kenya to Italy, Spain and now Dubai! Do tell us more of your travels and what were/are some of the perks of living abroad?
Living abroad means enrichment to me. You can get to live different lives in each place you move to, taste new flavours, discover different ways of seeing and perceiving reality, and get in contact with new mindsets. I have personally become more flexible and more open-minded towards many aspects of life. At the end of the journey, you end up creating your own culture, which is the sum of every place you have lived in. And moreover, living abroad is a real masterclass about yourself. You really have the chance to get to deeply know you and challenge and improve yourself.
3: What advice do you have for women who may be struggling with emotional instability?
Do not hide your emotions. Many times we expat feel the obligation to be happy all the time, because we somehow chose it. The truth is that every emotion is legitimate and you are entitled to feel sad, scared, frustrated, and lonely sometimes. It is absolutely normal to go through different phases after we move. A coach can help you to learn how to deal with what you are feeling and reach a stability in your life abroad.
4: Where have you traveled/lived that really made a lasting impression on you and why?
Every place has left something that I still bring with me today. I love the meaning of food in Italian culture. To me it represents the pleasure of family shared moments, of cooking as a form of taking care of your beloved ones. Spain taught me to slow down, to take a break and enjoy life with a simple walk on the beach after work. And in the UAE I have appreciated the growth and entrepreneurship mindset. Dubai is for me one of the greatest examples of how you can create anything from nothing.
5: What challenges have you faced along the way in your career and how did you overcome them?
I entered the job market right after my master and being a 24 year old woman working as a manager in a culture designed for men hasn’t always been easy. There are still a lot of prejudices and misconceptions about gender, even if we now try to embellish them with laws. I have never let this stop myself and I have been lucky and smart enough to surround myself with other powerful female managers that have supported and inspired me along the way.
6: You have been a hotel manager for a while now! How did you get into this sector?
What obstacles did you face?
I have always been relentlessly attracted to foreign cultures and languages and I saw hospitality as a great way of combining this passion with my natural impulse for leading projects and people. Working in such an international and multicultural environment means that sometimes you need to adjust your communication, both with guests and coworkers. You have to tune to the person you have in front of you, eliminating unconscious prejudices and minimising cultural barriers. This is definitely something that I keep doing as a coach.
7: How do you juggle work, coaching and your spare time?
I set priorities and I have learnt to rest. There has been a time, many many years actually, when I used to want to get to everything. I was overworked, frustrated and unhappy. Now, at the beginning of each semester I set priorities and goals and organise my months and weeks accordingly. Remember to schedule some rest time too!
8. What is/was life like in Dubai and working there?
Dubai is an extremely fast paced city. It offers great opportunities in terms of career development and an infinite choice of activities for your spare time. You can find the best restaurants and hotels in the world, as well as the most bizarre things you might see – like snowboarding and skiing slopes inside a mall. It’s a very vibrant destination, which offers security, stability and a dose of extravagance.
9. What advice do you have for women who are looking to advance or change career paths while living the expat life?
During a career transition process, I always suggest starting from the inside. Know yourself inside out, your strengths and your flaws, what you can bring from your past experiences, even if it’s a different sector, and what differentiates you among the rest. Knowing your real value makes it easier to communicate it when the time comes. Set your goals wisely – they have to be challenging, yet realistic. And finally design your roadmap to get where you want. Remember that you don’t have to do this alone. There are plenty of professionals that can guide and support you through this journey and speed up the transition.
10. Where would be your dream place to live and work?
I have a shameless preference for nature and green places, but then I ended up in Dubai…so I am not sure that I really have a dream destination. There are so many places where I would love to move to for different reasons and I feel that as I evolve as a person, my dream place to live and work evolves too. I like being open to any destination and feel the freedom to pick the best option when it comes.
Web link:
https://jessicamorari.com/
LinkedIn: Jessica Morari | LinkedIn