The Expat Biography

Reflecting on the first season. Thank you to all who made this possible.

So excited about the 2nd season!

Sindi Dlamini
Host

Please find me on: https://www.friendofprogress.com/
One of my favourite Seth Godin Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVYlMCpUhmY

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Uploading the most special episode, the one that got me started with an INCREDIBLE interviewee, Sof. I cringe at my lack of preparation all the time:) I uploaded this as raw as it was, as naive as it was because it is my best yardstick yet of how far I can go.

I am so proud of starting. I am very grateful to Sof for being so kind and allowing me his time and insights and general life experience. He was really the best pick of the interview. He has incredible life experiences and even better, attitude towards life. Here it for yourself and Enjoy.

You Tube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARMLQ0NafXY&t=71s

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In this episode I speak with Uchechukwu Onyekesi , Uche in short, a medical doctor from Nigeria, turned business executive.

In this episode, we discuss many interesting aspects of her life including:

· Missing soups she could make in Nigeria and the ingredients.

· Having an African shop in pretty much every city she frequents.

· Taking the initiative and choosing to study German during her service year, way before she could emigrate inspired by German missionaries at an early age.

· How the fascination with Germany came about from reading her washing machine in German back in Nigeria.

· Just like me, she is a, village raised girl (Ikenga in the Southeast of Nigeria is her favourite place in the world), first of five children, the love of tree climbing?!. It was interesting how many similarities we had.

· Moving to the oil city, Port Harcourt at around nine years old and experiencing her first culture shock withing her own country: different language, different tribes.

· Being fascinated by the human body at a young age which lead a path for her to medicine.

· How she looked beyond medicine to pivot her career into the business of healthcare.

· Learning the German language up to C1 level to ‘feel up’ her time after work while back in Nigeria putting her in a very advantageous position when she wanted to emigrate. She gives a comprehensive breakdown of language levels of language learning comparing it to English learning.

· The critical role that her mentor played as she helped her explore a new field and career.

Her approach on how she deals with challenging life moments.

This Interview clip on You Tube:
https://youtu.be/cyqScRKY8rQ

Instagram: @theexpatbiography

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Interview visual clip on You Tube Channel 'The Expat Biography' available

In this episode I talk to Janet Maldonado, a Mexican Software Development Engineer who has worked at the highest level companies in her field before working in healthcare.

· She talks about life in California: her children learning the language, making new friends and her career life visiting major tech companies in Silicon valley such as Facebook, Github, LinkedIn and Pintrest.

· Janet loved maths and science as a child and wanted to explore software engineering from a young age.

· She considered going a different route to software development because she thought she ‘didn’t like it’ judging from the way it was presented, until she made her first working application, which reactivated her excitement and sense of accomplishment.

· Her joy is evident when she describes understanding that she can code and

· Through her university career, she discusses living in Tijuana, a city in her home county of Mexico near the border with the USA, considered as one of the most dangerous places in the world

· We both have retired parents who were teachers and exchange this experience of having them even teach us in a grade.

· We go through starting her career in a small company in Tijuana, until she saw bigger opportunities in Guadalajara, a Latin American Tech hub. She secured her job within a week. How?

· Candidly, she goes through the not so easy times she went through when she first went to California for a great career opportunity, experiencing strain as the family was not together, then having to make a tough call.

· Developing empathy for immigrants through her experiences as one of them in the US, while having to negotiate the paperwork herself as an expat.

· Why she left Silicon Valley and Finding fulfillment and meaning in her work in the healthcare industry.

· Her seed for coming to Germany was planted when she was still living in Guadalajara where she interacted with a lot of German nationals and tells the story of how she made those connections work for her, highlighting the importance of forming networks.

· Getting to Europe and exploring the continent and what it has to offer. Adding on the cultural shocks she experienced, from funny to challenging.

It was a pleasure interviewing Janet, I loved her open sharing and engaging manner of shaping an experience.

Relevant Link:

This episode on our YouTube Channel:
https://youtu.be/Q8d1-V4MvZs

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Interview visual clip on You Tube Channel 'The Expat Biography' available

This interview is with Yuerui, born in China and came to Germany about a decade ago for her studies. I loved her confident, smooth voice. Something I noticed from the first time I met her.

These are some of the points we covered in the interview:

· Not locking herself in one career path early. Taking advantage on her youth in trying different careers as early as possible to see what interests her, from Languages, Renewable Energy to IT.

· How to use already existing knowledge in one area and piggyback it to another role to make a transition.

· The importance of enjoying learning and how it will take you to places

· We get to the why she decided to formally study German, the structure of Mandarin as compared to German etc.

· How studying language helped her choose a career across different industries.

· The experience of getting a hair cut in Germany.

· The difference in choosing coursework at university, comparing China to Germany.

· How complaining about a common pain is the quickest way to make friends, the international rules of finding a common enemy.

· Having a brother while being born a second child during the one child policy years.

· Going through school in an intense Chinese system.

· How being a driven character can be an anxiety causing state and being honest enough to acknowledge your human limits.

· Monetising your hobby and deriving joy out of something you created and shared with the world.

· Opinion on Chinese food made outside of China

· Missing home and the way people socialise.

What made the interview super special was her ability to explain her though process when delivering insights, her confident voice in her ideas and being a genuinely kind person that I have known her to be in all my interactions with her.

Relevant Links:This Interview clip on You Tube:
https://youtu.be/fHGQW3Ljnz4

Yuerui's Etsy Store:
https://www.etsy.com/de/shop/Congreat

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Interview visual clip on You Tube Channel 'The Expat Biography' available

Alex is a Ghanaian pharmacist turned business innovator who is decorated with innovation awards from a German pharma he works for. This is a brief summary of our insightful conversation:

· Incidentally Alex and I both love choral music.

· He mentions the importance of mentorship in how he changed his mind and stayed in Germany longer than he planned after his internship.

· Navigating the big relocation move with his partner and family to accommodate career, expectations in immersing into a very different culture.

· Experiencing and processing that initial adjustment when arriving in Germany and how his previous travel experiences prepared him to be open minded about how other people are different, without judging these differences. His humility and confidence in handling himself shows clearly in the conversation.

· Missing Ghanaian food but also trying out different German dishes in the town he lives in.

· Weighing integrating into a small family friendly town instead of a big city as conventional wisdom suggested, clearly not swayed and independently making his own decisions. How did this turn out?

· We talk about his childhood, growing up in a liberal family and what led him to study pharmacy.

· His take on how your first degree can provide you a starting point but you are not obligated to stick to it. It is a sunk cost you can change direction from. It does not define your career, so worry less.

· We went through what it entails to qualify as a pharmacists and how different jurisdictions differ from each other.

· How he applies his analytical skills in his business analysis work, the impact of the pandemic and how he now structures his work at home, dig deep, pharma, service offerings,

leading projects that deliver care to Sub-Saharan Africa and having an impact on the continent.

· How he sees a digitally shaped future: digital health and telemedicine.

Alex is such a refined gentleman and it was such a pleasure to interview him. I was grateful for his easy going approach and patience in explaining technical concepts that were not necessarily familiar to me and made it accessible and fun.

I really enjoyed the episode and I know you will too.

Relevant Links:
This episode clip on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/lEsI1b3boI0

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Interview visual clip on You Tube Channel 'The Expat Biography' available

In this episode I talked to Dr. Lauren Liss, a British Scientist with a PhD in Evolutionary Biology.

We start off with a grapple most career focused women in great relationships have at some point during their journey. How did this question pan out for Lauren?
Being a clinical trial writer in Frankfurt and they by pure chance, the trial she was writing for was falsely classified as failed which lead her to be recruited to a German international pharma she currently works for, leading research teams
The openness with which she shares salary research before taking an offer, highlighting the importance of advocating for ourselves, also highlighting difference in pay scales between EU countries.
The work culture differences between England and Germany. How do you socialise with co workers?
Navigating learning the German language and its importance in facilitating cultural assimilation through micro interactions, with the general German public.
Living in Northumberland and what she missed about the UK, especially her family.
Her career path starting in Physics, Biology and Geography has never been conventional and I love how she always went for what felt right to her and not what she was told would be best for her.
The focus of producing ‘work that matters’, as one of my mentors Seth Godin would say, is more critical to her than career climbing for instance. Her dedication to helping others and adding good in the world is very evident throughout the conversation.
Working in Oncology, especially with the very aggressive NUT carcinoma (NC) changed a lot about her and being grateful for everything she has and shaping her leadership in her clinical team.
Just when I though it was ending, we talk about her treatment and medical adjustment and what she goes through, undergoing chryotherapy. I really admire her bravery and openness about something so personal and not easy.

We did the interview after a long day and she was still so bubbly and present throughout. The motion sensing light during the interview kept on going off so we had to keep standing up and running around.
Lauren was a total spot about it. I felt energised and laughed a lot even during the editing, reliving this interview with her.

Thanks
Sindi

This episode on You Tube (Extract):
https://youtu.be/l843uOrjKu4

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Ima Isip, now living in Germany, studied Economics in her home country of Nigeria. If you are at all business minded, this is the one you have been waiting for!

Here are some things to look forward to in the interview:

Some moments were challenging: having to deal with inherent prejudice and ignorance about Africa, assumptions based on TV network agendas etc. Talking about the cost of ignorance.
We speak navigating dating in Germany, our shared hobbies of gardening and travelling and more.
I tease her about having a 30 hour day. She really works hard at elevating herself and is willing to things that require new skills. She shares some practical stories on how she achieves this, e.g accidentally starting a business.
Her open mindedness. She tells the story early on about winning a national business competition through an opportunity her sister shared with her that got her to explore other areas she did not plan on initially.
Getting used to rejection – as someone who has started a business and accepted rejection as part of the package, she takes it a step further and thrives through it.
A piece on how we get stuck and forget the big dreams we had in our idealistic younger years, covering up our clipped wings with 'fake humility' and then rejecting that and getting back to our ideals.
Learning to make high level decisions unexpectedly, without guidance in a real estate company, leading it to more profitability.

When I asked to interview her, she said she cant fill an hour, with no editing, we almost did two – goes to show how sometimes the best of us sell ourselves short. I even discovered some of the most interesting exchanges can happen on the other side of the 'Stop record' button. ,

We exchanged a lot, jumped around a bit – what sometimes happens when everything is connected to everything. sometimes meandering around topics but trued to keep the flow. I absolutely enjoyed this episode, I hope you do too.

Thanks
Sindi

Relevant Links:

YouTube clip for this podcast: https://youtu.be/jE7OgKT2gzE

Guest LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ima-isip-38129669/?originalSubdomain=de

Ima’s company website: https://www.budgency.com/

This show’s creators: https://www.friendofprogress.com/

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Arjan van der Oort is born and raised in The Netherlands, married to a Colombian born/Holland raised lady and lived in various countries with his wife and 3 children.

His journey brought him from Fontainebleau in France, via London in the UK, Istanbul in Turkey, Shanghai in China to Frankfurt in Germany, where he is currently residing. The global journey of Arjan is marked with coincidences, life changing experiences and of course the usual ‘ups and downs’.

Arjan has a passion for sharing his experience of being a ‘global citizen’ and works for pharma company. He is a finance professional by background with a diploma of the Hotelschool of Amsterdam and a bachelor in Business Administration as educational background, Arjan is currently active as the global head of internal auditing at a leading pharma.

For a little more, find an extract of the video in our You Tube channel: [Podcast extract] Four countries in a decade. A global family adventure | Arjan van der Oort - YouTube

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Sindiswa Dlamini