7. I was the ‘blue-eyed girl’, if only for a short while
I had landed on my feet. After about seven months in the local Taipei office of one of the Big Four accounting firms, working in a complete Taiwanese environment without speaking the language, I had moved on to the Asia Pacific Regional office in the role of Regional...
Living your values is the greatest success in life, but how to get there?
Living your values is the greatest success in life for each individual. Values are the foundation of your purpose in life and living according to your values brings fulfilment. Values are very personal; for one they may be around money and career, for another around...
Happiness or fulfilment, what do I want to strive for?
When clients tell me that they are not happy with their current lives, I generally don’t focus on that word ‘happy’; I talk about fulfilment. But what exactly is fulfilment and why do I prefer using that word over happiness? These days there is a particular focus on...
6. One job leads to the next; the importance of having ‘a foot in the door’
After about six months in my new job in Taipei it was Chinese New Year, in February. This meant that the office would close for a whole week! I was hired locally and that meant that I had no right to annual leave in the first year. As a European, I found that...
5. How a burp brought the European business community in Taipei back to life
I had followed my boyfriend to Taipei where he was sent on an assignment by his company and I was locally hired by one of the Big Four accounting firms as an executive search professional. My job was to penetrate the Western business community to find new clients for...
4. My first weeks in the new job in Taipei
Through contacts and a lot of luck I had landed this great job in Taipei. My boyfriend had been sent there by his company and I managed to get employed by one of the Big Four accounting firms as a recruiter. They had wanted to hire a foreigner to penetrate the Western...
3. How I continued my career in Taiwan
I had survived my first day of our look-see visit in Taipei. It was an amazing experience to wander the streets and take in all these new impressions. It was so different from back home in the Netherlands, nothing I had ever experienced before. It even smelt...
2. ‘Welcome to Taipei’, my first steps into a new world
My boyfriend came home smiling from ear to ear. “I have been offered an assignment in Taiwan!” Something he had been hoping for for several years, since an exciting visit to the Far-East as a student. His ultimate dream was to work in Japan. “It’s not Japan, but it’s...