KEY POINTS:
Kiwis who return home after a long spell working abroad are finding it hard to get back to their roots. The job market has changed in the past five years and it seems those much honed executive skills developed on the international stage are just not needed.
Also, the booming housing market means some are just not able to get a foot on the property ladder.
In 2006 Dy de Silva packed in her job as personal assistant to supermodel and businesswoman Elle MacPherson to return to Auckland. Despite a year having passed since she returned de Silva says she's still not settled here.
"I have come back to my own country after five years away and feel unsettled," she says. "I'm struggling to find a niche in the job market that fits the skills I have obtained. The role of personal assistant seems to have disappeared.
De Silva has had three jobs in the past 12 months and says she is finding it hard to find her feet. Her feeling of being unsettled is not helped by high house prices - buying a home is a non-starter, she says.
"I was able to buy a house in Britain," she says. "A single woman like me just can't afford to buy a home here - I should have bought one before I went."
And she's seen some big changes in the New Zealand working environment since she returned.
"The biggest shock is that people are a lot busier here now and their free time is a lot more valuable to them," she says. "I used to like the slower pace of New Zealand."
De Silva says people she knows are spending far more time at work than they used too - leaving them little time for social engagements.
"My friends are still here," she says. "But I've only seen them two or three times since I've been back. There has been a change in the work culture which I think is due to the high cost of living here - people are working longer and harder to keep what they've got."
De Silva says she now plans to work as a temp until the right job comes along.
Raewyn Montgomery returned to New Zealand in December last year after having visited 29 countries. She is also weighing up her options on the job front.
The former senior personal assistant left her Auckland hospital admin job for Saudi Arabia on a whim - just three weeks after seeing an advertisement for a job there in 2000.
When George Bush's' war on terror' was launched, Montgomery fled to Dubai where she remained until the end of last year.
"I liked Saudi, we had a lot of fun," she says. "The people were nice. We had a good social life. But the salaries are really low.
"In Dubai the price of accommodation has gone through the roof in the past year or so. Employers advertise that there is no tax in Dubai but everything is at a premium price. Living accommodation cost half my salary so I shared with five people toward the end of my stay."
Montgomery says a change in employment law in Dubai meant she lost her senior PA job at carmaker General Motors to a local. In the end Montgomery returned home because her granddaughter was about to be born.
So what does she think of'home after seven years away?
"I have noticed how polite people are - I had never noticed that before," she says. "People smile at you, people are so friendly - strangers talk to you.
"On the road people are so polite. It's just more relaxed here. You don't appreciate New Zealand until you've been away. It's just a beautiful country.
"And it's so great to be able to speak English and have people understand you. Working with so many non-English speakers abroad gets to you after a while and you almost give up trying to communicate at all. And you dare not try and make a joke because it can be so easily misunderstood."
On the job front Montgomery knows she will be lucky to get the same level of job here that she enjoyed abroad.
"The problem is many companies do not have their head offices here any more - so those top jobs - such as PA to the CEO - are few and far between."
Sam Tobin of Kea says Kiwis returning to New Zealand may be finding it hard to settle back here because their expectations are too high.
Kea is a non-profit independent organisation that brings Kiwi expatriates, public and private sector organisations together to create what it terms "a global knowledge network for the benefit of New Zealand". It keeps tabs on high-level Kiwis working abroad in a bid to help them when they want to return home.
Sam Tobin - the group's science, innovation and education network manager - says returning Kiwis have to be realistic about their expectations on returning home.
"People assume that repatriates will fit right in again and it's often not the case," he says. "There's been some research done on this which has led to what is called the 'W' curve.
"People come back, their expectations are high and they crash [with disappointment], they rise a little and crash again and then they slowly rise again - that last rise depends on each person and how they can fit into New Zealand again.
"For returning Kiwis it is all a question of them having realistic expectations and being prepared to go through that readjustment process."
Andrew McLeod, Kea's general manager of its global talent centre says: "There are one million expats abroad and the ones we know say they will return home if they have the right opportunity - they want a job in their hand before they come back.
"The reason for coming home is not money, or because the grass is greener, or the lifestyle - it's a sad thing that the country perpetuates that we have a great lifestyle here. We don't all live on the set of The Lord of the Rings or on a high country farm. The most common reason for returning home is family.
"But we are seeing a swift churn rate of returning expats - many come and leave within two months but the average time is six to twelve months. They come back, can't get the job they want, run out of money and leave again.
"Returning Kiwis who have been away for an extended period are really viewed as foreigners and they have lost their local industry contacts - they have to start again. Returning Kiwis are the golden geese that should be looked after. But they are not."
McLeod believes highly skilled people who have the right to work here, who have market knowledge and business networks abroad, should be embraced by employers.
Despite everything, the decision to return to New Zealand was easy for de Silva and it's possible her view is shared by many other returning expats.
"My heart belongs to New Zealand," she says.
"If there is one thing you realise when you go overseas it is how wonderful our country is. And how beautiful the people are here. Being back is like a renewed new-found love for your own country."
