Singapore: The name first registered in November 2006. I had just run the New York Marathon and as a treat for finishing I was about to visit Asia for the first time. I wanted to see Vietnam, and Singapore Airlines flew me there. On the way home I had a layover in the Lion City, spent the day exploring, and could not help thinking I would like to live there someday.

In the years that followed, I continued to visit Singapore on my trips to Asia. More recently I had the chance to live there while I completed my MBA. I am now officially overeducated and underemployed, and I have returned to Singapore. This time I’m looking for work.

Constant challenges

Over the last decade I have became known as the “American with a passport”. My global outlook has developed through my vacations. I have had brief opportunities to see other countries but until now never pursued the opportunity to work. I was never quite a legit expat among the expats that I interacted with.

When I travelled I wasn’t looking for the standard package of housing and subsidised meals. I was looking for the chance to be a part of a foreign community, to interact with other foreign nationals who were united due to work and separation from family and friends, and to meet interesting people doing interesting things.

To my detriment I enjoy starting again. Perhaps it’s the overachiever in me. I am constantly looking for a challenge. I like the beginning stages of a company in formation. I like waking up in the morning with an unending to-do list. It drives me and gets me going.

The future of funds

The sector in which I worked in the US is maturing in Asia, and Singapore is staking its claim as an international centre for fund management. The opportunities at the heart of an industry are usually much larger than on the periphery. And the chances of growing and developing my career are much greater in an active environment than in the stagnant and receding one I have left behind.

Moreover, there’s something very appealing about living in a new situation – one where anything is possible. It’s not a clean slate that I am looking for; I am not turning away from the last ten years of work experience. But I am looking to build upon my expertise and somehow bridge the network that I created at home.

The last time I felt like this was on my graduation day from my fancy Ivy League university when I looked at my fellow classmates. We were filled with desire and our faces expressed the sentiment, “we will do something great with our lives someday”. At this point in my life I have done a lot but not fulfilled that promise.

Leaving New York: never easy

Of course moving to Singapore is not without risks and I need to manage my expectations. I am leaving behind a very nice life in New York and dozens of family and friends. It’s scary. I am not moving to paradise. I am moving to a foreign country.

I am not naive enough to think that politics and other office nuisances won’t be a distraction in Singapore as they are anywhere. But because I have invested so much time and energy into this relocation process, I hope to stay focused on the experience and ignore the distractions.

This new life that I am chasing is unknown and a turn-on. I am alive. The person I was at 21 would have run towards stability, safety, and the redundant daily life of my middle-class American childhood. Now here I am in my early 30s, running in completely the opposite direction.

I do not mind eating turkey sandwiches every day for lunch. But when I look at the bigger picture in my life I want to interact, explore and experience. At the end of the day, perhaps these are the reasons why I have returned to Singapore with only a suitcase and my laptop.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of eFinancialCareers.

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