Merete stepped off the treadmill and went to New Zealand to work: "It's mom's turn"

When Merete Overby travelled to New Zealand in July 2019, shortly after celebrating her silver wedding anniversary, it was to realise a long-held dream of working and living in another country.

Merete Overby always dreamed of travelling and working abroad, but she was 54 and had just celebrated her silver wedding anniversary with her husband Lars before her dream came true.

When the children were young, Lars travelled extensively with his work, so Merete chose a career in Denmark as a project manager with Arla, LEGO, Jyske Bank and Systematic rather than travelling out into the world.

When their two sons had left home, Merete was suddenly offered the chance of being posted for a period to New Zealand for Systematic, and she didn’t wait long before hopping off the treadmill and embracing the opportunity to realise her old dream.

“Now it’s Mum’s turn,” as she put it.

In July 2019, she waved goodbye to her family, and headed off to Wellington, New Zealand, and she hasn’t regretted it for a moment.

My colleagues and I work out of both Auckland and Wellington. The Systematic office is in Wellington, where our biggest customer – the New Zealand Ministry of Defence Force – is based. Like several other countries, New Zealand has discovered that Systematic develops and sells the world’s best command and control and battle management system. The USA and Germany are two of our biggest customers, and our software accounts for a not-insignificant chunk of Danish exports. In fact, Systematic is one of the top-100 taxpayers in Denmark, and that’s nice to know when you’re working for a Danish firm abroad.

Small cultural differences slowly become apparent
It’s hugely exciting being here, but it’s also pretty tough going! There are challenges around every corner. It’s easy enough being a tourist in New Zealand: Everyone is friendly, speaks English, there’s hardly any crime, the public transport works, and the infrastructure is good. In fact, Danes and Kiwis resemble each other a lot in many ways, but only superficially – once you start living and working in the country, the small cultural differences slowly become apparent. However, that’s partly what makes it all so interesting – but it’s also challenging working in a different country.

For me, it’s a wonderfully egotistical choice, because I’m just doing what I want to do. I’m doing something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but it also means that I’m working very long hours. There’s no one I have to get back home for, I don’t have any family visits, and there’s nothing I have to participate in. All I have to do is work and enjoy it for what it is. And that’s great! Especially because I know that it’s not going to last forever. My husband is waiting for me back home, and I’ll be going back to Denmark again in the spring. We’ve just employed a local project manager who starts on 1 November, and the plan is that I’ll stay for 4-6 months to give him the best possible start.

My husband still travels a lot to China, and we joke about meeting up half-way in Singapore, but at the moment I’m looking forward to December, when my husband, two sons and daughter-in-law are all coming out to meet up with me in Queenstown on New Zealand’s South Island. I’ll also be returning to Denmark for the Easter holidays, and just thinking about it makes me yearn for the taste of a freshly baked breakfast roll from our local artisan bakery!

If anyone else is harbouring dreams of living life abroad, then I would definitely recommend they go for it – however old you are.

My profile and background is slightly different to that of most young people who choose to kick-start their careers with a spell overseas. This is probably one of the last chances I’ll get to fulfil my dream – but I’ll grab the chance again if I can. I feel extremely lucky to be working for a company where it’s been possible to do so.”