Hi, I'm Tone. I'm so happy you found me. 

I work with skilled migrants entering the Norwegian workforce, and I understand dual careers across borders from years of study and lived experience. 

My interest in expat partners and global mobility started a long, long time ago. As an anthropology student, I worked with a group of highly skilled corporate expat partners in Oman. I spent 9 months sharing their lives, trying to understand adjustment processes and shifting social identities following a cross-border relocation or a high-mobility life with recurring relocations. 

I was fascinated to learn how often women stepped out of the formal workforce, coinciding with a global relocation, to prioritize motherhood. I was equally fascinated with how frequently this shift in priorities misaligned with women's perception of themselves as career-driven, skilled professionals and how often an intended short-term career break became a long-term or even permanent departure from the formal workforce.

The hallmark of anthropology is participant observation, trying to understand someone else's lives and perspectives. I understood a lot. 

But it wasn't until I 'went native' and married a high-mobility career expat, becoming an expat partner myself, that I could truly refer to lived experience. 

5 international moves with a family over 14 years gave me in-depth insights into, and lived experience in, navigating dual careers across borders.

I stepped out of the workforce to raise our family on the move for 8 years. I lived that life in between, that life of liminality, with love, commitment, and a learner mindset. Deciding to return to work came with pain and delight in equal amounts. 

• Places kept changing. We were still moving, and trying to stay connected to the formal workforce, when you KNOW you're leaving your host country in 3 years is rough.
• I had changed. I needed to identify my knowledge, my transferable skills, and my value proposition to create a portable career.  
• We, as a couple, had changed: we were both committed to our professional identities, but over the years, he had taken on a lead career/sole provider role, whilst I had taken on a lead parent role. Unpicking that pattern to make room for us both to work was -and still is- a work in progress.

I owe my return to work to my partner, a supportive organization, and other expat partners: both those who walked the steps before me and those who created the path with me. 

I have worked with and written about expat partner career support, formally and informally, paid and unpaid, for 10+ years: this is the thread that connects my career.

Today, I manage the Stavanger wing of Norway's largest mentor program for skilled migrants trying to enter the Norwegian workforce. I connect around 50 mentor-mentee pairs each year. 75% of candidates are expat partners. 

• I believe in enabling dual career partners to make informed decisions about their lives and relocations, preferably before relocating. 
• I also believe in organizations accepting the responsibility for relocating not one person, but a unit: a family. Dual-career couples care about two careers, now one. Are you offering your perfect new hire a job and a relocation? Remember: if their partner doesn't see a career opportunity on relocation, or underestimates the hit their career might take, or isn't supported into relevant work, you stand to lose that new hire. 
• See the family unit in global relocation. Support the family, so both partners can thrive and stay. 

I'd love to hear from you. 

You can reach me through LinkedIn or email.