JE#3: Ali Andersen - Good at Finance; Called to Something Else

amazing okay so then what happened next for you

So I spent about three and a half years in the UK for close to four years.

At the end, I also did some short-term contract work.

But by that point, I'd really decided to go back to South Africa.

Okay.

What led to that decision?

I was feeling the pull of better weather, to be honest.

Oh, really? I want to see the sun.

Yeah.

It sounds like a small thing, but for me, living in the UK, the greyness did get to me after a while.

Wow, yeah.

I guess I was just missing home, missing more than just the weather, missing everything about home, friends and family and so on.

And so, yeah, made the move back to Cape Town.

From a career perspective, that was quite an interesting moment because I kind of expected that I was coming back to the South African job market with all this great international experience and that it would be, frankly, quite easy.

But it was not.

So, yeah, it was kind of...

Yeah, a little bit surprising at the time, but I guess it was a lesson that sometimes experience that you get in another country doesn't always translate into what the local job market is looking for.

Okay.

Okay.

So that was just because of the area you were in in corporate finance.

Are we into the financial crisis at this point? Like, what do you think? Is the market just too small here compared to London? Was it Cape Town because it wasn't Jo'burg? I

think it was partly Cape Town versus Jo'burg.

And I was clear that I wanted to be in Cape Town.

Yes.

So I think a much smaller job market and maybe just fewer opportunities in an area like corporate finance.

amazing okay so then what happened next for you

So I spent about three and a half years in the UK for close to four years.

At the end, I also did some short-term contract work.

But by that point, I'd really decided to go back to South Africa.

Okay.

What led to that decision?

I was feeling the pull of better weather, to be honest.

Oh, really? I want to see the sun.

Yeah.

It sounds like a small thing, but for me, living in the UK, the greyness did get to me after a while.

Wow, yeah.

I guess I was just missing home, missing more than just the weather, missing everything about home, friends and family and so on.

And so, yeah, made the move back to Cape Town.

From a career perspective, that was quite an interesting moment because I kind of expected that I was coming back to the South African job market with all this great international experience and that it would be, frankly, quite easy.

But it was not.

So, yeah, it was kind of...

Yeah, a little bit surprising at the time, but I guess it was a lesson that sometimes experience that you get in another country doesn't always translate into what the local job market is looking for.

Okay.

Okay.

So that was just because of the area you were in in corporate finance.

Are we into the financial crisis at this point? Like, what do you think? Is the market just too small here compared to London? Was it Cape Town because it wasn't Jo'burg? I

think it was partly Cape Town versus Jo'burg.

And I was clear that I wanted to be in Cape Town.

Yes.

So I think a much smaller job market and maybe just fewer opportunities in an area like corporate finance.