TAKING THE LEAP

Many of us dream of starting a new life and career overseas but few take the plunge. But when Holly Garforth took stock of her life during the COVID lockdowns, she realised it was now or never. In the autumn of 2022 she took the plunge and became a brand manager for AASA Group Dubai.

unLTD’s Phil Turner caught up with her to find out how she came to that decision and if it was a move she’d recommend…

Hi Holly. We at unLTD knew you from working in Sheffield’s Virgin Lounge prior to its merger with Yorkshire Bank. Tell us what happened to you after that which prompted you to up sticks…

After being the Events and Promotions Manager in Sheffield, I moved back to a different role in Hull as Cluster Manager, which involved looking after five branches throughout the merger between CYBG Group and Virgin Money, with a team of about 70 people. That was just as COVID hit, and so, like it did for everybody, it stripped away the luxuries of life. Holidays, nice restaurants, gyms and all those things that we're used to having were gone and we were stuck with a very basic lifestyle. It gave me a lot of time to reflect on my career path and what I actually wanted from life. It's always been a dream of mine to live and work abroad and I'd never made it happen and that kept playing on my mind.

During that period, lots of things changed within my life in general, which led me to start researching and looking into different places in the world that I would like to work. Having visited Dubai before, it had always been a place I wanted to come back to and I moved out here in September last year.

What have you found to be some of the benefits of moving to Dubai?

For me, what Dubai offers is it's a place where pretty much everybody speaks English, which makes living and working here easier for someone who, unfortunately, can't speak any other languages. There's also lots of direct flights here, so although you are a quarter of the way around the world, you're only ever an eighthour flight away from getting home, should you need to. That teamed with the weather, because I love being in the sunshine, the fact that income here is completely tax free, and the fact that this part of the world has some major corporations and companies that have got a huge footprint, means the opportunities for people that want to work hard and grow their career is massive.

Lifestyle at the weekends is also important. If you're off, you can spend that time down at a local beach club, or just take your picnic down to the beach and have a day where you feel like you're well away from the working week. It really does feel like you're on holiday. It’s also super safe, which is really important to me. You can leave your laptop or phone in the open, while you get a coffee or go to the loo, and no one bats and eyelid.

So those are some of the upsides, what were some of the difficulties and challenges of leaving home and moving to Dubai?

I would say the biggest challenges are, of course, missing your closest family and friends. I do things here that I would have never been able to do at home. For example, me and my friends will celebrate by renting a yacht for the day, which sounds so lavish, but it's normal here and it's not actually that expensive to do. I'm doing these things and I would love my really closest family and friends to be able to come here and do that with me. Missing people can be difficult, especially if you're having a bit of a bad day or a bad week. You can't just drive around to your mum's for a cup of tea.

Were you anxious about starting again and having to make new circles of friends and connections?

Yeah, of course! I felt extremely anxious about that. I gave up everything to make this move. I sold my car and house. All my ties basically were gone. It was just me and five suitcases. You think, what if I don't meet nice people there? What if I don’t find people that are like me?

Dubai also has a bit of a stigma attached to it, unfortunately. There's this idea that it's a real blingy lifestyle that’s all about fast cars and diamonds and all that stuff. There is that part of it, but there's so many expats here and so many normal, likeminded people who are here because they want to better themselves. They want to build a successful future for themselves. So like I've always done in my jobs back in Sheffield, I’ve thrown myself into it. You’ve just got to meet people. Now, eight or nine months in, I've got a really good circle of friends who I can call upon anytime and I'm never, ever bored. The anxiety is a valid feeling, but I think for anyone willing to give up everything to make that jump, you don't need to worry because you'll find your tribe here as well.

If you’re thinking about taking the leap and moving to Dubai here are some things you might want to know

You’ll be surprised at the welcome

There are so many expats in Dubai that you’ll find plenty of like-minded souls who have been in your situation themselves and want to be friends.

It’s super clean

And 99% of the time the service is amazing!

The work culture is different

People are generally very direct so it may take some getting used to – but stick at it.

There’s hardly any crime

People leave their laptops, handbags outside on benches and think nothing of it

Driving is a nightmare

Some of the roads have eight lanes and everyone constantly gets deliveries so there are always so many vehicles on the roads

It must have been a bit of a culture shock?

This country is a melting pot of about 200 different nationalities, and they all live together in harmony, which is an amazing thing. It makes you learn so much about different cultures and religions and how people work and live their lives. I love that about this place, but that also brings its challenges because how you need to communicate to adapt to people here and how you need to get things done is very different to how we do stuff in the UK sometimes. It can be challenging at times, especially because my Yorkshire accent can be a bit difficult to understand!