Diplomatic spouses face career breaks
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From left are Hilkka Heimonen, the wife of Finnish Ambassador Matti Heimonen; Peter Bullen, the husband of Irish Ambassador Aingeal O’Donoghue; and Akseli Korhonen, the husband of Finnish diplomat Heinei Korhonen with his baby son.
This is the first in a two-part series highlighting the way diplomatic spouses are adapting to the ever-changing career environment while accompanying their spouses’ to new postings. — ED.
By Kang Hyun-kyung
What if your spouse has a job that requires moving overseas every three or four years, but you have your own career you are passionate about?
To accompany your spouse to a foreign posting, diplomatic spouses say, chances are high that you either have frequent career breaks or work in a field that is not in your career path.
“Moving every few years is a real hit to any career,” says Peter Bullen, the husband of Irish Ambassador to Korea Aingeal O’Donoghue. “The spouse can’t necessarily find work in their profession, so you work in another field, or not at all.”
Born in America, the certified public accountant married the Irish diplomat in 1995, and has since experienced frequent career breaks. These occur whenever his wife is called upon to serve a foreign posting or return to the Irish foreign ministry headquarters.
In New Deli, which was the couple’s first foreign posting after marrying, Bullen says he spent an “idle” year and ended up running the High School Computer Lab at the American school there.
“I enjoyed it, but at the end of the day I ended up being four years out of my field. I’d say that posting was fairly typical, either not working at all, or working out of one’s career path.”
Bullen resumed his profession as a financial controller in 1999, five years after a career break. Another career break waited for him in 2003 when the couple returned to Ireland.
After six months of job searching, Bullen finally settled on “an e-working career” with IBM. He later had several roles with IBM in Dublin from 2003 to 2008.
Since then, he has been able to transfer his job with IBM over the past six years — five years in Brussels and one year in Seoul.
“I would say my situation is very unusual, both in working in an accounting and finance area that is fairly international, and also in that I work with a multinational company and have been able to bring my job with me on our last two moves.”
Even those who are lucky enough to stay on their career path by working remotely, they say they still need to make certain arrangements in their profession, such as a change in their employment status.
Remote work
Akseli Korhonen, the husband of Finnish diplomat Heinei Korhonen, changed his employment status after arriving in Seoul in August 2013. His wife had just begun a tour of duty and he had to take care of his 20-month-old son.
As a technical consultant, Korhonen worked remotely two days a week for the Helsingki-based IT company AVAUS, the same company he had worked for when he was in Finland.
So far, he says, his new lifestyle has gone well.
“I think I was very lucky because my employer was so flexible in remote work. If I had a career break, I think it would be very difficult for me to re-enter the labor market after my wife and I go back to Finland,” he says.
“I enjoy this lifestyle; I take care of my baby and work part-time for my company. My son is so young and needs constant attention.”
After the couple had the baby boy, Ms. Korhonen took parental leave for six months to take care of him. After arriving in Seoul, Mr. Korhonen took his parental leave for another six months for his son and since then has resumed his IT consultant work for AVAUS as a part-time employee.
Hilkka Heimonen, the wife of Finnish Ambassador Matti Heimonen, is regarded as another diplomatic spouse that has been fortunate in that she was able to maintain her career path as a primary teacher.
Ms. Heimonen majored in primary school education in college and had worked on and off as a teacher for 12 years in total when the couple moved back to Finland from foreign postings.
“I have been lucky because I always was able to find jobs whenever my husband and I returned to Finland,” she says.
When the couple were posted in Geneva and Berlin, Ms. Heimonen taught students part-time at Finnish schools. In most foreign postings, she experienced career breaks, but she said this wasn’t bad because she had to take care of her two young daughters during those times.
She also had a career move and worked with the Finnish Sauna Society as executive director before her husband was called upon to serve in Shanghai, China. “I was in charge of paper work and public relations. In Finland, double-income families are common and stay-at-home mothers are kind of rare. So I was lucky to have a job there,” she says.