Over half a decade ago, when I was still a fresh graduate from high school, a lady from the EARC in Ulaanbaatar (Educational Advising and Research Center) told me something that I would remember many years after. “You young people are like planting a seed” she started. “When you plant a seed in a new soil [like America] it needs constant care initially, nurturing and watering. Once the seed is planted and the plant is grown, when the roots are spread and the trunk is strong, at a point when the plant is on its own, is where you face a new problem”. She continued “When you finally decide to come back home [to Mongolia] you have to re-plant the grown plant in a soil - a very different soil. The plant will reject the soil. The plant will struggle. But, let me tell you this, it is not a bad thing. Once everything is over and the plant is reconciled, you get something very special in return – a person who is an amphibian, a person who understands the two very different cultures, a person who can adapt to any environment”.
These words resonated inside me throughout the time when I first struggled to adjust in the United States. These words also resonated inside me when I finally decided to come back to Mongolia. I know coming back to Mongolia is a big “mystery” for many people, especially for people who have lived abroad for more than 5 years. For them it is an unexplored horizon and just the mere thoughts of leaving their somewhat comfortable lifestyles behind do bring fear and uncertainty to them.
Re-adjusting back to Mongolian social norms and everyday life wasn’t particularly a big challenge for me because I was lucky enough to have the luxury of coming back to Mongolia every summer. However, having spent 80% of my time on the other side of the Pacific Ocean did bring certain discomforts to me. I no longer had access to commodities and services I used to have, I missed my friends and simply things were a bit different. Things like city traffic, communication ethics and the overly smoggy winter were the few of the many challenges to mention. Re-adjustment was… well, “something”.
I was given an opportunity to study at one of the most prestigious Universities in the United States. Afterwards, I had an option to stay in the United States and either work or continue my studies. Well, I did not stay. I decided to come back home and honestly speaking I absolutely do not regret it. From an ambitious goal to creating a start-up to becoming an analyst at one of the leading investment companies in Mongolia in just over a year time, I could summarize everything in one short sentence – it has been a lot of fun. The experience for me has been rather than looking for a job, the job found me and I believe this was part of the early mover advantage. Today I see flocks and flocks of resumes coming into our HR department, all of them qualified and foreign educated. A new trend has begun. Mongolia is experiencing an inflow of a new generation of well-educated and qualified young people and believe me, there are still a lot of shoes to be filled in.
When I read Bloomberg or the Wall Street Journal, Mongolia pops-up in articles every so often these days. Mongolia has become the next hot investment destination, the 21st century “California Gold Rush” in Asia. As the size of the economy doubles every 3 to 5 years, it will not only be mining, but every other sectors from retail to financial services, from healthcare to real estate development will grow and expand at a tremendous rate. This is what people are saying and I believe in it. Now I am here working in Mongolia, and I can assure you things are changing pretty god damn fast.
Do you know what the best thing about living and working in Mongolia is? In two words, “bigger impact”. I get to be part of the building blocks of creating something grand, I get to be part of the process of shaping the future of this country, I get to have more responsibilities and simply I get to have a bigger impact and a stronger voice. Yep, I am a REPAT. I have successfully repatriated myself and I am just lovin’ it.
06/29/2011
By Amar Baatartsogt, Investment Analyst, Newcom Group