Building a tech career across Australia, Singapore and London with Alice Hong

Alice Hong knew from a young age that she wanted to work in international business. In 2019, Alice had a consulting job waiting in Hong Kong and flights booked through Singapore. When protests broke out in Hong Kong, Alice decided to stay in Singapore. Within one month she had secured a role in the technology sector, and a few years later she repeated the move in London. In this episode, Alice sits down with co-host Hayley Winchcombe to trace how she built a career across three cities. The conversations covers how Alice started as a career mentor for Hayley in 2020, when Hayley started a graduate role at Accenture Strategy and Alice took a half-hour call to give her advice. That call became a friendship through volunteering together at the ASEAN-Australia Strategic Youth Partnership, and now this podcast. In this pilot episode, Alice explains why she set herself a deadline to build a global career in her twenties. Hayley shares why 4 exchanges across Japan, France, Spain, Singapore and Jakarta pointed her towards the growing economies in our neighbourhood of Southeast Asia. Alice then answers the question Hayley has wanted to ask for years: how do you get off the plane and get the job? Her answer comes down to 3 moves that apply in any city. Listen to find out what. In the second half of the episode we unpack why an international career makes sense in 2026. Geopolitical risk is rewarding people who can read markets across borders, and digital nomad visas are spreading from Portugal to Malaysia. AI is raising the premium on human skills, personal brand and the ability to tell a commercial story. Whether you are weighing a move to Asia, planning your first job search abroad, or deciding where to base a global career, this one is for you. 🎧 Listen to the Expat Playbook to get inspiration for your own moves abroad. Join your hosts Alice Hong and Hayley Winchcombe weekly wherever you get your podcasts. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:19 How Alice and Hayley met in 2020 04:26 The Hong Kong flight Alice never took 05:21 A deadline for a global career 06:38 Hayley's exchanges in Japan, Europe and Southeast Asia 08:54 Why Southeast Asia 10:52 Shanghai, Hong Kong and the case for Singapore 12:18 Increasing your surface area of opportunity 14:45 How to get off the plane and get the job 16:15 One month to a role in Singapore and London 17:34 Why now: geopolitical risk, connectivity and digital nomad visas 20:34 AI, human skills and personal brand 23:34 Work, live, retire: Alice on Singapore, London and Australia 25:30 Work, live, retire: Hayley on Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia 28:22 Closing and how to join the Expat Playbook community #ExpatPlaybook #GlobalCareers #SingaporeExpat