When I landed in Melbourne in 2014, my life took a sharp turn from what I had known inChile. My name is Diana Santibanez, and I arrived with my partner and our 1.5-year-old daughter, Amanda. My partner was about to start an MBA program and I was ready to learn English and eventually return to my professional career.

Back in Chile, I had built a career as an Equity Fund Manager for an international bank. Yet here, in Australia, I was a newcomer with no English skills, no local network, no immediate support, and a child to look after. The dream of quickly returning to my professional life seemed distant, if not impossible.

Reality hit hard when I realised that simply living in Australia wouldn’t make my English magically improve (osmosis doesn’t work that way!). Our budget was tight, and formal language classes were out of reach. To make ends meet and immerse myself in English, I took a night job as a waitress. My days were a blur of toddler care, and my nights were spent navigating the complexities of a restaurant job in a foreign language. The early days were particularly tough; I struggled with simple tasks and often felt  overwhelmed.

When I became pregnant with our second daughter, Emilia, continuing my waitressing job became untenable. I decided to focus on improving my English and pursued an online finance certificate, hoping to stay connected to my professional field and learn the technical terms in English. Despite these efforts, re-entering the workforce remained a formidable

challenge.

In 2017, with Emilia reaching nine months of age and my English skills improving (though still a work in progress), I was finally able to re-enter the workforce. However, the obstacles were far from over. The challenge of juggling two children under four while starting a full-time professional job (in person, as working from home wasn’t an option back then) and the additional hurdle of working in my second language was intimidating. But I was committed to making it work; I didn’t come this far just to get this far, which has always been my motto since I reached the big island.

So what did we do? Our good friend Dani was a lifeline for a few months until Emilia turned nearly one year old, and we enrolled her in daycare. I admit that I was very hesitant to “do this” to my baby. In Chile, it’s common for working mothers to hire a recommended nanny or rely on grandmothers for support. Here, we couldn’t afford a full-time nanny, and we didn’t have the luxury of grandmas, so daycare was the only viable option. Despite my initial guilt and hesitation, daycare turned out to be a crucial support system that allowed me to focus on my new professional challenge. Although impressively expensive, we felt like we were “paying to work” as we hadn’t been granted the PR yet, so we paid the full childcare amount for our two daughters for several months.

The mutual commitment my partner and I have to our family was key in navigating this journey. We both shared parenting responsibilities, with my partner taking on  additional duties during my transition back to work. This allowed me to focus on learning my new role and decompress after emotionally and intellectually demanding days. Without our mutual support and understanding that our dreams were equally important, balancing the demands of work, parenthood, and migration would have been even more challenging.

Eventually, our persistence and resilience paid off. I secured a role in corporate Australia, which, although not directly related to my previous experience, provided a foundation for my career. Over time, I transitioned into the Sustainable Investment field, where I could merge my investment expertise with my passion for creating a more sustainable and equitable

world for everyone.