I Thought I Had the Right Career, Until I Didn’t: Leaving Corporate Life and Starting Over Abroad
From Asian Business Owners - A.B.O. by Carmen Salameh
April 22, 2026 · 19 min · Season 6 · Episode 27
About this episode
Carmen Salameh shares her journey of leaving corporate life in Paris to rebuild her career in Hong Kong after experiencing burnout.
For a long time, I thought I was on the right path. Good job, stable career, clear trajectory but something didn’t feel right. After years in the corporate world in Paris, I hit a wall: burnout, loss of motivation and a growing feeling that I needed to change something. In this solo episode, I (re)share the story behind that turning point. How I left corporate life, moved abroad and slowly rebuilt a career that felt more aligned. I talk about: what burnout really looked like for me the decision to leave everything familiar behind starting over in Hong Kong finding my first clients and building my marketing agency launching the Asian Business Owners podcast Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:27) My life in Paris before COVID (03:17) Burnout and losing motivation (06:17) The decision to move to Hong Kong (07:33) Starting over and finding purpose again (11:05) Launching my podcast (14:10) Lessons learned & reflections (18:18) Closing thoughts Follow the journey: 💬 abo.pod 📲 Find me on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Asian Business Owners wherever you listen to it! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
People in this episode
Host: Carmen Salameh
Topics covered
- career change
- burnout
- entrepreneurship
- starting over
- marketing agency
- podcasting
Keywords
- career change
- burnout
- corporate life
- Hong Kong
- marketing agency
- Asian Business Owners
- podcast
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Paris, Hong Kong
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