I already knew at the age of five what I wanted to be: a vet. Throughout my whole childhood, animal posters adorned the walls of my room and I subscribed to magazines like "The Animal Lover" in order to keep me informed. No detail of wildlife was too banal for me, whether it was about the mating behavior of some exotic spider or the diet of orangutans. I wanted to know everything because I knew that my life was mapped out for me. I would heal large and small animals for the rest of my life.
But when I was 14 I developed strange allergies. I constantly coughed and wheezed, my eyes itched, and at night I could barely breathe. One night I had to be rushed to the hospital because I had blue lips due to sheer shortness of breath. It turned out that I had allergic asthma.
But that was not the worst for me. The worst was they found out that I had allergies. Unfortunately, it turned out that I was allergic to just about anything: to dust, pollen (early, middle, and late flowering), pomaceous fruit, nuts, and . . . to animals.
I think it took me about two years before I realized the full significance of it: I could not become a veterinarian.
A world collapsed for me and suddenly I had no goal. I made my final exams at the high school and enrolled in the university without knowing where I wanted to move professionally.
Surprisingly, in my late twenties I discovered a new passion: I wanted to become a midwife. I worked hard to be accepted into one of the hospitals for training. I passed several stages of interviews and got accepted and had the training contract almost in my hands when the company doctor ripped it apart in front of my eyes because I was too fat for this job, in her opinion.
That was it with the passion for any profession.
Since then I have jobs that are absolutely ok but mostly boring. I am always on a desperate search for something that fulfills me. The longing to do something special and have a real vocation stayed.
I am now almost fifty. And I really should have put all career aspirations on the shelf. Isn’t it too late by now to dream about a great career? And yet, I still have not given up hope of finding a job that gives me a lot of fun and that I'm really good at. (Of course, in my vision, I am also exorbitantly well-paid).
But now a few rules of the game have changed for me.
Because now I live in the US. Here, at 50, I am not too old to start a new career. Many people are still working here at 70 or 80 because they do not get enough retirement money. Therefore, employers are much more tolerant in terms of the age of their employees. I know a woman who started a new career at 61 and now at 70 still doesn't want to retire because her job is going so well and she makes a lot of money.
In addition, cross training into new careers is easier in the US. Of course, college and university degrees are considered valuable here too, and there are specific career paths you can't normally climb without a degree. But there are always exceptions. Because in addition to official certificates it also counts how compatible and engaged you are.
And here I come!
When I moved to the US four years ago I didn't expect that my training and experience I had acquired in Germany would be acknowledged. But far from it! The employers who were interested in me even called my previous employers in Germany to get a personal assessment of me. (That's how they do it here. You don't get letters of recommendation when you leave an employer, but there are telephone inquiries about you). In addition, Germans have a good reputation among employers in the United States.
And ta-da!! I got a good job in the accounting department of a great company. At first I was very happy and relieved, but then, as always, I got bored.
But now I've been promoted. However, I'm going to work in two areas, of which I have no clue. But my employer is going to train me until I'm ready.
I still haven't found my calling but right now I am very happy anyway. And in recent years I got an idea what my real calling might be. When I think back, I was always happiest when I could learn something new. It pretty much didn't matter what it was as long as it felt new. Who knows, maybe even as a vet I would have eventually become unhappy if it wouldn't have been new anymore?
I'll never know. But now I know that many new challenges are waiting for me and there is no one who is happier and feels more fulfilled as I do! Who knows, maybe it's not so much a certain profession which is my calling but learning itself? Go figure!
---------------------------------------------------------
Find this article also in German - Ich bin bald 50 und mein Traumjob ist immer noch nicht da - Die deutsche Version dieses Artikels
Find this article also in German - Ich bin bald 50 und mein Traumjob ist immer noch nicht da - Die deutsche Version dieses Artikels
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen