Career choice. The two words that can be more frightening than “still single.” As a child of the ’80s, I was taught by family, society and the entertainment industry that people could and should have it all by the time we turn 30: fancy clothes, great partners, and astonishing careers. So, as many other young people of my generation, I went to college armed with plans to change the world—to make it a better, happier and more successful place. I wanted to help people while quickly becoming financially independent, just like in the movies.
However, the real workforce market was slightly (to use a euphemism) different from the entertainment that depicts it. Women still face enough barriers on career choice, even today, so that one might feel tempted not even to try anymore. I wanted to land a job in recruitment and human resources, and yet I found one as an editor for a career magazine.
Fresh out of college and with zero work experience, this was the only opportunity where I still used my theoretical knowledge and skills. In the last six years, I wrote hundreds of articles on how to prepare correctly to get a good department store job, how to answer your future employer’s questions, how to write a functional CV, and how to keep up the pace with the ever-changing landscape of the job market of our times. Was this making me happy? Was I changing the world? Was I making a contribution to lower unemployment, to eradicate poverty, to help people be happier, corporations friendlier and employers more oriented towards workers retention? Not in the least.
It took me six years to realize I was stuck in a place I couldn’t move past. And the age of 30 is the best time to make the change: you have the knowledge and the experience, the connections, the self-esteem and the guts to do it. You have the moves; you just need the right way to show them off. Sure, I had the nice clothes and the wonderful boyfriend, money to make ends meet, but I was not one step closer to my career choice: to be a human resource specialist, helping people reach their full potential.
In the crazy economy we are in, quitting a well-paid job would be a mistake by all accounts. But, as I quickly realized, being stuck in a job fearing the unknown and settling for less than you hope for is the greater error. So I took everything I knew and put it to good use. According to specialists, we live in the Golden Era of women entrepreneurship—yes, the ladies own around 40% of American business. Mine is one of them.
I chose to travel the unbeaten path—at least in the eyes of my family and friends who thought a stable job was preferable to my own company. I did everything I spent time theorizing about: help actual people make the best and most meaningful career choices.
I started writing as a part-time collaborator for a few career magazines, but everything I wrote about was real-life case studies. I started my own consulting business, but my “how to dress to impress” days were over. I take each person who is looking for a job and work towards career choices, not quick financial fixes to make it through the months’ rent. Young graduates are overwhelmed with fear and burdened by student loans, mortgages and low salaries. I advise them all to take the unbeaten path: getting stuck in a place where you don’t want to be isn’t progress, it isn’t change, and it isn’t personal and social development, it is not the world you want to leave behind to your children.
We complain a lot that society, the state, the politics and the world economics are to blame for unemployment, low income, and our general career unhappiness. I now ask people what they wish to become, not what studies they have. I now teach people to capitalize on their personal hobbies and turn them into businesses. I now ask companies if they want the right people who do the right job, not people who just do the job.
In life, compromise is mandatory, we all agree on that. We cannot have everything yesterday, but we can try tomorrow. And my tomorrow, career-wise, means guiding younger generations out of the fear of unemployment, payment gaps, gender discrimination or “unfortunate background.” I got off the carousel, and tomorrow, I will teach people how to hunt for their dreams and expectations without turning into mindless drones working like bees without feeling the joy of “becoming.”
Image source: depositphotos.com
