What now? Of course after telling friends and colleagues I’m quitting that question has come up quite a bit. What now? Do you have a new job lined up? (No) Do you have a fixed plan? (No) Is that very smart? (Probably not)
But it was necessary and I can feel a new energy coursing through my veins. Or maybe it’s just fear.

I have, of course, been putting some thought in to my next steps – fortunately I live in Germany and there are some great things about the system. Chances are I can get funding for some further education. That is what I’m going for.

Things just sort of happened

Pretty much every field I’ve worked in „just happened“ – I learned something, got somewhat good in it and people started offering me money. I would enjoy having a bit more structure in my education now, though. My university studies had no structure and Sociology, Psychology and Philosophy don’t really qualify you for a specific job or prepare you for work in any field (who knew?).

It was great growing into certain tasks that would later earn me money (I love learning), but having some piece of paper hopefully gives me a bit more confidence in what I’m doing. Now I’m torn between feeling like I’m faking it and knowing that actually, I know more than I give myself credit for.

So what I’m looking at now are job-qualifying courses that go from 1 month to about 6 months full-time, which should give enough time to cram in necessary knowledge to be competent enough, feel good and not disrupt life too much.

Well… I could do this. Or this?

The two big options I see in front of me right now are some form of coaching (most likely in a business context) or Online Marketing Manager.
The Online Marketing thing just turned out to be fascinating to me in the past years – there is so much you can do, and communicating ideas is a beautiful thing. As long as they’re good and noble, of course.

I never saw marketing as peddling bullshit that nobody wants and fooling people, but rather as a tool to find the right methods to talk to the right people in the right way. So you can help people through marketing as well, by making them aware of something that might make their life better (or make them aware of a new gadget they definitely don’t need). Other positives are that I imagine freelancing being quite easy in the field, remote work shouldn’t be too tough, it’s well paid and diverse. But I’d be sitting in front of a computer all day and well… f*** that. I do it now, but that is not really how life should be led.

Coaching has been interesting because I always wanted to be a psychotherapist but for many reasons went down a different route (restrictive access to the necessary university programs is one). Later on, I actually appreciated not going that way because I don’t think helping people get from sick to healthy is where I would like to move. Helping people get from ok-normal to flourishing and happy sounds way more like my jam.

That is something I can get really passionate about. Even though I would say I’m introverted, working with people would be great, and it’s more interactive than sitting in front of a computer. Coaching in a business context would also be a great way of combining my online marketing interest and be some form of consultant in regards to branding and brand identity, sustainability, and direction or meaning. This would also be very exciting work and have enough diversity to keep me entertained. It also feels like something that I can see as my „purpose“.

Means to an end, or a goal

Online Marketing seems like a means to an end, and coaching or helping people grow seems like a noble goal, so in that way, I would place it higher in the hierarchy of my interests and probably means it’s what I should go for.