Multi-jobber career changers & the future of work: Goodbye safety thinking!

Life planning, professional security and self-realization seem important, but more and more People have several jobs at the same time or in a row. The end of security leaves room for creativity.

Goodbye security thinking!

A certain security in life, especially of a material nature, is one of the wishes and hopes of many people in our world Society. She appeared so far mostly through a solid, lifelong Workplace to be guaranteed. However, classic company organizations are increasingly dissolving, job descriptions are changing faster and faster, personal working life is becoming more and more unpredictable.

This leads to the fact that the common, steady employment biographies as we still know them from our parents are becoming more and more flexible and thus also more permeable. Crises also show us again and again that we have to reckon with upheavals at any time. One job in one Companys from vocational training to pension there will hardly be. Flexibility and mobility, on the other hand, are Future be more in demand than ever – and the Courageto try something new every once in a while.

Multi-jobbers become the rule: the end of the classic career

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In plain language, this means that for many a constantly interrupted Life, in which project work, permanent jobs or short-term unemployment alternate, would increasingly become the dominant way of life and work. Classic multi-jobbing, with several jobs at the same time or one after the other. This is becoming the rule rather than the exception. And offers plenty of room for creativity and career changers.

Thomas Weber from Berlin (the name is a pseudonym for a real person) originally imagined his career to be quite different: after graduating as a qualified engineer specializing in communications engineering at the University the Bundeswehr in Neubiberg near Munich In 1976 Weber continued to work for the Bundeswehr, first as a platoon leader in a technical unit in Birkenfeld, then from 1979 as a clerk for automatic measuring and testing systems at the Air Force Materials Office in Cologne. “I've always been from Technology fascinated and I therefore deliberately started studying engineering,” says the Berliner Motivation his career choice.

Change is when the résumé turns out differently than planned

But then the rest of his professional life took a completely different course than planned: in 1984 Weber became a technical editor at a Company for measuring and testing systems. "The Bundeswehr changed a lot back then and was becoming more and more like an industrial company," Weber recalls. “I wanted to be in the open then Economy work”, explains the engineer his move. In his new job, he now created technical descriptions and operating instructions for devices. At the new company, he soon took over the construction and maintenance of a PC network in the area of ​​technical documentation. In 1982, while still in the Bundeswehr, Weber began using data processing on Commodorefacilities to do, then became more and more involved with computers and expanded his knowledge. After a few years in the new company, the first appeared Problems on my Executive required me to work in Saudi Arabia for much of the year and at home to do that at the same time Network take care of. This double burden was just too much for me,” the engineer recalls. Then there were personal problems in the company: “I experienced that a professional Ascent not only from Performance depends, but also on how you can present yourself in the company. That elbow mentality and that Bullying I didn't like it at all, ”he reports.

Therefore, it was not difficult for Weber to start as a freelance EDPAdviser and to become self-employed as a technical translator. At that point he had already worked part-time for a translation company for 10 years. “I found out about this through a newspaper ad. They were looking for someone to translate operating instructions and manuals from English, because this also requires profound technical knowledge,” he says, describing the connection to his professional field. In 1985 Weber also took over the network support there, so that the original part-time job gradually expanded into a full-time job. "I was then able to continue working as a freelancer," he reports. When the company was sold in 1998, Weber and two other former employees founded their own company for translation jobs of all kinds from all over Germany and many European countries. The company now also employs two permanent employees and numerous other freelancers.

Flexible self-employment vs. permanent employment

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Being self-employed has many advantages for Weber: "I can organize my working hours and expenses myself and, above all, I'm more flexible than before," reports the engineer. “While employees constantly Anxiety have to have to be laid off in the course of the next austerity measures, I can compensate for financial bottlenecks by creating new ones, for example through price adjustments and advertising customers win,” he explains, noting: “So it all depends on me and not on others.” But of course a certain courage is also required Risks about such a step: “I knew roughly what to expect, but of course I couldn't quite do it for sure be,” admits Weber. A disadvantage is sure that a self-employed pension and Health insurance have to pay in full. "But for me, that doesn't by far outweigh the disadvantages of a permanent position," says the engineer clear.

Most Germans seem to see things differently, because the number of those who dare to take the step into self-employment is declining: The figures from the Federal Statistical Office show that many people are still only cautiously willing to bring about changes themselves. Especially for Boy people, a secure career in the civil service seems to be the supposedly less risky path. The desire for a supposedly secure job is understandably great. But can we still count on permanent jobs in the future?

What does the future of work look like?

Experts have been looking for an answer to this question for years. And more and more often come to the conclusion: There will probably be fewer and fewer permanent jobs in the future. Figures from the Federal Statistical Office show that at least the number of secure employment seems to be decreasing. Automation and digitization do the rest to make many supposedly safe jobs obsolete.

Will the number of those who resigned from work ways (have to) leave and thus, among other things, dare to take the step into self-employment, i.e. inevitably gain weight? Is the permanent job that requires insurance to be phased out? After all, many experts assume that most employees in Germany already have a wide variety of jobs during their working life - either one after the other or even at the same time. And the trend could, according to the experts, intensify in the future if more and more jobs are replaced by robots or cheaper workers in the course of digitization and globalization.

Lateral entrants on the advance

No wonder that career changers like Weber are particularly common in ITIndustry can be found: According to statistics from the Federal Institute for Vocational Training, an average of 20 percent start their ITVocational Training only after the age of 22 - i.e. after the end or dropping out of their first training. The reason for this concentration is probably the lack of generally recognized qualification profiles, which also offer people without relevant qualifications new opportunities to build up an IT career, since technical development often progresses faster than the curricula of the training courses can keep up.

But there are also career changers in other areas. There are even state-recognized “distance learning courses for lateral thinkers” for people who want to turn their hobby into something Job or no longer want to work in their learned profession and dare to change careers. According to a press release from the provider, they are aimed at committed, value-oriented career changers and creative people who want to turn their hobby into a career. The offer includes training courses such as natural food, social management, Business start, business management in retail and - for years the hit in the range - "Practice for the bicycle retail trade".

Thomas Weber, meanwhile, managed the successful transition from qualified engineer to technical translator even without distance learning. Although his life plan was completely different than expected, he is certain: “On the whole, I would do everything the same way again”. His example shows that it can be worth leaving supposedly safe paths and sometimes thinking “outside the box” to find your own ideas to realize. Seen in this way, the changes in Working world opportunities for more fulfilling and varied employment. But even if a lot is changing in society: security at work will probably remain a need for many people. We can only hope that these wishes will not be overwhelmed by developments and that it will continue to be left to everyone to decide decidehow he does his job.

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