Hello all,
I just wanted to write back to you guys after i took the decision a year ago to take a job that i didn't have any experience in. I thought that it would be maybe interesting to share my experience and maybe help someone out there that is in a similar situation as i was.
My initial post can be accessed here : https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/73la2m/joblife_changing_decision/
So, yeah. I'm back after a year which had a rough start but which changed a lot on the go in the positive way.
Before i took the decision, the dilemma was between a job that i loved but which started to be very unstable with my client and a job that appeared from nowhere and that i randomly applied to just by curiosity and hope that things can change for me. Let me write about it from the start.
I was a marketing manager in a hotel/restaurant for over 4 years as a supplier (yes, i opened an advertisement company where i was working on all things by myself) where i was managing pretty much everything related to marketing : Graphic design, photography, testing food by its look and taste, coming up with ad strategies, making websites, managing suppliers, managing social media. I loved doing it but it started to be very time consuming and difficult to manage especially because the owner didn't want to pay me more after 4 years of good service (no sense of financial evolution which started to be very stressful) and that it was a family business where the owner was a difficult element to be managed along with all the work emotionally. I started to think about trying to change my life and maybe come back to my home country or wherever i can start my life all over again with my wife (i work in a North African country).
This is where i received an email in which a multinational company was searching for people speaking specific languages to do a translating/interpreting job to which i answered as being able to speak those languages but not being a translator nor an interpreter by profession (I am trilingual) and that if i may help in anyway they're more than welcome to write me back. A week later i received a call from the recruiting company that asked me to meet the employer. At this moment, i still didn't know what i'm going into but was willing to at least go and see what happens.
So, after a couple of days i finally met the employer. The company was searching a person which is able to speak at least 3 languages to do a translating/interpreting job for a mission that will take approximately a year and for which i'll need to travel with the team and assist them on their mission in my home country. I told him that i'm not a translator/interpreter by profession and that i may need time to adapt to which he told me that it's not a problem and that it's gonna be an "easy" job. Being a pragmatic, i didn't really think that it's gonna be easy by any stretch of my imagination but quiet the opposite. He offered me 3000$ for the job which was a very interesting proposition for me that could lead to better savings and preparation for my comeback to my home country with my wife. I still needed a week to think about it because i still loved what i do and wanted to do everything to let it work but life offered me an opportunity in which i can not only earn more money but also come back to my home country where i will actually meet professional environment that was unimaginable for me (i lived in my home country when i was a kid. After that i go there once a year for holidays if possible). This had more value to me than the money itself even though it was a pretty stressing situation as i had to do a job that i never did before.
It was still pretty shocking for me because i really wanted to be able to go back to my home country but was scarred because of the fact that i'll need to start all over again. Not knowing anyone there, not knowing if there's a job for me, the fact that i lost a lot of my cultural reflexes and knowledge took me a step behind every-time i was thinking about that and decided to keep being where i am even though i wasn't happy with the situation.
After a week i called back but where i had a bad surprise is that the employer decided to negotiate the salary with me down to 2500$. I was earning 1700$ (for the first 3 years i was earning 1200$ but when i took the courage to ask for a price raise to 1700$ because of my charges and amount of work going constantly up things started to go bad with the owner) with my other job and started to think it's not gonna be worth the risk. I was also kind of irritated by the negotiation that took place as we already did a first negotiation when i first met him. I decided that i'll keep my other job and that when i'll call him back i'll ask for 4000$ explaining that it needs to be worth the risk and worth the money difference for me accepting it (i was certain he'll decline and that it would be the end of it). I was wrong, he accepted a couple of days after my call and a week later i took a plane with the team to do the translating/interpreting job that i never did. I accepted because i listened to what life had to offer and i had to fight my envy to do what i love no matter what (for the good of my wife and my future). I felt like my brain was fighting me everyday after i accepted the job, scarred to death of what was coming. Before i left, i needed to tell my first employer that i was leaving to which he said that he'll need me at least 4 months for the transition. Even though i didn't have any obligation because i wasn't under any contract i still did and helped them with the transition. It wasn't easy as those 4 months were physically difficult but it was doable.
The first day of my new mission was rough... No vocabulary in advance, no explanations. The guy came to the room and instantly started talking without even waiting for me to start interpreting. It was one of the most difficult days in my life and the next two weeks of theoretical technical explanation in front of 30 people that i needed to interpret to. But i did it. It wasn't perfect and i think that's ok at least at the beginning but after those two weeks my brain adapted to the fact that i needed to listen to reexplain in another language and i learned as much vocabulary as i could. It worked and was starting to be fun. The only difficult part was getting used to speak in front of a lot of people that are actually listening and trying to understand everything and also scarred by doing mistakes.
Even though i was fluent with my three languages translating or interpreting is something else. The professional life that i had here taught me one thing which is being flexible, being adaptive to anything and self-teaching what i can. I never cared about what other study or what studies they did, all i cared and still care is what they can do and how good they are with it. nothing else. So even though it may not be that great living here, it taught me at least that.
Today, i'm still translating/interpreting in the same company and have two months to go before my contract expires and before leaving to my home country with my wife. I'm happy with the job as i like translating and interpreting. The human interaction is great and discovering new things everyday in a field i would never imagine being in.
What is certain is that something similar is gonna happen to me in two months when i'll be back to my home country searching for a new job and doing this process again. Although, this time it's gonna be easier to do as i already did it before.
My advice is, don't be scarred of taking a risk in unknown territories. Develop your adaptive skills, try and keep trying. Of course, i wouldn't take it if i didn't speak those languages but i think that you get my point.
I hope that i didn't sounded arrogant and that it may help someone in the same situation today or in the future.
Take care folks.
Submitted October 28, 2018 at 01:44PM by Khanatox https://ift.tt/2z7AwIv
