Letting Go of the Career Ladder

By: Amanda van Mulligen

Taking a step back in your career is never a satisfying move, but if the fact that you don’t speak the local language limits your job opportunities and you need to survive, sometimes you have no choice. I know that firsthand. When I moved to the Netherlands I took what I could. Admittedly the job was in my field but it meant a step down the career ladder. I spent six years trying to grapple my way back up the ladder until I decided to let go of the ladder completely and hope there was a safety net there to catch me.

Luckily there was.

I worked in Human Resources (HR) before I moved abroad and I continued in HR when I carved out a new life for myself in the Netherlands. But for most of the decade it made up my working life I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing. I just wasn’t made for the 9 to 5 office cubicle drudgery. I didn’t feel comfortable working for a multinational company. Companies where money is the most important factor. I felt stifled. I felt bound by policies and rules. Bound by other’s expectations of how I should behave. I had no sense of independence. My creativity was suppressed deep inside me. I felt more and more miserable and without purpose in my daily working life.

In 2006, our dream to start a family became reality and at the end of my maternity leave an opportunity arose that meant I could choose not to return to the role that left me feeling sapped on a daily basis. It meant I could stay home with my baby boy and start working for myself. It meant allowing my heart to lead the way and not my bank account. It was an offer I could not pass up. I released my grip on the career ladder. I let myself fall into the unknown. I followed my passion.

I set up my own writing business.

The physical set up of the business was easy; I took a trip to the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, took a web design course and built a basic website, a blog platform and started building a network. The emotional side of setting up a business was much harder; financial security is hard to say goodbye to, believing in your own abilities in untested waters is a challenge, giving up a decade in one profession can feel like madness, and finding your way in a new field takes time.

But life is too short not to take risks. Life is too short to do things you don’t really want to do because it’s the easiest route. After all, most of us wouldn’t be expats if we weren’t prepared to take a leap of faith.

As my son’s first birthday approached, I breathed life into a new business. I worked whilst my son napped. Whilst everyone else was lunching, relaxing in the evenings and at weekends, I was working.

I now have three little boys and my working life is moulded around them. It’s not always easy but it’s much easier than the alternative life I could have had – a daily commute to a job that was little by little destroying my soul, a role that was gradually sucking the creative energy from me with every passing assignment, an occupation that left me feeling less like me every day.

Whether you move abroad for work or love, moving to a new country is a big step. Wherever you move to, you still need to be able to support yourself, keep your career on track and follow your dreams. But when you move abroad you suddenly see life through different eyes. Stepping down a rung on the professional career ladder proved to be a catalyst for change, a chance for me to step back and take the time to observe. What I saw was someone walking in shoes too big for them; like my three-year-old boy putting on his father’s shoes and shuffling across the living room. My job didn’t fit me and it was hindering my walk through life.

Expat life awoke my passion and made a career move possible. It inspires me to put pen to paper on a daily basis - I write about expat life, about the challenges and joys of living abroad, about parenting in a country I did not grow up in, about raising bilingual children and sharing my culture with them. My creativity has been set free and I finally walk in shoes that fit me. My career and life are in harmony. Letting go of the career ladder was the most rewarding career move I’ve ever made.