My path to finding my passion within education
This is my first article on Medium — so please bear with me. I know that there are tons of articles out there with tips on how to find your passion and advice on how to spend your life doing something you love. This is not one of them. I feel I am not in the position to tell you what to do or give you advice on something I am myself still figuring out.
I’d rather share my personal story — hoping it might serve as an inspiration for others struggling to find their path in this world of countless opportunities. Everyone in this world has something that they are passionate about and that they are inherently good at. I truly believe that we should all be doing more of what makes us happy and is meaningful to us.
I cannot look back on a long career within a specific industry. So, this is not about a career change but rather how I was actively trying to figure out where my passion really lies. I tell this story from the position of a young university graduate, trying to find an entry point into the professional world and finding the path to work that is meaningful to me.
Trying to find my path
I come from a rather traditional background. My father is an economist and my mother is a lawyer. Because I wasn’t quite sure about what else to study, I started studying Business. After graduating, I did the classic move one does after business school: I went into strategic consulting at one of the three big firms. I’d be lying if I told you that I didn’t enjoy my time. I learned a lot and immersed myself in the company culture. Nonetheless, I realized it was not for me.
After consulting I was seeking a completely different experience and dove into the startup ecosystem in Berlin. I worked at two different startups, in two completely different industries: talent management and insurance. But somehow both experiences were also not for me.
Some might say my journey is random and it shows that I didn’t know what I actually wanted to do. And they are right. I did not know. But are you surprised? With countless opportunities to choose from, do we really expect young people to know what they want to do? Especially if our education fails to equip us with the necessary skills and mindset to think about what we are passionate about, where our strengths lie and how we can seek out work that we actually like to do.
But why am I telling you all this? Just to be clear — I did not regret any of my experiences and choices. I see all of them as stops on a longer learning journey. And although I’ve learned a lot from all of my experiences and they all pushed me in the direction I ultimately wanted to go, none of them was what I actually wanted to do. And that’s fine. I honestly did not expect to find out what I love to do on the first try. I know that there are many people out there who have this one passion that runs like a thread through their entire life. I am not one of them — and I know that there are many more like me. What is not fine, however, is that I spent way too much time doing something I did not care about.
The turning point
I came to the realization that the most important reason why my previous experiences were not really for me is because I didn’t care for the problems those companies were trying to solve. I liked many aspects of the work I was doing, but couldn’t really identify myself with the topic or get really excited about it.
Strategic consulting taught me that I wanted to work in a strategic, high-paced environment while working at two different startups showed me that I feel most comfortable in entrepreneurial environments with fast decision-making processes and a lot of responsibility. Nonetheless, none of the companies I worked for affected me personally or emotionally in a deeper way. And I never thought about what it was that I wanted to do topic- or industry-wise. Or that I could be doing something that I truly care about.
The process of how I came to this realization was far from easy and definitely did not happen overnight. And it definitely did not just come to me by chance. In fact, I actively spent time thinking about what are the topics I am interested in, that I care about, that make me angry or that get me excited.
What proved very helpful was asking people that know me very well and are completely honest with me to shed light on what are topics that are important to me. I asked my boyfriend, a couple of my closest friends and also my family what in their view was something I could spend hours doing or where they would see me most impassioned and eager to change something. Especially my boyfriend made me aware that with the work I was doing I was being dishonest with myself. I was trying to legitimize my choices by telling myself and others that I cared for the mission of the companies I was working for, when I was really not.
Personal development and growth, continuous learning, radical honesty and achieving change through positive means are all values that I hold dear. Especially radical honesty with myself was a value that became very important while finding my path. What I realized is that I had to move into a field where my values would be more aligned and where I would be spending time on something I am passionate about.
For me, the area where I see I can have the most positive impact, add as much value and live aligned with my values is education and how the future of education can look like. It is something I have been talking about for quite some time. It has always been a topic of interest to me and an area where I saw a lot of things that don’t work the way I imagined they should. My own experience on my educational journey was probably the biggest trigger why I decided that the positive impact and change I wanted to make, was in education.
Finding my passion in the education sector
I experienced first-hand that our school system and our higher education do not really prepare us for “real life” after graduation. This goes both for hard skills, but also soft skills, values and the mindset with which we approach and handle challenges. Our education system has not changed for about 150 years. We still educate like in the industrial age: standardized and theoretical. (If you are interested in this, I urge you to watch the famous talks on education by Ken Robinson. To me, they were a true inspiration.) Currently, our education fails to offer personalized learning paths and is lagging behind in adopting technology use. Most of our education systems are designed to get us to academic ability and pursue a mentality of linear thinking. Thereby they fail to provide us with a more practical, creative, innovative and divergent approach to learning.
I always get excited when I think about solutions to those problems. I know that I can very well imagine spending my life working on challenges revolving around education.
I only want to give you two pieces of advice: first, don’t be like me and waste your time doing something you are not passionate about or not even remotely interested in — even if it might look good on a CV :) Nonetheless, don’t be afraid to take small steps on a learning journey. Just don’t spend more time on these steps than necessary if you start realizing where your passion really lies. For me, each step was a valuable learning, but I could have made the leap much earlier than I actually did.
I’m not telling you it is easy to find your passion. It is most likely the hardest thing you’ll ever have to do. Ultimately I believe that it is about trial and error. No standardized guide or step-by-step approach will help you find your passion. I believe that once you start being aware and start making decisions that are aligned with your values and goals, everything else will fall into place.
And second, don’t be shy to ask your friends, people that are close to you and whose opinion and values you appreciate to tell you where they see your strengths, when they see you most happy, what situations or problems annoy you the most and where you get most excited talking about. For me, those insights were really the turning point and the key to why I actively decided to spend more time in an area that gets me excited.
My next step is to make my contribution to education with XU Exponential University. XU is a company offering innovative solutions around digital education, in the higher education fields and in the form of further education concepts evolving around digital transformation. I am very much looking forward to working alongside like-minded people, that are just as passionate to have an impact on education.
I am also happy to connect and hear your story. Or if you are also active in education, what it is that you are working on and you are passionate about. Just drop me a line at nina.b.weber@gmail.com.
