Nefelibata

Ten Years Worth of Career Change, Identity, and Learning

At the very beginning of 2016, a decade ago, I was contemplating resigning from my job at a bookstore in Madrid to start working full-time as a teacher of English as a foreign language. Little did I know that what had initially begun as a part-time way to earn some extra money would lead me down an entirely new professional path. I also had no idea that the road from there to here would be marked by disappointment, a hint of sorrow, but also an insane amount of happiness, discovery, maybe a splash of serendipity. And plenty of lessons learned.

In the end, everything led me to where I am today. Back then, I had no inkling as to what my professional life would look like in ten years’ time. A decade ago to this day, my true teaching journey had begun, even if I didn’t realize it at the time. Now I can see that I had been on the right path all along. It was meant to be, and it was only the beginning of an extraordinary learning adventure. It brought me exactly where I was supposed to be, doing what I was meant to do.

Looking back, it feels as if someone had whispered, In your early thirties, you will have to make a choice and take a professional path that doesn’t seem particularly promising. What matters is that you make that choice, that you say yes, and that you try to enjoy every moment of this extraordinary journey, wherever it may take you.

Before teaching, I was a journalist. I had studied political science and international relations, and my goal had always been to work in foreign affairs. When I first failed the formal admission exams for the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I was offered a position at the Romanian National News Agency. I started as a junior editor on the foreign news desk, and it felt like a dream come true.  I said to myself, Well, this is unexpected bliss. Not only did I get to deal with foreign affairs, as I had wanted ever since high school, but I also got to write about it. Can it get any better? No, it did not. And it lasted seven great years. For seven years, I lived what I thought was my ultimate professional dream.

But that dream ended abruptly, and I found myself once again searching for a new direction. Journalism was already losing relevance, and the writing part I loved was slowly dissolving into the emerging world of new media. I turned back to what had always comforted me most: books and writing. That led me to a job at an international bookstore in Madrid. Once again, I felt lucky. I spent my days reading, recommending, organizing, and discovering books. The money was scarce, though, so I had to think of alternative income sources. So what had always been a student job, a way to make quick and decent money, turned out to be a sort of light at the end of what appeared to be a very long tunnel.

That is how teaching re-entered my life. During my student years, I had always taught English and French privately, sometimes one-to-one, sometimes in small groups. It had always been a temporary solution, never something I imagined as a long-term career. But in Madrid, teaching became something more. I taught English as a foreign language, then French, then Spanish and Romanian to foreigners. I became immersed in lesson plans, materials, textbooks, and methodologies. I loved it. I was away all day long, running from one class to the other, but I utterly loved it.

What surprised me most was how much I loved it. I had always somehow thought teaching meant working with children, which I had never found appealing. But teaching adults and young professionals was different. It was intellectually stimulating and emotionally rewarding. Once again, I had turned my job into my passion.

This time, however, the illusion lasted even less. When I finally committed to full-time teaching at a private language academy in Madrid, I started to see the darker side of small private businesses. At first, there was praise and recognition. There is always a courtship phase that plays on your real strengths: I was told I was exceptional, indispensable, and highly valued. But gradually, the reality emerged: endless meetings, vague promises, excuses about the economy, and constant justifications for low salaries and poor working conditions.

I stepped back and started to reflect. I was in my early thirties, holding senior positions such as Head of English and later Director of Studies, yet my income did not match the responsibilities I carried. I still loved my job, but I began to wonder whether that love was preventing me from seeing the truth. My students were achieving excellent results, the academy was thriving, and I received constant praise. Yet I was repeatedly told there was no budget for raises, no flexibility for time off, and no real prospects for growth.

That was when my passion for teaching began to fade. I returned to research, to books, and to conversations with others in similar situations. The result was a book I wrote, Aquí nadie se va a hacer rico, which explores the struggles of teachers in language academies in Spain. Writing it was a form of catharsis. Through it, I realized something uncomfortable: I had not been deceived by others. I had deceived myself.

My job was not my life. My job was not my passion. My job was not love. It was never supposed to be. You’re often told that if you find a job you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. The truth is, I think it’s best to find a job you enjoy, sure, but you know what? Find something else to be passionate about. Love anything else but your job. Not your job. Not your duty. Not something you must do, no matter how much you like doing it.

This realization became my true turning point. My job should be something I am excellent at, must be something that gives me satisfaction, but cannot be the center of my identity. Not my life, my love, my soul. And I also understood that my love for languages could take so many forms beyond teaching alone: education management, academic operations, multilingual communication, cultural identity, leadership training, strategic development, international partnerships, research, training, lifelong learning, and learning, always learning.

That is, ultimately, my current job description.