Throwing in the towel at the office and heading off to teach kitesurfing sounds pretty immature, right? Wrong. A Plan B career can teach you new skills, adaptability and even make you better at your Plan A profession, writes Laura Bates.
6am. Your alarm clock blares a shrill 'Get up!' You slam it off and lie down again. "What for?" you think, "just another day of the same old" [get up, dress, work, undress, sleep].
The temptation of your pillow lures you back to slumber, fantasising with the vivacity of adolescent dreams – adventure, ambition, money, recognition – doing whatever you felt like, just because, well, that's what you had always imagined you would do.
Whatever your drive for life satisfaction, this nostalgic morning wish for change became much more than just a wake-up call for Ryan and Matt, two UAE expats who decided a career change was in order and for two very different reasons.
Ryan, 27, originally found a job in the UAE as a swimming coach and managed to make a living by spending days along poolside under the shady comfort of the hotel palm trees. But after four years of laidback sunshine living, he succumbed to the cravings of a flusher lifestyle and his girlfriend's request for greater commitment and financial stability and began looking for a new job.
"It wasn't too hard to find one, it's just a case of who you know and convincing them that you can do what it takes," he says.
Ryan's eagerness to work in a dynamic team, build relationships and display enthusiasm and passion for new media enabled him to find a job as a key account manager for a leading media brands agency. "The career move has actually worked out really well," he says. "I feel like I have a job that offers some sort of career structure and pays enough for us to start saving".
Matt, 28, moved to Dubai from the UK four years ago. "I was offered a job as construction site supervisor for a firm in Dubai. Being at home was driving me crazy so I couldn't wait to come over and start work and earn some proper money".
This, however, was not enough to 'satisfy the soul' and after two years of long hours, contentious management decisions, traffic and a limiting financial package, he woke up one morning and thought, "I quit".
His job no longer promised him a piece of the 'land of opportunity'. Instead, it was a mundane bore and Matt sought a career change. With Dubai offering little else aside from similar construction-related jobs, Matt packed his bags and headed to Kenya to be a kitesurfing instructor.
"The visa system in Dubai did not enable me to stay here," he explains.
"I liked the place, I had good friends, a place to kite, and knew people wanting to be taught how to kite, but it is very hard to work freelance there. You're simply not allowed to work without having a visa from the Labour Department and to have that you have to be employed by a local sponsor, which typically means working for a large company. It doesn't suit the smaller, entrepreneurial jobs that strive for a work life balance.
"I couldn't have stayed with the same company. It didn't offer enough. Thankfully, I'm not living in my grandfather's era where I would have been required to stay in the same company forever."
Becoming a kitesurfing instructor took Matt to a new country where he got to meet new people, change his working routine and learn how to make money independently.
Although Matt has returned to his old profession, the sea change gave him a boost. "I'm actually back in the UAE again, working in construction, but I feel more refreshed and focused on the job."
The archetype of the young professional expat Dubai guy or girl is a 30-something who is independent, confident and open to trying new things, socially or professionally. There is a certain aura about Dubai that has attracted a young workforce, where experience is offset by a gung-ho, and can-do attitude. Their zest for something a 'bit different' has rewarded many with good salaries, responsibility and experience.
"These days, people swap jobs all the time," says Christof, a French head chef based in Dubai. "Essentially, I think that there are three kinds of workers in the region: the guy who has to earn money to sustain himself and his family, the guy who works to earn a lot of cash to fulfil a nice lifestyle, and the guy whose job is mostly just his passion."
Christof falls into the third category, for his passion is all about food and he seems less inclined to change jobs.
"Of course," he chuckles over his soufflé, "there are those lucky few who manage to combine all three career goals within the one job... lucky blokes".
As I pull up to a petrol station I am served by a kind-faced Nepalese man. Having heard me speaking to my French friend sitting beside me, he asks me in fluent French if I'd like my windscreen cleaned. When I ask him if he speaks French, he replies, "Bien sur" – of course. He explains that he was actually a qualified French teacher in Nepal but a lack of jobs in his homeland meant he had to find work elsewhere to earn money for his family. He certainly fitted one of the three personas of Christof's theory, but it somehow didn't seem right that such a refined skill should be left unused.
Dubai is suited to the more opportunistic characters – those with the energy and drive to get ahead rather than a wad of qualifications. The phenomenal growth also means that there are opportunities for people to get a good salary without having any specialised training.
This is certainly the case for Yassar, a Jordanian who was working for a menswear company when he decided to change jobs and profit off Dubai's growing real estate sector. Now earning up to four times his previous salary, Yassar explains that he had never thought of selling property before. "I'm kind of a passive guy and was happy where I was, but after a while I was bored and my friends told me about it so I thought, why not?"
When asked if he had any previous training, he explains, "Goodness, no. I don't think anyone wakes up and thinks, 'I know I want to sell property in the desert' and goes to university to learn how to do it. It's just about on-the-job training, learning what it is you're selling and being personable. In some ways I'm still in the selling industry, only instead of selling a suit in the right colours and material, I'm selling an apartment or a villa that suits a client's needs."
Although making money and having a good lifestyle is the prime objective for many in the region, for some people it isn't everything and it's often a balance between income and aspiration to return to work on a daily basis. At age 31, after 10 years of working as a sales and marketing manager in Abu Dhabi, Moaz decided that this kind of work was not what he wanted. "I didn't like offices and business work 24 hours a day every day. I wanted something related to wildlife and fresh air," he says.
Moaz decided to sacrifice his good salary and monthly commission-based bonuses for an opportunity to help establish the Arabian Leopard Trust in the UAE in the 1990s. The next eight years were then filled with fieldwork, raising public awareness about conservation and building relationships with the tribes that used to live in the mountains. This new position may have reduced his
salary by half but he was happy to alter his standard of living by "cutting back on holidays, and other expensive things known as luxuries, like the latest new television".
Unfortunately, however, when his wife was diagnosed with a brain tumour, the medical bills piled up so much that Moaz was forced to take up a position in advertising as a creative Arabic copywriter to meet the medical costs, leaving fieldwork and free-air to a pastime rather than a vocation. After his wife's recovery he was then able to pay off the debt and has now returned to his passion and works full-time for the EWS (Emirates Wildlife Society)-WWF.
So is the single career a thing of the past? Perhaps not; yet it's on the rise and certainly not frowned upon as much as it was in the past. Diversifying gives you a second, or even third, option. A portfolio of jobs fosters different skills and shows a potential employer that you are adaptable, certainly an asset in any profession. And there's also the chance that you can fall back on your second job.
In the past, people spoke of a career path but perhaps the Australian Aboriginals have got it right when they say, "There are no paths, paths are made by walking."
So with regards to your career path – start walking.
