100% financing - I understand that!

What is "career" anyway?

I divide my life into successes and failures. Ages ago, I made a list of things I want to achieve, later one with clear DON'TS (which I find just as important as the other since then). If I do something that brings me closer to one of these goals or achieves it, I was successful. If I have to endure setbacks, I wasn't. I try, like everyone else, to keep the balance clearly on the success side.
Is that "career"? Somehow not. It doesn't even have to do with money and earnings.
One doesn't say about an entrepreneur that he has made a "career", at least I haven't heard it like that.
It's a word for employees who want to become especially good at implementing other people's plans. As compensation, there is a lot of money if it goes well. And then? With the lot of money, there is often a lack of time to work on one's own plans, which one actually wanted/could realize with that money.
I think that's a step in the direction away from freedom rather than towards it.
That a degree CAN be good for the career is undisputed. That it SHOULD be, I strongly doubt. Having studied opened an inner world for me through education, from which I can draw without having to earn money with it.

Everything below that is not a career, but a subordinate/clerical worker.

Ah yes. So you can say it much more briefly than I did.

Ah yes. So it can be said much more briefly than I did

Career really starts with us from the area manager level, and even there you are a subordinate. As a team leader, you only manage employees but have no opportunity to initiate anything yourself. Besides, there are not only clerks (repetitive same demanding (or not) tasks) as employees.

Well, I really started something here. I think it's good that someone introduced the term [Erwerbstätigkeit] here and gave a rough definition of [Karriere]. From our point of view, I can say that we are not building a [Karriere], but simply enjoy working - yes, that exists! We enjoy our work. That is due, for example, to the social contacts within the company or the really good working conditions. We actually do not work overtime, so for us 35 hours per week really means 35 hours per week and not a minute more.

My wife has a two-minute commute to work, and I work mostly remotely. Therefore, we will share child care and upbringing accordingly, so that the child will not be at daycare for 8 hours.

I find it sad how women who have studied and want to work despite or with children are judged here. When I read the statements here, I could vomit. According to that logic, all girls should be sent to secondary modern school because after giving birth they supposedly lose any right to work anyway, so as not to be seen as negligent mothers.

Has anyone here actually thought about retirement? All women who do not work for a long time or work drastically reduced hours are heading towards old-age poverty or directly into dependence on a man. I like those old mothers on talk shows who then complain they only have 400 euros pension, even though they have three children and have worked their entire lives on a 450 euro basis....

Has anyone ever thought about retirement? All women who do not work for a long time or work significantly reduced are heading towards old-age poverty or become directly dependent on a man. I like those old moms in talk shows who then complain that they only have 400 euros pension, even though they have three children and worked all their lives on a 450-euro basis....

That hits the core of the problem. Because the problem in this country is, and this thread also reflects it well, how unfriendly Germany basically is towards children. And no one can come to me with the ridiculous 200 euros child benefit and parental allowance is just a fig leaf. Raising children is simply not considered equivalent to a full-time job – accordingly, mothers are torn in the middle. Some call them bad mothers if they work, others call them lazy if they care only for the children. And to every single one of these critics, I would with all my heart refuse their foolish pension. I don’t care if they paid the pension of the previous generation earlier. It’s just disgusting in this country, and no one should complain about the low birthrate. If I were a woman, I wouldn’t bring a child into the world, and without the famous biological clock, owed to nature, this society would have long since been finished. Because rationally viewed, I do not understand why a woman should put herself through this here. Meanwhile, the economy and the pension system are worthless nonsense without a growing population. Actually, everything must be aligned according to the highest good of society – family/children – everything else must subordinate to it.

And now please don’t come to me with other countries that are even worse off in family policy. That’s always a nice distraction maneuver. We are a strong economic nation and in comparison, the idea of all aspects of child/family support is a 5+ (failing grade). It starts with daycares, passes awkwardly by child poverty, and ends in a disastrous education policy – or better said with a 150 euro contribution for purchasing a notebook for digital education (LOL!).

But it’s like with caregivers – people themselves are exploited. Because they cannot go against their nature.

Actually, parents should all strike… just like caregivers.

Well, I really stirred things up here. I think it's good that someone introduced the term employment and gave a rough definition of career. From our perspective, I can say that we are not building a career, but simply enjoy working – yes, that exists! We enjoy our work. This is due, for example, to the social contacts in the company or the really good working conditions. We actually do not work overtime, so for us, 35 hours a week really means 35 hours a week and not a minute more.

My wife has a two-minute commute to work and I work remotely most of the time. Therefore, we will share child care and upbringing accordingly so that the child will not be in daycare for 8 hours.

I find it sad how women who have studied and want to work despite or with a child are judged here. Reading the statements here makes me want to vomit. According to that logic, all girls should be sent to secondary modern school because after giving birth they supposedly lose any right to work anyway, so as not to be seen as bad mothers.

Has anyone here actually thought about retirement? All women who do not work for an extended period or work significantly reduced hours are heading toward old-age poverty or become directly dependent on a man. I like the old moms on talk shows who then complain they only get 400 euros pension, even though they have three children and have worked all their lives on a mini-job basis....

Sorry, but that’s nonsense. I like working too and I will work again, I have also studied and definitely want to return to around 30 hours long-term. But I wanted a child, a child who cannot help that mommy likes to work and that it is a lifelong task. That just comes with being a parent. It is just wishful thinking to believe that you can really do justice to your child and a full-time job, at least as long as the children are a certain age. (Whether mom or dad "backs down" is completely irrelevant.)