A terrorist incident at Westminster last week, a fire in the airport tunnel on the day of departure and a flight delay of three hours: if I didn’t know any better I would think I am discouraged by higher powers to go on this business trip. But I want to get my abroad adventure into second gear and so, off I go!

My flight eventually takes me to London. I am meeting a few people for coffee that have kindly offered to help me orientate the UK job market. They have already provided me with insightful information by phone and e-mail, but it’s always good to personally meetup and have a face-to-face chat about the things I am looking at and/or planning to undertake.

Aside from that, I am attending a careers fair to explore job opportunities in the humanitarian sector. I am not sure this field is what I should go for, but it is a chance to experience first-hand the type of organisations I can encounter in this field, the type of people that aspire working in this sector and whether I find myself to be working in this area.

And so here I am at the airport in Amsterdam, with my laptop plugged in writing this piece. Excited about what’s coming. Maybe the airport has something to do with this. I’ve always had a thing for airports. I guess because it’s the perfect embodiment of adventure. It has that element of surprise. You can plan a trip or a holiday all you want, but you never know exactly what is ahead and what it will bring. This goes for my UK plunging as well. It is a nose dive and I am not sure what will happen next, despite my eager planning skills.

Ok. Back to the business trip. This trip is about market and job orientation. Which field should I focus on? What type of roles do I want to apply for? How do I go about it? Do I work with recruitment agencies or do I apply directly? One of the key suggestions during this trip was about flexibility vs. focus. There are so many options and opportunities. Probably too many to spin your head around. So, decide on that one thing that is most important to you in the search. Is it the location? Is it the sector? Or is it the professional role? Figure that out and go from there. That is solid advice.

(…)

I am now 30 minutes away from flying back home, luckily without a delay this time. I have done quite a bit of research in the last couple of months and a lot has happened these last few days. I wouldn’t say overload, but it’s reaching that point where I have all the information I need to make a few profound decisions. Once I decide on a few things, my preferred zip code for example, it will become easier to attract the right roles and organisations. Time to get on with it.

And despite all the tubing I reached my daily step targets on both days! Weeks in Holland go by without this occurring. So, even for just that, it was worth the trip 😊.