Occupational choice test

Because in mavo 4 I still don't know what I want to do, my mentor recommends a vocational choice test. Despite the fact that the test reveals some professions that I like quite a bit, the 'wow feeling' is still missing.

Am I willing to go through a real training course for this? Although I currently doubt everything, this is something I am one hundred per cent sure of. The answer to this question is a resounding 'no'.

Sometime in the autumn of 1988, a school attendance officer sat on our sofa. My mother has poured coffee for him. I sit opposite the man in the big chair by the window, my father is separated by one empty seat on the three-seater next to him.

'Quitting school has a big impact on your future. Now you may still think working in a factory is fine, but will you still think so in 20 years? Or 40 years?'

The man talks very softly in a beatific voice. It irritates me because it makes it almost impossible to understand him.

' But I just don't know what I want.'

It's true. In 3 mavo, I already had to choose a direction while I was still in plenty of doubt between prison guard, lawyer, police officer or psychologist. Or something creative like writer, illustrator or window dresser. Even the extensive career choice test I took didn't really reveal anything concrete.

Fun pack

As a result, I chose only the subjects I was good at and ended up passing with a fun package, of everything. And to be honest, I was stubborn. No point in havo either, learning all sorts of things again that didn't interest me. I just definitely wanted to choose a profession and go for it, but I just liked too much of everything. And not liked.

The school attendance officer, meanwhile, is upside down trying to convince me that I really need to go back to school but I stand firm.

'I really disagree anyway,' the man now says in a slightly less salubrious tone.

'But you don't know my daughter,' my father now intervenes.

'What if I soon spend a few thousand guilders on an expensive course, books and whatnot, and after three weeks she says she no longer feels like it - and believe me, she does - what then? Will you then reimburse me for the costs incurred?'

The answer is no.

Astrological career choice test

Long story short, I was released from compulsory education, was at the temp agency the following day and worked in a factory the following day which I found terrible indeed.

Yet I never regretted my decision. After all, I would also have hated havo at the time. Over the years, I have found my own path and gained an awful lot of experience in all kinds of areas.

I have experienced things that no education could have taught me but which ultimately made me where I am today. Partly thanks to my parents who always left me free to make my own choices, even when they disagreed with them themselves.

Funny to see how I thought I didn't know what I wanted then but now years later have created a job of my own in which all my interests of the time have come together.

In the pictures: Me as a 16-year-old factory girl and the results of the career choice test.