What does career mean today?

They want a challenging job with meaning in which they can apply their skills. Fun should make the profession and provide new experiences. Rise on the career ladder? Does not have to be. Much more important are fulfillment and satisfaction.

The personnel strategy: "In cold water, you learn swimming the fastest"

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Career - what does that mean for you personally?

: Further development, no standstill and gradually take on more responsibility - but still have a life next to the profession. In sum: a good mix of challenge and private happiness.

How important is your career to your life?

I work every day and identify with my topics - of course, the profession and therefore the career plays an important role in my life. This weighting can and will definitely shift on a life-phase basis, for example if the topic of one's own family becomes actual. My work is not everything, but it gives me a lot of fun and an important part of my life.

What was your biggest risk on your career path?

Always dare something new. , , a high school year in the USA, to study 500 kilometers away in the direction of Berlin, a semester abroad in France, instead of writing applications, 800 kilometers on the Way of St. James; and now at BMW: many stations - two of them abroad - experiencing a lot and always looking for new challenges.

What did you learn?

In cold water you learn swimming the fastest, that is: The learning curve is steepest, if you always face new challenges.

The concert singer and singing teacher: "I'm not where I want to go"

Caroline Jahns, 40, concert singer and voice teacher, lives in Frankfurt

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Career - what does that mean for you personally?

Carolin Jahns: If I reach the point where I am satisfied with my income and my professional reputation, I would have achieved what it means to me personally "make a career".

Are you already there where you would like to go?

No, that's not me. Because the ice on which I move is too thin for me. As soon as contacts break away, concerts break away, as soon as I am sick, income breaks away, as soon as the seminars are not full enough, I pay the room costs, as soon as I am overworked, I can not sing anymore. I'm still thinking how everything can become more stable.

How important is your career to your life?

If a fairy asked me, "Would you like to make a career or have a voice full of sonic riches and beauty?" I would immediately choose the latter. Voice over career - but before that comes still the love, to my husband and to my family.

To the homepage of Caroline Jahns

The product manager: "I have not arrived yet"

Ulrike Fehn-Höllinger, 46, Head of Product Management Self-organization at the IT service provider Datev Nuremberg

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Are you already there where you would like to go?

Ulrike Fehn-Höllinger: No, by no means have I arrived at the end, neither professionally nor personally. At the moment, I am very busy with the question of where the journey might go next, with the considerations going in more than one direction.

How important is the career for your life?

As career always has to do with financial independence for me, she already plays an important role in my life. Fortunately, she does not play the main role!

What was your biggest risk on your career path?

Moving to my current employer was a deliberate career break, as I had applied for a non-executive position. I did not want to move to another city.

What did you learn?

It took years for me to catch up financially and in terms of my own area of responsibility. I had completely underestimated that.

The event manager: "There is more"

Kathrin Cakmaz, 34, event manager, has been the owner of "Das Kindercafé" in Hamburg for one year

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Career - what does that mean for you personally?

Kathrin Cakmaz: In general, career is defined by the amount of salary or title. I think that career can also mean fulfilling a job and succeeding in achieving the goals you have set for yourself.

Would you say that you have made a career?

I am very satisfied with my professional career. I had great jobs with a lot of responsibility. Somehow it always went uphill. And now I have my own cafe!

Are you already there where you would like to go, or do you have other goals?

I have come a long way - but there is more.I think that when you stop pursuing goals, you develop backwards.

What was your biggest risk on your career path?

To give up a safe, well-paid job to plunge into the adventure of self-employment and to open a children's café.

To the homepage of the children's café

The Product Category Manager: "It was not always easy, but I have no regrets"

Britta Ruisz, Product Category Manager at Henkel in Vienna

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Would you say you've made a career?

Britta Ruisz: Yes, I am proud of what I have achieved and I know that there is still potential. I have worked in several areas and spent two years abroad. It was not always easy, but I have no regrets and I'm glad that I had the courage to try something new.

How important is the career for your life?

It's a very important part of my life, but not everything. In recent years, I pay more attention to the fact that health, family and friends are not neglected. I think that has helped me to be more successful, and I have seen what makes me stronger for professional (and private) challenges.

What was your biggest risk on your career path?

The change from marketing to sales. That was my suggestion at the time, although it was always clear to me that it was not for me. But I wanted to consciously gain a new perspective and a detour? go. Interestingly, working as a Key Account Manager has been a lot of fun and I do not want to miss that valuable experience.

What did you learn?

That you have to try something to see if you like it. A very important (and sometimes painful) experience: one only changes when one reaches or exceeds one's limits.