Feeling stuck in your “What am I doing with my life?” era? Watch this before you quit your job. Download the free Career Clarity Masterclass and start building a career that finally fits → www.careerbloomcoaching.com/masterclass

In this episode of Career Clarity Unlocked, Theresa White, a career clarity expert and certified career coach, shares her personal career journey of international living, from answering phones at a job she didn’t understand in Ireland to bartending fails in Australia, a horse stable community in Germany, and finally building a life and business in Hawaii. 

Theresa recounts humorous and vulnerable tales of her career quest. She emphasizes the importance of belonging and the various layers it comprises, while sharing how she ultimately discovered work that made her feel alive. This episode is a blend of inspiring stories, practical insights, and encouragement for anyone feeling lost in their career. Tune in to learn about Theresa's path and the Career Bloom community she founded to support others on their journey toward career fulfillment.

This is the episode for you if:

✔️ You’ve been successful on paper, but still feel like something’s missing

✔️ You’ve tried new jobs, new cities, and still feel directionless

✔️ You want a career that feels like home, not just another box to check

✔️ You’re tired of pretending you’re fine when you’re really burned out inside

✔️ You want to believe that your messy path is actually part of your purpose

Theresa also shares the exact moment things clicked, when one powerful assessment (her Sparketype) revealed the career pattern behind all her choices and helped her finally feel like her experience made sense.

Whether you’re feeling lost, unfulfilled, or secretly dreaming of more, this episode will help you see your career story in a whole new light, and remind you that clarity does come, even after years of confusion.

⏱ Episode Timestamps:

00:00 Finding Career Clarity

00:53 Theresa's Career Story: From Clueless Intern to Career Coach

04:03 Germany: A Sense of Belonging and Professional Uncertainty

08:06 Ireland: Navigating a New Culture and Career Challenges

12:47 Australia: Adventures and Missteps Down Under

20:57 Hawaii: Finding Home but Not Career Fulfillment

25:10 The Journey to Career Clarity

32:33 Embracing the Journey and Finding Belonging

🔗 Next steps:

• 3 ChatGPT Prompts to Find Career Clarity → https://www.careerbloomcoaching.com/offers/Mr7xm4zG
• Deepening Your Self-Worth for Career Confidence → https://www.careerbloomcoaching.com/offers/4KENh8tF
• 35+ Progressive Companies Hiring Now → https://www.careerbloomcoaching.com/offers/xTDHFSpJ
• 17 Fill-in-the-Blank Templates to Reach Out to Recruiters → https://www.careerbloomcoaching.com/offers/6WK6yxdR
• Networking and Application Tracker → https://www.careerbloomcoaching.com/offers/XypBhjfU
• The Complete Industry Alignment Guide → https://www.careerbloomcoaching.com/offers/buGFRSmn

Coaching services:

1:1 Deep Dive Session → www.careerbloomcoaching.com/1-1-deep-dive-coaching-session

Career Clarity Formula → www.careerbloomcoaching.com/career-clarity-formula

📞 Book a free Career Clarity call to map your next chapter → https://www.careerbloomcoaching.com/consultation

Connect with Career Coach Theresa White

- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/theresa-a-white

- Facebook: www.facebook.com/careerbloomcoaching/

- Instagram: www.instagram.com/theresa_careerbloom/

- YouTube: www.youtube.com/@careerbloom

- TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@career.bloom

- Website: www.CareerBloomCoaching.com

#CareerClarity #CareerChange #FeelingStuck #LostInCareer #Sparketype #NonlinearCareerPath #PurposeDrivenCareer #CareerConfusion #CareerBelonging #WhatShouldIDoWithMyLife #WomenInTransition #CareerBurnout #CareerBreakthrough #CareerGrowth #LifeAfterBurnout #CareerCoaching #CareerFulfillment #CareerCoachForWomen d #Germany #Hawaii #Australia #Ireland

Unlock. We're all about those light bulb moments. I'm talking to people who are still trying to figure out what they're meant to do, coaching them life to reach that magical, yes, this is it moment, and we'll also hear from those who've already found their dream careers and figure out exactly how they did it.

Whether you are looking for inspiration or actionable advice on finding a career you love, I've got you covered time to unlock some career clarity. Let's dive in.

It sounds kind of cool, right? Except to this day, I still have absolutely no clue what they actually did. Really like zero. I think my task was some data entry answering the phones, but I mean. You put this together, the Irish accent was a technical jargon.

I have no idea how, but the company actually thought I was amazing, and this internship turned into a paid job, which is a total miracle to me to this day because I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. I didn't even know what the company was doing or what they were selling, or what I was supposed to do.

So if you've ever looked at your career and thought, I should be happier, yes, I'm successful, but something feels off this episode is going to be for you because I've been there lost for years and years. Yes, doing fine on paper. Not feeling at home in my career or myself. And this story today isn't about practical tips, but it is about possibilities, about humor, and the truth that belonging does come even if it takes a while.

So inside this episode, I'm gonna be sharing funny stories. Everything from bartender fails to clueless jobs to getting fired and day chew of a job. But I'm also gonna be really honest and vulnerable with you about feeling lonely and feeling stuck in many different places.

What really shaped me, my growing up in Germany were the horses, horseback riding was my big passion starting at age 14, I first had my own horse and that felt. For the first time in my life, like true belonging. And it wasn't just my no horse.

Definitely no luxury, no services, and. At age 14, I had this huge responsibility of exercising my horse every day. No matter if it was raining or snowing or crazy hot summers, it didn't matter. My horse had to be exercised and then there were no services, so we had. Organized a rotation within the community for mucking out stables, feeding, caretaking, and that hard work is what really built that community and everyone had to pull their weight.

While I was, um, in school and taking care of my horse, I had various part-time jobs to afford that. And throughout that whole time, I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to be when I grow up. Um, yes, I had that sense of belonging in the community, but I had no direction in my life or in my career. I was, young .

One beautiful thing that the horse stable community exposed me to was to do creative work. Um, my best friend, her husband, worked with stucco, which was hands on, artistic, fun, creative, and I loved it. And that sparked something in me of like, I wanna do something, pursue art, or do something creative, but.

I definitely felt that way. So this chapter in Germany where I lived up to each 21. Left me this feeling, a sense of belonging in this community, but also a big professional uncertainty. And I think most of us experienced that at age 21. Um, so this was the starting point.

The next part of my life took me to Ireland. So as I shared leaving Germany and the community that gave me that sense of belonging was really hard, and I didn't wanna leave. But if you live in Germany, if you grow up in Germany, it is mandatory to speak fluent English. It's a must for any good job, and employers expect experience in an English speaking country.

Flights were so cheap back then in Europe, I think the flight was like 10 euros, and it was also a pretty shitty flight because we then had an emergency landing somewhere else in north of Germany and we're delayed for hours. I think we were sitting on this plane for 10 hours because there was a cheap airline.

There was no food or drinks or anything. You were just sitting there before we then took off to Dublin. Then we flew into Dublin instead of Cork. So then I had to take a bus from Dublin to Cork. I got to Cork after midnight, got dropped off at a random street and had absolutely no clue where I was. I didn't speak perfect English, and had to find this agency that I was hoping was still open so they could bring me to the place I was staying somehow, like a miracle that worked out.

We really, really need someone. And as I said, I had actually no clue whatsoever what this company was doing. It could have been satellite tv. Something, the satellites, because satellites were in the name and there were big satellites in there. But what these satellites were doing, I have absolutely no clue to this day.

I didn't understand if I was supposed to sell some something or provide customer service or help them find who talk to, and they gave me the website to look at. It was the worst website. That you've probably ever seen. And I don't think anyone, anyone else then knew what they were doing or what the company was doing.

So all I did was just randomly forward calls, like sometimes to billing, sometimes to tech, sometimes to sales. I didn't even know who was who, but forwarding the call seemed like a good strategy that worked. And then sometimes I would just read something off the website, um, if cus if I thought the customer might be asking about the company or a product or a satellite.

Um, so

Imagine getting promoted at a company when you don't even understand the words your customers are saying. That was literally me, but my time in Ireland was amazing. I loved, I loved, loved, loved it. It was the first time I really stepped outside my bubble, and it proved that I could belong somewhere else, even when I was completely clueless.

And one of the girls I lived with, she was from Czech Republic, and we got along really well. We decided why not go and study abroad together, and we somehow were actually able to make it work that we both found a university in Sydney, in Australia that had an exchange program with our respective universities back home and.

A year later, at age 22, me and her actually moved to Sydney, Australia to study there for two semesters, so that was super exciting, moving to a big city, this huge adventure. It was amazing. I was just, yeah, once I had like burst out of my little bubble in Germany, I was like ready to explore the world and I couldn't have been more excited than moving to Australia.

And I left going out. So I was like working at a bar. That'd be so fun. I could be part of that nightlife scene that is just fabulous. In Sydney, I did that, but only for a few days until I paid out $800 to the wrong person on the second day of my new job.

The one I learned how to make drinks and handle a busy bar, as well as the gambling machines. Slightly overwhelming. Um, I had about 20 minutes of training, which included all the instructions for paying out on gambling machines, which are legal in Australia, or at least they were back then, which wasn't quite as straightforward as you would think it was.

Something like, you press these two buttons, you turn the key, you press these three buttons, you turn another key. Then you gotta write everything down, pay out the customers. Um, so I got a whole 20 minutes of training, and then they were like, you got this right. You'll be by yourself for the rest of the night.

At some point I had to run to the bathroom. I got back from the bathroom and the bartender tells me like, Hey, there's a payout of $800 on machine number 16. So I get the money out of the register and head over to. A woman is sitting at that machine, I ask her, would you like the payout?

And she's like, yep. I give her the $800. Do that button. Button. Key button, button. Key thing, she takes the $800 and leaves. Few seconds later, another woman shows up at the bar and says, Hey, why am I still waiting for my payout for machine 16? Turns out I gave the money to the wrong person. The woman who won that money played on, she played multiple machines, which is what a lot of people I do, I guess.

There was no convincing her that it was actually the customer's fault for leaving the machine and having someone else sit there. But my 22-year-old self was just in shock and scared. I am an international student in a foreign country and all of a sudden I now owe $800.

So instead of working for, I don't know how long I would've had to work to work back the $800. I just walked in the next day and quit my job. A few days later, I found a new job at a fabulous pub with a really great management team and thankfully no gambling machines. But that also started with a funny story.

So they had me work on the restaurant side that was. First or second week I was working there and I remember that I was still fairly new to being in English speaking countries. Yes, you learn decent English at school. And then I have that experience in Ireland where I understood zero about. Anything, this English is the Irish accent.

So that was pretty embarrassing. And I was, I was literally that lost that I was trying to find a glass of maybe mellow when this person actually had ordered a meat pie. So those were my fun. And also, um, quite a embarra thing, stories of working in Australia. Outside of the work there, I had a great time.

Um, but it didn't make it feel like home. I didn't feel like I quite belonged there or it had roots there. And obviously career wise, I was still totally lost. I mean, I had fun studying philosophy, which was cool. I took a class at the University of Sydney on Philosophy of Quantum Physics, which somehow I passed that class.

Don't ask me how I was still really lost, had no direction, but it was a fun chapter. It was humbling, and it showed me that not every adventure leads to a place where you truly belong. Now, living in Sydney. I knew I was not gonna go back to Germany once I was outside of the bubble and experienced what it means to live in different places.

So, so far I'm not coming out of this with any student debt as so many people in the US do, which gives you a lot more freedom. Um, at this point, I haven't spent any money. I've always been able to support myself through part-time jobs, so I had more means to. Keep exploring and keep going.

What could you study in Hawaii? So I looked them up. I was like, oh, I have a master's degree in global leadership and sustainable development. That is really cool. I love sustainability. I applied, got in on an international student scholarship and somehow it was meant to be that my next move brought me to Hawaii.

I studied sustainability, thought this was gonna be the field I'm gonna work in. But so many people graduating from grad school or from college, you have no idea how to actually find a job. I sent out hundreds and hundreds of applications. No luck in landing a dream job, which is even harder when you're on an OPT Visa.

And that ended up being a management training program at Enterprise Rental Car. Definitely not what you think you would go after after studying sustainability, but. That's just what happened. I actually ended up spending eight years there moving from management training into management, then into HR and into recruiting on paper.

My career looked actually successful. It was a well-known company, a good one to have on your resume. I got promoted over and over. I had a really good salary. I was driving a company car, so I was checking most of the boxes. Um, that you would call success, but that entire time I did not like working there.

You should have figured it out by now.

So my career was, I was doing what made sense, but it felt really unfulfilling. Purposeless and nah, on a good day.

So going back to my fully being lost in my career and what I was possibly meant to do, I knew I had potential. I was always good at everything I did. I just hadn't found the thing I actually wanted to do and wanted to be good at. There was always this question that I was carrying around with me that's like, what am I meant to do?

And this took me on a year long journey where I really took every single assessment I could find. Myers Briggs strengths finder, you name it. Any assessment out there. I read, cut. I read every book I could get my hands on about careers, about purpose, about fulfillment. I got multiple certifications in career development.

Um, in multiple, I got multiple certifications in career development and career coaching. I studied career theories, models, coaching framework, cut coaching frameworks, and each of these parts, each of these steps gave me some puzzle pieces, but not the full picture. And I was lacking how to put the pieces together.

And now my entire life and career suddenly makes sense. Everything clicked. The scientist is someone who loves to figure things out, loves the burning questions, and finding answers to these really hard questions. So of course, I became obsessed with figuring out what I meant to do because my wiring is to chase riddles until I find the answer.

But then at the same time, life is happening and we just can't start over and throw it all away and become a traveling artist. It's not happening. We have bills to pay. Some of us have families, we have obligations, but we still crave belonging and finding our way in our careers. And as I was getting deeper and deeper into this obsession was finding the answer to the question of what I am meant to do, and also how do we answer this question for other people.

Wasn't wasted. All of those chapters, gave me different perspectives. Built my resilience, gave me a lot of fun stories to Dell, built a lot of compassion and taught me that belonging isn't just about one place or one person, but it is, has these different layers of where you are, who you surround yourself with and what you do.

And because scientists just love living in the questions, of course, I didn't stop there and started diving deeper and deeper, and that brought me to a lot of personal. Internal work. So my biggest personality shift actually came after my professional shift, not till my late thirties or when I turned 40.

After years of therapy, falling in love with internal family systems work and discovering who I really am on a much deeper level, beyond where I live, who I spend my time with, what I do professionally, but also who I am.

Germans. We don't get American humor. We just don't. And whenever I tell a funny story to someone in the US, they look at me all serious and I'm like, no, you're supposed to laugh here. This was to be funny. So I'm curious. Let me know. Did any of this make you laugh or did you, were you just sitting there completely serious?

And you might feel like that in your career or in your life right now. I hope that my journey inspires you to believe that your belonging does come. Sometimes it's slow. Sometimes there are some really funny detours, and sometimes it's after many years of feeling lost, but I truly believe it comes.

Because we can do hard things if we have that secure place to operate from and that support that allows us to dream big and then make it happen. And that's why I don't just coach individuals through career clarity and career change. Yes, I do that, but I also created the Career Bloom community, a space where women support women as they are navigating this. Journey we call life and looking and finding the places they belong. And it's so beautiful to witness this community cheering each other on sharing wins, holding each other through struggles, helping each other stay accountable and reaching their goals.

Or maybe you're deep in the enterprise rental car years where you check all the boxes, but you feel empty with every promotion. Every single one of those chapters brings lessons, even the ones that feel messy or incomplete. But I truly believe that your Hawaii is out there, that place, literal or a metaphorical, where you feel rooted, seen, energized, and aligned, where your life, your work, your people, all start to make sense where you can finally say, yes, this is where I belong.

If this episode resonated and you are ready to stop guessing and start knowing what you are meant to do, I'd love to talk to you. Book a free call with me. I'm here to listen to your story, figure out where exactly you're stuck, what you're craving, and how I can help you put those puzzle pieces together and help you gain clarity on what your next step should be.

Send it to someone who's also in there. What am I doing with my life era? And next week I'm going to have an incredible guest on this show. And yes, she is a YouTube superstar. You'll not want to miss this conversation, so make sure that you're giving the show a follow. Leave a quick rating or review if you're feeling generous, and please know that you don't have to settle. Your career should light you up, not wear you down. Please keep chasing what makes you come alive. I'll see you next week back here on Career Clarity Unlocked.

Schedule your free 30 minute call today on career bloom coaching.com and before you head out, be sure to follow us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, so you never miss an episode. If today's conversation gave you new insights and inspiration, please leave a review. It really helps us reach more amazing listeners like you.

And don't forget to share this episode with a friend or on social media. Your support truly means the world. Thanks for hanging out with me and I'll see you next time.