Career and children – strategic considerations

An emotional topic that I am tackling today. Bear with me, I don’t make the rules of the game, I just live by them. And from what I have seen and experienced over the years in large companies, I am convinced that families should do something like strategic child planning. Otherwise, they will damage their careers and have less money to spend over the course of their lives. Hopefully, circumstances will change so that at some point such planning will no longer be necessary.

Children – there is no optimal time

There are couples who desperately want children. But they don’t because they think the timing is not good. They use sites like Birth Control to have full control over the timing of a possible pregnancy. But here’s the thing: there’s always a lot of work to do right now, there’s always some problem that needs to be solved first before the offspring is tackled.

As far as that is concerned, all I can say is: that time will never come. For working people, life offers mainly stress and then more and more of it. It may get better in retirement. That is, there is no ideal time in this respect.

Children – there is an ideal time for a career

Only from a professional point of view do I think it’s better to wait, maybe until you’re over 30. Sounds tough, but experience has taught it that way. The reason for this is that a career always takes a lot of effort to build up. In the first few years, you have to work hard to build up a reputation. If you succeed, the first promotions usually take place in your early or mid-30s. During this time, you can put money aside and work your way up to a higher salary bracket.

On the other hand, if you think having children right after graduation would be a good idea, you may be lucky. But as a rule, parents with young children have to rearrange their priorities. They can’t work overtime all the time and have less energy at home. This is because in the first three to four years of childhood, long nights with little sleep are the order of the day.

This means that employees do not even get into the position of being promoted in their early or mid-30s. On the contrary, they often even go part-time or at least down a bit with the hours.

On the other hand, those who already have a certain status, or are even already managers, can start again at a high level right after that. Because for good employees, the company sometimes makes compromises. Then you can work part-time even in a high position or make more use of home office. After all, you want to keep good people.

Conclusion

For your career, it makes sense to first secure a high position or a good salary and then have children. Those who are at the top usually maintain their status. If, on the other hand, you have children first, it becomes increasingly difficult for you to ever reach a high level.