Originally posted by hadi curious what got you folks into the career choice that you ended up in? was it location? education? familial responsibilities? just happened to be in the right place right time?
if you could do it again, what would you rather do?
Q1: none of the above - pure chance, I'd say
Q2: I cannot un-remember/un-think the past 37 years so I really have no idea
The long story is that I got out of my mandatory IDF service (I lived in Israel at the time) as a combat engineer with a prior botched university career in physics - not really good skills for civilian success TBH. I frequented a job office for discharged soldiers and this really old, almost-dead, guy (he must have been at least 50 then, I'm 63 now!!) would go through these index cards - one by one, and sloooooooowly. He'd read a card, look at me, shake his head. Rinse & repeat about 20 times and he'd send me home to try again in two weeks.
After many sessions over a 2-month period (with unemployment pay not really covering my basic needs) I asked him if I could take a look at those cards myself. He shook his head at this literally unheard-of proposal (who would need civil servants if everyone would read their own cards, right?) but still let me grab the box of cards, quite certain I would find nothing.
I lifted out one card and said "how about this?". He told me it was for the Customs authorities over at the Lebanese border. He also said I would have to control a gate where some trucks would be wanting to pass on a daily basis (mostly UNIFIL). He explained I would have to walk out, check the documents, verify an unbroken seal on the container, stamp the document, open the gate, let the truck through, close the gate. (horribly exciting, I know!)
I told him I thought I could do that but getting back and forth to the "office" which was 35 km away might be an issue. He told me a Customs authorities patrol car would pick me up in the morning at a major crossroads near my home and drop me off there again at the end of the day. Sweet! I took the job.
That was 37 years ago this year. In the meantime, I have grown from opening and closing gates on the Israeli border to being an EMEA/Global Customs and Trade Compliance director for respectively US, Japanese and UK multinational industrial giants operating out of Amsterdam as well as chairing international conferences on Customs cooperation and technology. On the side, I teach a bit on subjects such as free trade agreement rules of origin, harmonized commodity coding and WTO valuation processes.
Looking back, I can safely say I had no ***** idea what I was getting into but it was worth it. My partial physics education helps me out now and then, knowing how to lay mines or defuse bombs regretfully does not...