Ulrich Biffar: Job

Ulrich Biffar

What kind of job did you imagine as a child? How come?

“Well, first of all I imagined that a job means that you spend many years with it. And that it has to be something that you basically enjoy. So that means, for example, I always wanted to have something where you can travel and where you can either produce or buy and sell things. Conversely, I wouldn't have enjoyed things like medicine or biology, for example, where you have to deal with so little things in the laboratory all the time.

That wouldn't have been my thing now. "

What first got you into your job?

“Well, that's a bit of a coincidence, because after school I thought about doing something commercial, that is, buying, selling, producing, buying something for a company in that area, stories like that. That interested me. So I did a degree in this direction and always thought that afterwards, as a company, I would simply look for what I could find best and most interesting.

A lot of coincidences to get the first job. "

Have you always felt the same about your job or has it changed over time?

"This is a very good question. No, I didn't always feel it the same way. So at the beginning I had to do something, where I always had in the back of my mind that I had to feed myself from it first. And I also always knew that I would like to have a family later. So I always looked for a job where I could earn in such a way that I could always save something right from the start, because I knew that I would need more money later than in the first years of work. "

Have you ever had the feeling that others see your job differently than you see it? Can you give an example?

“Yes, I always had that relatively often. These are professions when you are in business like that and other people maybe do something completely different, for example are craftsmen or doctors or nurses or pastors for the church or something else. Then you often have an idea of ​​working life in a company, which does not exactly correspond to reality.

Often other people think that when you're in the company, you often have great things to do and great decisions to make, and you can implement things and buy entire companies and do really great things, but not so much with reality. You then actually have a lot more little things to do in the office, which are probably much less exciting and exciting than people might sometimes see from the outside. "

Do you think your job affects the way you see the world around you?

“Yes, I think so. To be honest, I think that with any occupation or activity that you do for a long time or that you do intensely, do it for a long time and intensely. I believe that honestly it happens to a student in the same way as it happens to a teacher or as it happens in any other job. You always tend to see the world through your own glasses a lot more.

For example, in business life, appointments are often important. Things have to happen quickly, by a specific deadline. There has to be a clear result. For example, you have to buy certain quantities of some products. And these products not only have to be purchased at a specific price, but they also have to be delivered by specific dates at the latest, and so on. So in business one often has the opinion that all people or very many people work in such a way that it is always clear to them that, for example, certain things have to be done by specific deadlines at the latest, which of course in other professions or in other parts of be like that.”

Have you ever thought about giving up your job? Why or why not?

“Yes, I had that in between when I did that. I had a job for 12 years. That was also fun and would be very interesting. But that meant that I not only had a lot of work 6 or 7 days a week, but above all had to be on the road at least 4 to 6 days a week and sometimes had to travel a lot. International travel always had to be on the go a lot. And that, in turn, was fun, but with family and children it was not what I wanted to do permanently, because I always wanted and have fun spending a lot of time with my family and seeing my children grow up and how they develop.

So I actually gave up the job at the time to choose a profession that promised me closer to my family and less travel, and that has kept that. "

Why is your job so important to you? What do you particularly like about your job?

“Well, the job is important because, on the one hand, you naturally have the material basis to feed the family, so that you as a family have the material security that everyone in the family can be fine. In addition, I like my job because I enjoy it, because I do it for a long time, because I have the feeling that I do what I do very well and that I have success with it.

And success, regardless of whether it is in sports or in the evaluations at school or at work. Success, on the other hand, is fun and encourages you to carry on, so that after one success you may also have the next success. I really enjoy the job and it's important to me. "

Would you like me or one of your other daughters to do this job? Why or why not?

“Well, to be honest, I personally don't really care which job the daughters will choose and do later, but what I wish them to do is that they, no matter what job they do, have similar positive experiences of success and the associated fun can pull them out of the respective job. In other words, which exact job it will be later is less important to me than the fact that the job someone chooses is also very often very much fun for that person. "

Do you have any advice for a younger me or young people who have, or may have had, similar experiences?

“Yes, I would say what always helps is to be hardworking, to be curious and you can and should. And it's also normal for young people to have many different thoughts about many different jobs or employment opportunities. And then, of course, when they are of the age when they finish school and either have vocational training or study after school, then at some point they should commit themselves to a topic and do it for at least a few years.

That does not mean that this topic has to be done for the whole life. But at some point you have to stop constantly jumping between the different options and thinking, but then at some point you have to say That's it now and now I'll do it for a few years, I'll focus on it. "

Since now is the time to end this interview. Do you want to add anything else?

“I had a lot of fun having the conversation because it is of course always interesting to think about your own things and the topics that you are pursuing. I had a lot of fun. Thanks for the Opportunity."

Thank you for your time and the thoughtful answers. I really enjoyed learning more about you. I wish you a nice day and thank you for agreeing to conduct this interview.