What clients notice during transition work

After twenty-two years in the same Munich plant, I needed someone who understood German notice periods and would not push me toward roles that ignored my age. We spent three sessions sorting what I would accept — and what I would not. The Lebenslauf rewrite took longer than I expected because we cut a decade of task lists I was oddly attached to.

I returned to paid work after four years caring for a parent. Interview prep helped me answer the gap question without sounding apologetic. I still stumbled once in a live interview — the rehearsal did not make me flawless — but I recovered using the cue sheet we had written together.

The application review was blunt in a useful way. My cover letter read like a farewell speech to my old employer. One session later it named the problems I could solve for a logistics firm in Augsburg. I would have liked a second letter template included in the base fee, though the quote for that add-on was clear upfront.

What stayed with me was the options map. I had been chasing “something in sustainability” without knowing which German employers hire people with my operations background at fifty-four. Narrowing to three credible paths stopped the nightly scrolling.