Are You Ready For A Career Change?

If you’re fed up with your job or have a professional dream you want to pursue, here’s advice on how to make the shift

- Mieke Vlok & Wendy Stelzmann

SHE studied graphic design because she loves art and being creative but Gisela Harck’s other passion is baking. As far back as she could remember she’d loved being in the kitchen and she’d even raised funds for an overseas trip by making and selling gingerbread houses.

While working full-time as a graphic designer she carried on baking biscuits for weekend markets. Over the years the idea of a bakery specialising in gingerbread houses and ginger biscuits simmered in the back of her mind.

Then three years ago, after nine years in the graphic design field, Gisela (now 36) decided it was time to make her dream a reality.

Demand for her gingerbread products – made using her German grandmother’s recipes – had grown and she figured it was “time to stop making excuses and actively start doing”.

She didn’t quit her job right away but spent time in the evenings and on weekends creating a brand identity for her products, all the while baking on the side.

She eventually quit her graphic design job in August last year and today she has a shop in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape called Harck & Heart. She also sells her cookies in supermarkets and delis in the rest of the province and in Gauteng.