[Closed] Changing career - Where do I start and who's done it?

porn star?

You are lucky Cheers_drive but life is too short so just make sure you're happy mate.

I'm back at Uni now at the age of 32-sometimes the oldest guy in lectures.

Clamp down on my expenses so no new bike or car for a while.

Thing is you're at advantage by working and looking at something else.

Speak to a manager and take on more responsibility?

Don't know what you have till it's gone.

I had the same thing with Teaching-fun and far too easy. I wasn't mentally challegened and considering med school for 4yrs.

Porn star! Why didn't I think of theat before?
On second thoughts I don't think I'm qualified for it 😐

I have the same issues mate, I'm in design engineering, but I don't see a particularly bright future in manufacturing, so would really like a change. Unfortunately I have no idea what it is I really want to do 😆

Sorry no idea.
I've always seen a job as a way to pay bills with the least effort possible and not much else, so I've no idea really on what sort of job fulfilment people strive for 🙂

Hey cheers_drive

I wasn't always a graphic designer, I actually graduated as a software engineer. After 2 years in industry I realised I'd made a mistake. To be frank, I was very good and often wonder what I'd be earning now if I'd stuck with it. But I hated it, and was dreadfully bored and exhausted by the whole thing. I'd always fancied being a graphic designer but my parents steered me in the maths/computing direction.

Spent a few years self teaching and hobbying and eventually started applying for jobs. Been doing it for over 3 years now and much happier.

So it's doable and I'm finally on more now than I was when I quit Software engineering. As for what you could do, maybe look at careers that overlap slightly as that'll make changing easier and quicker. Although I was doing Software engineering, I moved into UI desgin, then web apps UI design, then web design in general and I've expanded into graphic design since.

I will say don't hang around if you're fed up, life's too short as they say!

Go into Nursing, it's great, never have to do any work, spend long periods of time on the sick, get paid too much and a ridiculous pension at the end of it - I know cos I read it on here.

Serioualy though, I trained in marketing, found it mind numbing, worked as a bouncer for a few years which was good money for easy work, then in chemical production before finally training as a Nurse and ending up £14K in debt to fund that training.

Love the job most days and, occasionally, someone appreciates what you've done for them which is nice.

If you have a desire to do something then look at the options, do your sums to ensure you can afford to do it (or at least afford the debt you'll run up paying the bills whilst training), make sure you have family support then go for it. If it all adds up then go for it, you'll only regret it later if you don't.

I found myself in the same situation in my mid 20s. In an industry I was going to be stuck in if I didn't get out pretty soon.
I decided to do an MBA in France to get some international experience and to treat it a little bit like a gap year.
I sold my house and more or less everything I owned (except my clothes and 2 bikes), gave back the company care and moved to France for 18 months.
Best thing I ever did. Being a less specific course I had plenty of options when I was finished and alond the way I met Mrs OJ who has now led me to live in Denmark.
There are lots of people who will try to tell you it is a bad idea, but they are really just envious that they can't or won't do the same thing.
Have a look around at courses, consider your finances VERY objectively and see if there is something that floats your boat.
For the record I am now working as an international project manager and in general I enjoy it quite a lot. I also earn a lot more than I ever would have in the quarrying industry...

I changed career this year from retail management to the Environment Agency! Ok, I did have a degree in Geography (which, to be honest, is pretty useless) but no experience.

I wasn't prepared to go back into studying so I went for something which combined a few things which I was good at, i.e. basic env knowledge plus customer service skills. It took a while to get the job but I realy enjoy it and I can bring over the skills I enjoyed, and left the bits behind I didn't.

So (and remember I don't know what design engineering is) do you like the dign bit or the engineering bit? Can you transfer the bits you like over to another business sector or not? It might help if the pay you get is not as important as you could start lower down to prove yourself first.

I never did this but was going to, what about working for a company for free for 1 week? It shows you what they do, what working there might be like, and could lead to a job offer. Might be worth using a weeks holiday, and really shows a prospective employer what you will be like. It would speak volumes I reckon.

A friend of mine was a nurse for 10 years then left and trained to become an air traffic controller. You get paid during training, but it's difficult and the success rate isn't high.

There are lots of people who will try to tell you it is a bad idea, but they are really just envious that they can't or won't do the same thing.

A friend of mine was a nurse for 10 years then left and trained to become an air traffic controller. You get paid during training, but it's difficult and the success rate isn't high.

That really isnt the best advert for that particular career!! 😉

I was in the same position just over 2 years ago, coasting along and getting stressed over insignificant issues. Being 38 at the time, family, mortgage and some kind of lifestyle to maintain I couldnt afford to go back to study, so changed jobs from a major national to fledgling local company.

It certainly was a challenge expanding a business into new sectors and geographical areas just as the economy nosedived! Got it so far but then got fed up with working 100 hour weeks, every weekend, travelling all over UK etc so when it reached a stable point I jumped back to the old company (on their request).

I now have a huge amount of experience from that brief time (2 yrs) and a totally different outlook ie I can do anything I put my mind to and much happier.

So before you ditch all that experience, perhaps just a change of scenery/focus will put you back on course!

Best of luck either way 🙂

I've just handed my notice in today at my "proper" job! Am in the same situation like you where it feel like I'm just going around in circles and make no difference to anyone.

Started using our house for B&B a few months back which has been a great success and also got a job as a mtb instructor and having all this in place before taking the final step today to resign has been the safe way of doing it. Could have done it earlier but some part of my ego has not wanting to let go of the "professional" career I spent 10 years at uni to get... but eventually I've realised that the important thing is doing something you enjoy doing and I think you regret things more that you don't do rather than the things you do, so I would definately look into other things if I were you!

I'm going through a similar situation. Been teaching for 12 years, but, to be honest, I hate it now. I like working with kids, but can't stand the current target-driven, results led ethos. Results are important, but at the moment it is at the cost of 'education'. The thought of going to work makes me feel suck some days - I need to get out.

Problem is 2 kids, mortgage etc makes changing jobs difficult. Would consider paramedic, police etc. Paramedic means doing a degree first, which i would enjoy but can't afford. Police are not recruiting (anywhere it seems).

[That really isnt the best advert for that particular career]

True. But when you get paid £40k in your first job out of training, they don't want to make it too easy.

I changed career to teaching from ecological research.

I changed career to teaching from ecological research.

I quite like teaching at the moment, although I do work on the basis that its just work and I do it because I have to.

Mandelson - Prince of Darkness - "Gordon.....get back to pretending to run the country instead of starting threads on mountain bike forums."

If you have to ask people what career you'd find exciting and rewarding I think you're stuffed. A job is a job. You'll be pissed off whatever you do. MTFU and live in misery like the rest of us. 🙂

Has anyone used a careers counsellor before?

I took a 50% pay cut to join the police - a bit drastic, but I'd been in IT for 8 years, and 400 out of 600 people in my company had recently lost their jobs when we were outsourced to India, and I'd already had to re-apply for my job once a year for the previous 5 years and was sick of it. I wanted a bit more security, as well as a bit more fun. And then we found out the missus was up the stick - again - and we moved house, tripling the mortgage, but with half the income, and I started working shifts, all in the space of 6 months. It was a bit stressful, but 3 years on, I enjoy the job, I'm earning a bit more money, the house is great, even if we can't afford to do a lot with it. It couldn't have been a worse time to do it, but if I hadn't have done it, I probably never would. Just go for it.

From selling welding gases for a living to photographer here - quit the Rat Race last august, jsut before teh global sh*t hit the fan...
Hugely supportive Mrs, no kids, just about survive-able on the one income....

Just over 12 months in now, having invested a lot of time and money..
Have my 'off days' (especially as my old place had a round of redundancies recently - that money would have been handy 🙂 but, overall, no looking back at all....
Tis just turning a corner, weddings confirmed for next year cover current projected costs and account for 33% of the target i'd set...
I'm now looking at options I would not previously have considered (photographically speaking) to bring more money in.. off to Leeds shortly on a commercial job for a good mate who has an events company, his client are after shots for their intranet to big up the success that tonight will be in launching their new call centre.... 🙄
As above, never been a worse time, but then again, they say starting in a recession is the best time as it makes you work, you learn to really value your clients as opposed to boom time when you get so busy you just don't care... then wonder where they all went...
Best of luck
Chris

I've been having very similar thoughts and feelings to the opener for the last 4 years or so. I thought changing company (not job) would do it, but it hasn't made me feel anymore satisfied. Though I have a much better standard of life now
.

One of my more senior workmates said one way she deals with things is to pretend work isn't real life, and to some extent that's been working for me.

I'd look on the good things you have in your current job and try to focus on those until you work out what you want to do - that's what I'm doing. I am debating starting a small 'hobby' company, not to make any great deal of money just to try and achieve some of that missing feeling of satisfaction.

I changed my career at 27, went back to Uni and re-trained as a physiotherapist. Great job, lots of opportunities here and overseas and I left Uni with no debt although I did work all the holidays and had saved before going. It can be financially rewarding with a job in a good private practice.
Apart from the police there isn't anything that I'd rather do .... says a lot really!

Interesting to read that so many others are also fed up with the daily grind / routine of the day job.

12 years in IT with 5.5 years of those as a Java developer for an Investment Bank and I am bored rigid. There is 0 job satisfaction, but I have the dilema as to working out what it is I truly want to go and do. The only thing keeping me from quitting tomorrow is non working Wife and 2 kids that need supporting, otherwise, I would take windsurfing gear and mountain bike and head off on a loooooooooooong tour

http://www.halotrust.org/

Ooh returning thread - nice. No_discerning_taste - good approach, very good example of how to go about it and of the issues that can hold you back. I'm still strugging with the 'but you spent all that time, effort, education' etc building a 'proper career' (sic). However it is a truism that you regret the stuff you didn't do more. Changing careers is always an option, it takes time and you just have to chip away at it slowly ... is taking me ages, but knowing that I don't want to be here in 10 years time is enough motivation to get on with stuff.

I'm in the process of doing it. Doing a master's in business after working the ecology sector (probably the reverse of what most people do!) and it's a pain in the neck trying to get a job at the moment. Entry level positions now require a good degree, possibly a masters, occasionally fluency in a foreign language, very often perfect A-level results, and voluntary work that involved saving several thousand starving orphans. Still something of a buyer's market as far as employment goes.

I went from a quite stressful but well paid job to redundent which was also quite stressful but didn't pay as well. Now doing a stressful job I don't like but happier than when I was jobless.

I spent a lot of time while unemployed considering all the different options about career changes etc and ended up sticking with the same type of job I was doing.

I basically decided I enjoyed some parts of what I do and didn't enjoy other parts but either way, the pay was good. I looked at other jobs and decided I liked some parts but didn't like others and pay wasn't as good.

Now I am basically happy with not enjoying my job (except for the occaisional drunken drivel I write on here from lonely hotel bedrooms).

I switched career from a successful employed career to being self employed. My advice would be to not be too quick to drop what you currently probably get paid well for. If you do want to try something else, can you overlap a hobby type business with your current work - you never know the hobby might become a new career and the transition won't have cost you financially?

Having spent the last 7 years self employed, I have had some brilliant years financially and freedom wise, but I've also had some more sticky times - for the last 2 years I have spent my life constantly chasing companies for very overdue payment (not what I set out to do).

I am now taking a half step sideways and have accepted an offer for a 9-5 job (doing what I used to do before being self employed). I intent to keep doing my own stuff on a reduced basis and out of 9-5 hours (servicing a client base that I have built up - I sound like a hooker!).

Strangely, all the things that I used to hate about employment now really appeal to me and I'm really excited about the oportunity.

Everyone has frustrations and every career has downsides, you won't remove the likelihood of some sort of frustration in whatever you do, but you might find that you can live with some circumstances easier than others.

I'm not suggesting that you do, or don't do anything, but just that you don't jump too hastily; consider your options. I have made some terrible mistakes over the last 7 years and they have all come by way of hasty/knee-jerk decisions. I have also made some brilliant decisions too, and they seem to have been the ones where my gut reaction was right from the start.

Good luck.

Im 27 now. quit my job in construction engineering sector.

Good company, good potential (wage) but basically on a graduate scheme that turned you into the guy above you/middle management.

Didnt enjoy the work, the people, or the relentless 8-6 days. (very little flexibility)

With the economic downturn lots of folk getting laid off, so i jumped ship, rang up my old uni and im now doing a PhD in a subject i love.

If its sunny i go biking, if its rainy i work longer. If the mrs finishes work early i go home. Some day i have 3 day weekends. Sometimes i dont.

Best decision i have made in the last 4 years. Without a doubt.

Its not a good time...

IanMunro - Member
Sorry no idea.
I've always seen a job as a way to pay bills with the least effort possible and not much else, so I've no idea really on what sort of job fulfilment people strive for

given its the one single activity that most people spend the most time doing it makes sense to do something you actually enjoy.

I think as Squin says, think about your skills versus what you would like to do, plus what would become a chore.
Okay so you love horses but if you quit to run a livery yard or something would your hobby that you love become a job that you detest which is hard work.

I did my degree in chemistry, worked at a lab in Lancaster for 5 years then moved on to another chemical company that (in theory) was offering better pay, more progression etc. Ended up being made redundant after 20 months, out the door without a penny and was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Re-employed (by the same company!) after 3.5 months, just as I was starting to get established doing freelance work for MTB mags, bit of photography etc but by then I was totally hacked off with the whole chemistry thing, I hated the company after what they'd put me through and was doing the absolute bare minimum so the reports I was getting were bad - spiral of decline, I didn't give a s***, they treated me worse, I put in less effort etc etc.

Then a job came up in the cycling industry. Better pay (how does that work, I'm earning more money in a job where I had "a bit of experience as a bike racer/part time bike shop worker" than I was earning in a job with a 4 year degree and 8 years of experience behind me!), better hours, better all round.

I doubt I'd have done if without being forced into that position, it's making the change that's the most difficult thing but life is too short to be sat there doing a job you don't like.

Tracknicko - enjoy that while it lasts. I look back fondly on my PhD days from the perspective of time/ life balance. Like you, I started around 26 and enjoyed having time to do what I wanted and when. Like I said enjoy it while it lasts, cause eventually you have to go out and get paid for a living 😉

Like I said enjoy it while it lasts, cause eventually you have to go out and get paid for a living

Not entirely true - you can whore yourself as a hired gun RA pretty much indefinitely if the Uni department has cash. I know people still doing this in their 40's. They envy the stability (as it is) of my full-time job, I envy their flexibility. 'Tis a strange old world!

(Mr MC posting)

I think MC posted orginally, but I went from materials science (PhD, 2 academic postdocs and a brief stint in industry) to being a police officer.

I enjoyed my PhD far more than the postdocs, and got to the stage where the appealing aspects of police work corresponded with the negatives of being a boffin (variety vs monotonity, meeting new people vs working alone, etc etc).

I obviously retained some characteristics of the academic RA as I tend to get bored and change roles every 2 years within the police...

Dealing with this myself at the moment but without (as of last thursday) the backup of current employment.
Not entirely sure that the industry i'm in is what I want to be doing for the next X number of years but I don't have any experience in anything else. Ho hum.