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Hi,
I’m not really sure why I’m putting this on here, but there always seem to be some knowledgeable people around who might be able to offer a bit of clarity or perspective.
I started out doing a lot of agricultural work while I was at school, then spent a year in New Zealand before going on to study Agricultural Engineering at university.
After university I carried on working in agriculture for a while, but eventually the unregulated hours started to get to me. I was then offered a sales job at a fairly local company. I hated sales and soon moved into purchasing, before eventually finding my way into engineering.
I stayed with that company for around eight years. After a recent takeover, more weekend working, big projects running over Christmas and the general stress of the job, I eventually decided it wasn’t worth it anymore and left in June this year.
I’ve since moved to an engineering firm much closer to home, working with construction equipment, which is a bit more in line with the agricultural engineering background I’m used to. I’ve been there for about two months now.
Since making the move, though, I’ve had quite a tough time mentally. Pretty much weekly I seem to have periods where I get very upset and overwhelmed, but I struggle to actually explain what’s going on in my head or what the problem is.
I don’t know whether an office/workshop-based engineering career just isn’t right for me anymore, or whether I’m still carrying a lot of stress from the previous job and the change itself.
Part of me wonders whether I’d be happier doing something like forestry or arboriculture, where I’d be outside and doing something more practical, but hopefully with slightly more regulated hours than agriculture.
I suppose I’m just wondering whether anyone has been through anything similar — changed jobs or careers and still felt like something wasn’t right? Did you stick it out, change direction completely, or eventually work out what the real problem was?
Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated.
