[Closed] Question for the career changers

Tick

I am 39 and doing an MSc this September. I have no current plan for afterwards, but feel that the MSc will help me move into a career that is more of a vocation and where the job is constructive.

Not too sure if this helps at all. I took a year out in 2004 but that didn't quite go according to plan, although I had some amazing adventures. It's taken me 4 years to save up for this, but I am desperately unhappy where I am right now, and this MSc, when I saw the syllabus, I just thought it was totally me and I really think I am going to enjoy the next year loads.

I've been in my profession for 20 years and realising I'm going nowhere as well as drawing stress onto myself and my family. I think it's time to knock it on the head and think of doing something else.

I'm 33 and thinking the same... maybe...
Started these wheels turning pre-recession. I am thinking of a MSc as a means to getting out of my current career. I've changed jobs a few times, but each time there's a feeling that I'm stuck in the same career because of my skills and experience in something that really I don't want to be doing.

I have my offer of a place, which I need to yay or nay by June 1st.
Now I have the fear - am I mad? what if there's no jobs at the end of the MSc? What if I can't do study anymore? Am I too old to be a student again? With people being made redundant all over, I should be glad I have a secure, well-paid job??

I think truly I am going do it, but at the moment the decision is stressing me out!!

I change my jobs/career every couple of years so I don't get bored. I might become a journalist next, it seems that any clown can do it 😉

Stuckinarut

I can't really explain why I found my decision easy for my MSc, but for me a lot of it was finding an MSc that I felt was tailor-made for me. I am 39 so you seem pretty young you know 🙂

Moved from IT to nursing. Turned 33 in Feb and I'm off to Oz for a year.

37 aint old. You've still got 30 years of work left in you so you may as well change path and do something you like.

I left the RAF in 2000 at the age of 30, re-trained as a network/data cabling engineer, fibre optics and telecomms etc. Did this for a few years, got well paid, got very good at it then got a bit hacked off and bored with it, decided to go back to collage for a few years and re-train as an electrician, pay cut and back to square one! Got very well qualified, very well paid lots of experience etc. Now at 39 I am hoping to join the Fire Service, applied last year and am almost through the selection process, it’s something I wanted to do ever since leaving the forces.

Find a job that you love then you’ll never work a day in your life.

I'm just starting my dissertation, final part of an MSc at 32. Had exactly the same fears;

[i]what if there's no jobs at the end of the MSc?[/i]
What if there is?

[i]What if I can't do study anymore? [/i]
Its hard work, but I found my essays from my undergrad the other day and they were shocking in comparison to what I've churned out this year. I feared about going to a Uni above my level of intelligence and I'm on for a distinction hopefully.

[i]Am I too old to be a student again?[/i]
No, never. There's plenty people in the same boat and some grey haired old boys wandering round the library. Its not quite the same party-time fun as first time round, but its interesting having the 'maturity' over the kids.

In short, I hated my job, was in a massive rut so the thought of going back to it for the next 30 years was way more than enough to overcome the above.

It can be harder to change career than you'd think. If someone is looking for a left handed widget maker they'll probably be able to find one with experience- nice safe hire- safer than hiring you who's just retrained from right handed widget making and who may be spectacularly brilliant at it but has no experience.

I experienced this when being made redundant from my last job which was a management position in the chemical industry. I thought I had transferable skills that would let me move into another sector like pharma but- no chance. Even if you are capable recruiters always take the safe option of someone who has experience.

I think the best way to change careers would be to pick something like teaching where there's a short supply so recruiters have no choice but to consider inexperienced applicants

37?, 30 bleedin 7?, hardly even full grown!!!!

Get that career changed young man.

SB 53 serial career changer 😉

I'm 45 and changed career at 43. Glad I did as people I know are struggling in my old industry. I won't say take the plunge as your circumstances will be different to mine but it worked for me and I wish I'd done it a couple of years earlier. Hope that helps.

This thread has been great. Makes me feel more positive about making the leap. Cheers everyone.

shooter - one thing I found useful (even if it sounds a bit naff) do a list of reasons to stay, reasons to go. I find it really helps focus on what's important, rather than having a vague feeling you want to do something different. Even though I really fiddled it to give the answer I wanted anyway, just focusing on stuff helps.

My situation is that I'm a solicitor. My wife is a primary school principal. She is the principal of the school in our village and I look at her conditions of work and they're fantastic.

Giving serious thought to teaching.

I'm in the process of an enforced change. Last employer is playing silly buggers and I'm unable to secure timely references from him. Karma will bite him in time.
Starting at the bottom again at 46 with luck in outdoor instruction.

.

H.G.V get to see the country and get paid for sitting on my ass.

Just a thought.

Hic...

Changed over from IT when I was 33 to become an electrician. I really like this job, my dad was having a clearout of old rubbish from his shed and found a letter from 1986 inviting me to join the LEB (London electricity Board)on a YTS scheme. I turned it down at the time, I now wish I had become a sparks back then.

I can safely say change to a positive direction its scary at first but i am so much happier now...on the other hand it could have been a disaster

I used to go to work and get to play with some pretty cool stuff and sure I got paid a lot too.For some reason i assumed earning as much as i could made me happy

It sounds like a dream position but on a personal level I have changed in the past 10 years if that make sense I think people change throughout their lives without noticing it !!!my values aren't the same as they were 10 years ago and im far happier now not being stressed and not working 60 hours a week .

Im 34 this year

ACE SPARKY HIT THE NAIL RIGHT ON THE HEAD

I changed at 32, went back to uni for two years to do a post-grad dip. + fast-track conversion. Things to consider:

- You may well go into your new industry fairly on a low salary in a junior position dealing with people much younger than you who know their stuff

- Just because someone you know has a great job that's inspiring you to change, bear in mind they might've been doing it 5+ years so the conditions will look good

- if you're focused on your course you should get high marks 'cos you're probably paying for the course out of your own pocket and need to make it count.

- when going for a job, no-one takes too much interest in your course marks (unless you're a complete biff)

- identify your transferable skills from your current and previous jobs, then add some spin to it and highlight it on your CV. This is very, very important to remember because the last X no. years you've been working will have given you some experience to benefit from, moving forward.

- it's never too late. My post-grad 'mature student' group was almost equal to the under-grads and the oldest person was in her 60's (and looking to get a job at the end of it!)

- Recession-proof your career move to ensure you don't graduate into a sector flooded with overskilled workers (that's a mistake I made - moving into a construction-related industry then realising that I needed to quickly diversify to ensure I was employable)

- Take advantage of the 3hr study days on sunny afternoons to go out riding 🙂

One of the people who inspires me is a woman who was in my year at uni as an undergraduate.

She had been a teacher and had risen to director of the regional teacher training college here.

She then career changed in her late 40's / early 50's and started to study law. (circa mid 1990's).She went to the bar and about 4 years ago was appointed a county court judge. She is hotly tipped for the High Court bench in the next 2-3 years.

In fact, she makes me feel very inadequate. 😉