Jobs

[BlackestLily]

Apparently anymore the average person experiences at least 5 (or more) career changes in their lifetime. Not jobs, careers. I've read this, heard this, etc. Up until this past year, I hadn't experienced it. But now I, too, am at the beginning stages of transitioning out of a job I've had for a while and preparing myself to get into mental health. Although there are small overlaps here and there, it's vastly different than what I do now.

The problem?

I seem to have solidly built my identity on who I am at the job I have at the moment. I'm good at my job. Very good. I enjoy it! I wake up every morning looking forward to going in. While not a deterrent, the thought of "starting over" is intimidating. Having to relearn the ropes, relearn coworkers personalities, reschooling...it's all very...overwhelming. And the thought of being a job newbie again isn't exactly the most amazing fuzzy feeling in the world.

So for those of you who have had to experience these career changes, did you find the transition worthwhile? Was the place you used to work very different than the one you had now? What impact did it have on your identity and life? Have the career changes been choices, or was it more of a forced transition due to being laid off, fired, position elimination, etc? Did you feel it was a good move?

In-depth thoughts appreciated, and no political bullshit. 🙂

 

[maniactickler]

My career change was voluntary. i gave up a good job with benefits at Raytheon to start my own business. glad i did. i love my job. almost as much as i love Blackestlily.

 

[shark]

I've heard the "5 career changes" stat before. I haven't gotten there yet, but it's mostly because of 30 years in one line of work being interspersed with others. The most recent change has been more of circumstance than deliberate change, and it hasn't been long enough to say whether it's been worthwhile. I haven't noticed any identity change, but certain lifestyle changes have become necessary.

 

[myth77]

Excellent topic. I used to work customer service for about 8 years before going into Marketing and Sales (which I have been working for about 10 years now). I loved customer service. It was safe. I knew how to relate to people, how to be polite, and how to listen to their needs. Then, in one year, I got married and had my first child, and my customer service job was beginning to downsize. My former spouse was never particularly good at maintaining employment, so I knew I had to get some kind of replacement job fast to support us. And that's when I saw it...the Sales job ad.

The thought terrified the sh*t out of me, that I was going to become one of those door-to-door, desperate sales professionals, who basically pushed people into buying stuff they didn't need. I felt I had no skills to go into the field. I was (am) shy. I tend to be introverted. I don't like bothering people. I hate traditional salespeople. But my family needed me to buck up, and the company was desperately looking for new sales people.

I fucking hated it. It was telemarketing, the worst kind of sales. I went to work, miserable for about a month. I cried at home (alone, so no one worried). I kept being told by managers to be more aggressive, which just wasn't me.

Then one day, I found my niche. Most salespeople don't have the benefit of coming from a lengthy customer service background, and have forgotten how consumers hate to be talked to. I started talking to people, and listening to them just how I did as a customer service agent. The universal thing in both fields was the fact that people want to know that you're really listening to them. If they don't want to be sold something, no sales pitch in the world is going to get them to buy. The prospect is investing in you, your personality, as an ambassador of sorts for the company seeking to do business with them (i.e. take their money). My style, which all my subsequent employers have complimented me on, is to actively and sincerely listen, to show care and concern for their situation (as you would in customer service), while seeking opportunities in the conversation to show them why what product/service you are offering is a superior value (based on what they care about, not what the company thinks is a good 'selling point'). They say they can tell that the people I talk to really liked talking to me, because I seemed to care, regardless of whether they wanted to buy anything.

I went from bottom-ranking sales person, to a consistently high producer. My career change helped bring out my stronger traits, helped me put away my shyness when I needed to, helped me show companies how to better present their goods and services in ways that won't get them tuned out. It has helped me become a more effective communicator, which is urgently necessary in today's busy marketplace. I went from selling consumer banking products, to helping tech companies get their foot in the door at multimillion dollar companies. People are all the same, and want to be listened to, and interacted with, not just 'sold' to. I am paid handsomely for my work, and could not see myself in another profession, where once I was terrified. My career change brought out a new confidence that I would need to call upon to actively change and eliminate bad things from my life, while seeking ways to improve it. It has also provided me greater financial stability than I would have ever had staying in my previous field.

Great, thought-provoking topic 😀

 

[mabus]

I think it all depends on the kindness or assholeness of your new co-workers/management.

You could have a satisfying to you job, but if the manager is a bully/has a raging ego/does stuff to make your job harder/talks and looks down on you, it's hell.
If your co-workers are evil, hateful, don't teach you anything, back stab you, gossip about you, it's hell as well.

On the other hand, you could work a substandard job, but if your co-workers and boss are wonderful, it's great.

 

[Amnesiac]

Every "career transition" in my life has been involuntary. One way or the other, I've always wound up invalidating myself from whatever job I've had most of the time without even realizing it. It's hard to contest that it's always been my fault, but it's equally hard to contest that intention has never been a part of it.

It's no secret that the American education system is a shell of what it was because for most of its history, it was geared towards occupational training; when the jobs its was prepping for left the country in the 1970s, the occupational training was purged from the curriculum and transferred to the college system, where it could take advantage of the increasing college attendance to gouge students for the rights to what had previously been free. All that was left for high school was the hollow elective courses that yielded no practical results. Unfortunately, I was one of countless millions of students who suffered for this. I suspected something was wrong by 1991, but my father was insistent that I treat high school with the same reverence as he did--despite the galactic changes having occurred between 1952 and 1991--and would brook no argument. So because I was never encouraged to act autonomously in education, I never took control of it. Untreated autism and sleep apnea did the rest of the damage.

That's something that kids today won't recognize: that until they were born, most people were taught to file through the system and let IT take care of THEM.

Because I only qualified for retail as a teenager, I flitted from one video store to the other. Because I graduated college literally months before 9/11, and all of my education was in liberal arts and specialized vocational training (i.e. film), I had NO qualifications for ANY technical vocation in a post-9/11 economy. I spent the rest of the decade feeling like an abject failure and operating under the grossly misinformed and self-pitying delusion that going back to school meant abandoning everything I had previously worked for. By the time I woke up and decided to get into an Associates Degree curriculum, it was 2007 and the economy coded. What was supposed to be a nice, easy reboot for myself had been hijacked into an uber-competitive Run on the Academy by thousands of unemployed people looking to expand their credentials. By the time I got my sleep apnea under control, I had already gone through the prerequisites twice and realized that my grades wouldn't hold up to the cutthroat competition and I dropped out.

So as a result, I've been gravitating from one retail position to the other since 1996. Filmmaking has gone from being a solid craftsmanlike job worth millions to a ghetto divided between billion-dollar tentpoles and micro-budget indies with no middle-range films in-between. And with atrocious math skills and no business sense, I've had to begin learning entrepreneurial thinking in order to restart it. My old safeties--video stores--have become extinct and I've been ousted from one retail job to the next because my direct and needs-only approach to life is at odds with the aggressive upgrade-oriented business interests of a consumer economy. Every time I get fired its because I can't sell as hard or because my personality doesn't have the "sheen" of a Stepford Wife. Only in 2011 have I managed to get out of retail...into janitorial. Manual labor 10 years after my body had the resilience to deal with it.

My whole life I've just wanted an easy, non-competitive relaxing job that paid some decent coin and was enjoyable to do. But with video stores gone the way of the Dodo, and porn being more liberating but just as stressful as a corporate job, it is apparently not to be. This is one of the many reasons I'm nostalgic for the '90s, when such a thing was possible.

I'd love nothing better than to go back to 1990 and re-do my life with a 20 year head start on The Lesser Depression knowing what I know now (investing in Google, Netflix, Apple, and Twitter would be on MY priority list), but I can't. So now I'm playing catch-up in an economy I wasn't trained for with almost all my chances exhausted and an age where I'm growing closer and closer to losing my employment viability. Adding insult to injury is that I've now grown out of the exuberant idealism of youth and lost most of my creativity and zest for living and replaced it with a defeatist calculation for improbable likelihood for success.

And THAT little bitchfest is my experience.

 

[BlackestLily]

Awesome replies and feedback thusfar, thank you.

My career change was voluntary. i gave up a good job with benefits at Raytheon to start my own business. glad i did. i love my job. almost as much as i love Blackestlily.

Was there any particular reason you made that voluntary change? Just hoping to be your own boss kind of thing?

I've heard the "5 career changes" stat before. I haven't gotten there yet, but it's mostly because of 30 years in one line of work being interspersed with others. The most recent change has been more of circumstance than deliberate change, and it hasn't been long enough to say whether it's been worthwhile. I haven't noticed any identity change, but certain lifestyle changes have become necessary.

That had to be rough. My is early, considering. I've been working in this position with this being several years in, but under 10.

Excellent topic. I used to work customer service for about 8 years before going into Marketing and Sales (which I have been working for about 10 years now). I loved customer service. It was safe. I knew how to relate to people, how to be polite, and how to listen to their needs. Then, in one year, I got married and had my first child, and my customer service job was beginning to downsize. My former spouse was never particularly good at maintaining employment, so I knew I had to get some kind of replacement job fast to support us. And that's when I saw it...the Sales job ad.

The thought terrified the sh*t out of me, that I was going to become one of those door-to-door, desperate sales professionals, who basically pushed people into buying stuff they didn't need. I felt I had no skills to go into the field. I was (am) shy. I tend to be introverted. I don't like bothering people. I hate traditional salespeople. But my family needed me to buck up, and the company was desperately looking for new sales people.

I fucking hated it. It was telemarketing, the worst kind of sales. I went to work, miserable for about a month. I cried at home (alone, so no one worried). I kept being told by managers to be more aggressive, which just wasn't me.

Then one day, I found my niche. Most salespeople don't have the benefit of coming from a lengthy customer service background, and have forgotten how consumers hate to be talked to. I started talking to people, and listening to them just how I did as a customer service agent. The universal thing in both fields was the fact that people want to know that you're really listening to them. If they don't want to be sold something, no sales pitch in the world is going to get them to buy. The prospect is investing in you, your personality, as an ambassador of sorts for the company seeking to do business with them (i.e. take their money). My style, which all my subsequent employers have complimented me on, is to actively and sincerely listen, to show care and concern for their situation (as you would in customer service), while seeking opportunities in the conversation to show them why what product/service you are offering is a superior value (based on what they care about, not what the company thinks is a good 'selling point'). They say they can tell that the people I talk to really liked talking to me, because I seemed to care, regardless of whether they wanted to buy anything.

I went from bottom-ranking sales person, to a consistently high producer. My career change helped bring out my stronger traits, helped me put away my shyness when I needed to, helped me show companies how to better present their goods and services in ways that won't get them tuned out. It has helped me become a more effective communicator, which is urgently necessary in today's busy marketplace. I went from selling consumer banking products, to helping tech companies get their foot in the door at multimillion dollar companies. People are all the same, and want to be listened to, and interacted with, not just 'sold' to. I am paid handsomely for my work, and could not see myself in another profession, where once I was terrified. My career change brought out a new confidence that I would need to call upon to actively change and eliminate bad things from my life, while seeking ways to improve it. It has also provided me greater financial stability than I would have ever had staying in my previous field.

Great, thought-provoking topic 😀

So it sounds to me like as long as you retained and applied the skills you've already learned in OTHER positions, it can be completely applicable to new jobs? (At least for your position.) I'm glad it ended up working out for you. Do you foresee yourself now sticking with this new line of work once you found a way to make it work for you? It seems as though now you're incredibly happy with the change and where you are.

I think it all depends on the kindness or assholeness of your new co-workers/management.

You could have a satisfying to you job, but if the manager is a bully/has a raging ego/does stuff to make your job harder/talks and looks down on you, it's hell.
If your co-workers are evil, hateful, don't teach you anything, back stab you, gossip about you, it's hell as well.

On the other hand, you could work a substandard job, but if your co-workers and boss are wonderful, it's great.

This is true too. I can cite some of my favorite jobs being ones where my co-workers were awesome. At this point though, where I'm looking at is the job itself. Will I enjoy the tasks I will have to complete in the new line of work and find them as internally satisfying as the old one? That's what I have to ask myself as I work through carefully where I go in mental health.

Every "career transition" in my life has been involuntary. One way or the other, I've always wound up invalidating myself from whatever job I've had most of the time without even realizing it. It's hard to contest that it's always been my fault, but it's equally hard to contest that intention has never been a part of it.

It's no secret that the American education system is a shell of what it was because for most of its history, it was geared towards occupational training; when the jobs its was prepping for left the country in the 1970s, the occupational training was purged from the curriculum and transferred to the college system, where it could take advantage of the increasing college attendance to gouge students for the rights to what had previously been free. All that was left for high school was the hollow elective courses that yielded no practical results. Unfortunately, I was one of countless millions of students who suffered for this. I suspected something was wrong by 1991, but my father was insistent that I treat high school with the same reverence as he did--despite the galactic changes having occurred between 1952 and 1991--and would brook no argument. So because I was never encouraged to act autonomously in education, I never took control of it. Untreated autism and sleep apnea did the rest of the damage.

That's something that kids today won't recognize: that until they were born, most people were taught to file through the system and let IT take care of THEM.

Because I only qualified for retail as a teenager, I flitted from one video store to the other. Because I graduated college literally months before 9/11, and all of my education was in liberal arts and specialized vocational training (i.e. film), I had NO qualifications for ANY technical vocation in a post-9/11 economy. I spent the rest of the decade feeling like an abject failure and operating under the grossly misinformed and self-pitying delusion that going back to school meant abandoning everything I had previously worked for. By the time I woke up and decided to get into an Associates Degree curriculum, it was 2007 and the economy coded. What was supposed to be a nice, easy reboot for myself had been hijacked into an uber-competitive Run on the Academy by thousands of unemployed people looking to expand their credentials. By the time I got my sleep apnea under control, I had already gone through the prerequisites twice and realized that my grades wouldn't hold up to the cutthroat competition and I dropped out.

So as a result, I've been gravitating from one retail position to the other since 1996. Filmmaking has gone from being a solid craftsmanlike job worth millions to a ghetto divided between billion-dollar tentpoles and micro-budget indies with no middle-range films in-between. And with atrocious math skills and no business sense, I've had to begin learning entrepreneurial thinking in order to restart it. My old safeties--video stores--have become extinct and I've been ousted from one retail job to the next because my direct and needs-only approach to life is at odds with the aggressive upgrade-oriented business interests of a consumer economy. Every time I get fired its because I can't sell as hard or because my personality doesn't have the "sheen" of a Stepford Wife. Only in 2011 have I managed to get out of retail...into janitorial. Manual labor 10 years after my body had the resilience to deal with it.

My whole life I've just wanted an easy, non-competitive relaxing job that paid some decent coin and was enjoyable to do. But with video stores gone the way of the Dodo, and porn being more liberating but just as stressful as a corporate job, it is apparently not to be. This is one of the many reasons I'm nostalgic for the '90s, when such a thing was possible.

I'd love nothing better than to go back to 1990 and re-do my life with a 20 year head start on The Lesser Depression knowing what I know now (investing in Google, Netflix, Apple, and Twitter would be on MY priority list), but I can't. So now I'm playing catch-up in an economy I wasn't trained for with almost all my chances exhausted and an age where I'm growing closer and closer to losing my employment viability. Adding insult to injury is that I've now grown out of the exuberant idealism of youth and lost most of my creativity and zest for living and replaced it with a defeatist calculation for improbable likelihood for success.

And THAT little bitchfest is my experience.

Hindsight is always 20/20. :/ I'm at the tail end of paying off my student loans from my go-around at college. It sucks to have to think of diving back into that again and having to re-pay things off. I wish they had more tuition aid. To me? One of the sole purposes of college is to prepare you for a career in which to support yourself. But when you spend the first 10 years of your employment (or MORE for a lot of people) using the money you earn to support yourself paying off that experience, it's kind of...bullshit.

 

[myth77]

So it sounds to me like as long as you retained and applied the skills you've already learned in OTHER positions, it can be completely applicable to new jobs? (At least for your position.) I'm glad it ended up working out for you. Do you foresee yourself now sticking with this new line of work once you found a way to make it work for you? It seems as though now you're incredibly happy with the change and where you are.

In my case, my acquired skills crossed over, which may not apply to every career change. However, I do think fundamental things you learn, or discover about yourself and your work strengths can be carried over into any new field (even if it's just that you learned how to work well with different people).

As far as sticking with this field...it pays the bills, and I actually started working with a new company that I really like. I am a contractor, so the flexibility is unmatched. It is a field I can always find work in (I've literally put in resumes with B2B companies, and had interviews within hours of posting my resume. More than one company has actually hired me the same day). There is always a demand to help get businesses more business. It will probably always be my day job. But while I work it, I apply all of my acquired skills from every type of job I've had towards running my arts organization. I discovered that everything I've learned thus far through work, has put me in a fantastic position to effectively manage my own organization, which I spend an equal amount of time building, as I do working my regular job.

I still can't say I love my profession, but I like enough about it that I can stick with it and be content, while I pursue my other business dreams. The paycheck does help to reinforce how smart a career choice it is 😀

 

[maniactickler]

Blackestlily, i voluntarily left because i didnt want to punch a clock every day for the rest of my life. it was a boring job. i had done painting with my father for years on the side, so i had a base to start with. noone thought i could do it, because i wasnt a good talker or aggressive. it took me some years to build up a customer base. i had to do crappy temp jobs to survive, but i ended up making it. as i said, i love my job, but not as much as i love you.

 

[Flatfoot]

Back in late 2007, I transitioned out of the Marine Corps. Aside from my part-time job at Michaels (which was pretty much just for fun after my real job), I had no real civilian job experience. I was nervous about the transition, since I also kind of identified with my work (They don't use the slogan "the change is forever" for nothing!), and I also didn't know where to focus my job-hunting efforts. In the Marine Corps, I had an electronics background, but no degree, which, in my mind, closed a lot of doors for me. Either that, or the jobs required mechanical knowledge, as well, of which I had no background. I had no idea how I was going to feel about not having to put on a neatly pressed uniform, do physical training three days out of the week, and having a fresh haircut every week. For eight years following high school, that was all I did.

I ended up working in the armored car industry. It doesn't pay very well, but I enjoy the work. Though the standards are nowhere near as stringent, I still have to maintain a moderately professional appearance (I take pride in having a professional presence.), and I get to carry a firearm to protect myself (It may sound silly, but that's a huge perk for me. Not many jobs allow employees to carry, and I have no desire to be a police officer.)! 😀 When I initially started working with my company, I figured I'd stick it out until either I was in the grave, I got fired, or something better came along. A significant life-changing event caused me to enroll in school, once I found out the GI Bill would help pay my mortgage. I decided to focus on a degree in the finance industry, since my job ties into money, and I figured it might help me either move up in my company, or move towards a better job at a bank. Then, during my classes, a required class on real estate investing gave me the real estate bug. I'm now dual-majoring to learn finance and real estate. I not only wanna learn how to work for the banking industry, I also want to learn everything I can about making money work for me, whether it's through real estate, stocks, foreign currency, or any other potentially lucrative investments.

I figure that no matter what job I do, my financial future is ultimately my responsibility (Keep that in mind! ANYBODY can invest!). I want to increase my financial survivability so that I can continue doing my job just for fun, without having to rely on it. From my experience, many jobs become more fun when you don't NEED one to get by, and you're not living paycheck to paycheck. If I can get others to foot the bill through investments so that I have more time to relax, I'm all for it, because if there's one complaint I have about my job, it's the level of hours required to get everything done. This severely impacts the quality of life/time spent with family (not just with me, but I see it with coworkers, too.). I've spent more hours with this job than I've ever dealt with while in the military.

 

[Sandrock74]

I've had a few career changes already, myself. I started my first ever career in the newspaper business when I turned 21. I literally worked my way up the ranks from a part-time District Manager all the way up to Cirulation Director. I spent six years there, learning everything, getting annual raises and a few promotions, so I was the head of the department by the time I was 25. Turns out that didn't sit well with the "good ol' boys" at the top of the ladder, who didn't like that I was honest, questioning, and "hadn't paid my dues". (uh...hello, I wasn't promoting myself!)

Anyway, after six years, the laid me off just days before my birthday. This was after working me to the bone all year long, of course. I had great savings and was eligible for full unemployment benefits, so I coasted a bit by taking the remainder of the year off (October - December).

Eventually, I got a job as a Warehouse Manager for a small but growing company. It paid the same as my newspaper job (which was really nice!) and it was using many of the same things I'd learned, so it was a smooth enough transition. I worked there for three years, before I lost the job (either I was fired or quit, depending on who you ask). My boss, the owner of the company, had become a jerk over my time there and it was just a become a hostile work environment. I would dread waking up and going into work. When I walked out the door for the last time, I knew I wouldn't miss it and I've been right. Best thing I ever did was leave that place!

Of course, the economy tanked then and I felt a wee bit stupid. Oops.

I sort of bummed around for a while as I thought about what I wanted to do with myself. I didn't want a job that paid well and made me miserable, even sick. It was then that I decided to start working for myself! It was a LOT of hard work and a few lean years as I set things up, studied, and moved myself into position to where I wanted to be, but its all paying off now. I still may not continually make as much as I used to at my old jobs, but its much more important to me to be happy and healthy. (although the money is getting better)

So, I've been thru three career change-ups. I didn't have any big issues with it, as I looked at them like a challenge. I think its not a bad idea to shake things up every so often. Thats just my experience and opinion on the matter.

 

[Musicroxmysox]

Oh my love I'm going through the same thing.

All I can say personally is that every job I have held has taught me something that I have taken to the next place. A lot of the time I think that in hindsight things you didn't think were related are in some way related. I'm hoping this hypothesis continues for the upcoming changes in my future as well as yours.

 

[unclebill]

College was never for me, so I entered the commercial carpentry field after high school and its served me well for 30 years. I`ve switched companies more times than I can count. Jobs get completed, and they have no need for you, so you pack your tools and hopefully move on to the next big project with a different company. There have been years when I`ve been employed with as many as 10-12 employers. I`ve made a nice living most every year, and have built up a wonderful pension thanks to being a member of a labor union. The lack of job security can be a deal breaker for many, as the dropout rate for our apprenticeship program is more than 50%. I truly enjoy what I do, and I`ve never desired to leave.🙂

As to switching careers, my advice would be to do your homework and research not only your interest in a chosen field, but the demand. Returning to school can be very expensive....this could be one of the most important decisions of your life so think this through, and don`t be afraid to seek advice from others.

 

[Skipadeedoodah]

I've never had a major career change other than going from crappy part-time jobs I worked as a teenager to actually starting my career, but I've had some job changes, and I've hated every single one. I haven't hated the new job, I just hate the process. Even though it's something similar to what I've done, I know exactly what you mean about being a job newbie. It blows. It's anxiety-provoking and really rocks my confidence.

I just try to remind myself that when you're new, you're new. Everybody knows it. They're not going to expect you to know what you don't know. As you know, I've worked in mental health for the past 5 years, and I can tell you that I've never felt like I was expected to do anything that I found I was unable to handle. Part of that is due to training and having an open line of communication with the people who were there to answer my questions. But a really big part of that was just me. I've come to find that I have a very natural ability to do this kind of work. It comes fairly easily to me, and in situations where I thought I'd have absolutely no idea what to do, I did okay. I don't say this to pat myself on the back or brag. I say it because I know you, and you have absolutely the same level of common sense, patience and people skills (that I know you think you don't have, but you do) to be amazing in this field. You know exactly when to be nurturing and let the maternal part of your personality come out, and you know exactly when it's no bullshit time. There is virtually nothing that I learned in any training besides how to do paperwork that really and truly helped me work with the individuals. It all came from experience - watching how other people do things and deciding if I think that is or isn't the best way - and everyone's favorite: trial and error! You need to know that you're going to fuck up, and be prepared for it. I know you're a perfectionist, and you're going to be thinking, "I'm going to go in there, and I'm going to pay attention and learn everything I need to learn and do this shit right." No, you're not. Get that out of your head now. You're going to fuck up, probably a few times. If you can accept that and get comfortable with it now, it may alleviate some of your stress (probably not, because it's you, but it's worth a shot ) The problem with making mistakes isn't making the mistake, it's being discouraged or frazzled from making that mistake and then making bigger mistakes (which I've also done several times).

Bottom line, Wifey, is that you have in you exactly what it takes to be amazing at so many things. Mental health is one of them, I guarantee it. You're going to rock the shit out of any job that you take. You just have to trust yourself and know that you can and will overcome any speedbumps that you come across. Like a boss.

 

[WorkInProgress]

I've kind of drifted from job to job, and never really understood the concept of career planning until recent years. But I notice that you explicitly refer to your sense of personal identity being tied up with your career, and I strongly suggest that you not tie it too tightly. Jobs are so variable, you sense of identity must have other things holding it up. In my case, if I defined my identity by my job status now, I'd really despair, being a grossly underpaid adjunct teaching at two colleges which both involve long, out-of-the-way bus/train commutes.

 

[unit5610]

I left an awesome 22 year career in the physical sciences when I our office was closed and 30 of us were laid off, and I went back to school for an extremely different profession (city planning) that I knew absolutely nothing about, but had jobs available at the time. A threatened layoff due to lack of seniority forced me to shift within my job to emergency management, another field I was clueless about. It's taken years to slowly learn these jobs and very gradually gain respect and credibility, but with patience and hard work and a good attitude it can work out. Plus this highly various experience gives me a little more confidence that I could land something else if I get laid off again.
So overall it's been pretty good. I've been lucky to always work with great people despite very different environments, which helps. Starting over is intimidating, but its also a fresh start. I wish you the best!

 

[BlackestLily]

In my case, my acquired skills crossed over, which may not apply to every career change. However, I do think fundamental things you learn, or discover about yourself and your work strengths can be carried over into any new field (even if it's just that you learned how to work well with different people).

As far as sticking with this field...it pays the bills, and I actually started working with a new company that I really like. I am a contractor, so the flexibility is unmatched. It is a field I can always find work in (I've literally put in resumes with B2B companies, and had interviews within hours of posting my resume. More than one company has actually hired me the same day). There is always a demand to help get businesses more business. It will probably always be my day job. But while I work it, I apply all of my acquired skills from every type of job I've had towards running my arts organization. I discovered that everything I've learned thus far through work, has put me in a fantastic position to effectively manage my own organization, which I spend an equal amount of time building, as I do working my regular job.

I still can't say I love my profession, but I like enough about it that I can stick with it and be content, while I pursue my other business dreams. The paycheck does help to reinforce how smart a career choice it is 😀

You know, I've seen you mention your arts organization before but have never actually asked you about it. Is that something you're doing on the side and hoping to turn it into a career? I knew a lot of people in the art field who did that: had a day job to support their arts until they took off.

Blackestlily, i voluntarily left because i didnt want to punch a clock every day for the rest of my life. it was a boring job. i had done painting with my father for years on the side, so i had a base to start with. noone thought i could do it, because i wasnt a good talker or aggressive. it took me some years to build up a customer base. i had to do crappy temp jobs to survive, but i ended up making it. as i said, i love my job, but not as much as i love you.

Yeah, in some sense I don't blame you. I do love the interaction with coworkers and meeting new people. But I have to think being your own boss can't be beat. I better develop better non-procrastination skills first. -_-

Back in late 2007, I transitioned out of the Marine Corps. Aside from my part-time job at Michaels (which was pretty much just for fun after my real job), I had no real civilian job experience. I was nervous about the transition, since I also kind of identified with my work (They don't use the slogan "the change is forever" for nothing!), and I also didn't know where to focus my job-hunting efforts. In the Marine Corps, I had an electronics background, but no degree, which, in my mind, closed a lot of doors for me. Either that, or the jobs required mechanical knowledge, as well, of which I had no background. I had no idea how I was going to feel about not having to put on a neatly pressed uniform, do physical training three days out of the week, and having a fresh haircut every week. For eight years following high school, that was all I did.

I ended up working in the armored car industry. It doesn't pay very well, but I enjoy the work. Though the standards are nowhere near as stringent, I still have to maintain a moderately professional appearance (I take pride in having a professional presence.), and I get to carry a firearm to protect myself (It may sound silly, but that's a huge perk for me. Not many jobs allow employees to carry, and I have no desire to be a police officer.)! 😀 When I initially started working with my company, I figured I'd stick it out until either I was in the grave, I got fired, or something better came along. A significant life-changing event caused me to enroll in school, once I found out the GI Bill would help pay my mortgage. I decided to focus on a degree in the finance industry, since my job ties into money, and I figured it might help me either move up in my company, or move towards a better job at a bank. Then, during my classes, a required class on real estate investing gave me the real estate bug. I'm now dual-majoring to learn finance and real estate. I not only wanna learn how to work for the banking industry, I also want to learn everything I can about making money work for me, whether it's through real estate, stocks, foreign currency, or any other potentially lucrative investments.

I figure that no matter what job I do, my financial future is ultimately my responsibility (Keep that in mind! ANYBODY can invest!). I want to increase my financial survivability so that I can continue doing my job just for fun, without having to rely on it. From my experience, many jobs become more fun when you don't NEED one to get by, and you're not living paycheck to paycheck. If I can get others to foot the bill through investments so that I have more time to relax, I'm all for it, because if there's one complaint I have about my job, it's the level of hours required to get everything done. This severely impacts the quality of life/time spent with family (not just with me, but I see it with coworkers, too.). I've spent more hours with this job than I've ever dealt with while in the military.

Very interesting. I probably wouldn't be leaving my job right now if not for the fact that I no longer want to try to budget so stringently around my current one. As long as I get to work with people who need help in some form, I'm usually pretty happy. Now to find the pay to go with it. ><

I've had a few career changes already, myself. I started my first ever career in the newspaper business when I turned 21. I literally worked my way up the ranks from a part-time District Manager all the way up to Cirulation Director. I spent six years there, learning everything, getting annual raises and a few promotions, so I was the head of the department by the time I was 25. Turns out that didn't sit well with the "good ol' boys" at the top of the ladder, who didn't like that I was honest, questioning, and "hadn't paid my dues". (uh...hello, I wasn't promoting myself!)

Anyway, after six years, the laid me off just days before my birthday. This was after working me to the bone all year long, of course. I had great savings and was eligible for full unemployment benefits, so I coasted a bit by taking the remainder of the year off (October - December).

Eventually, I got a job as a Warehouse Manager for a small but growing company. It paid the same as my newspaper job (which was really nice!) and it was using many of the same things I'd learned, so it was a smooth enough transition. I worked there for three years, before I lost the job (either I was fired or quit, depending on who you ask). My boss, the owner of the company, had become a jerk over my time there and it was just a become a hostile work environment. I would dread waking up and going into work. When I walked out the door for the last time, I knew I wouldn't miss it and I've been right. Best thing I ever did was leave that place!

Of course, the economy tanked then and I felt a wee bit stupid. Oops.

I sort of bummed around for a while as I thought about what I wanted to do with myself. I didn't want a job that paid well and made me miserable, even sick. It was then that I decided to start working for myself! It was a LOT of hard work and a few lean years as I set things up, studied, and moved myself into position to where I wanted to be, but its all paying off now. I still may not continually make as much as I used to at my old jobs, but its much more important to me to be happy and healthy. (although the money is getting better)

So, I've been thru three career change-ups. I didn't have any big issues with it, as I looked at them like a challenge. I think its not a bad idea to shake things up every so often. Thats just my experience and opinion on the matter.

I remember you being at my apartment before and us talking about your various transitions. I always thought what you've been through was really interesting because you seem to be able to just pick something up and run with it. I'm afraid of NOT being able to do that. LOL I do really admire that you went for your passion and made it work.

Oh my love I'm going through the same thing.

All I can say personally is that every job I have held has taught me something that I have taken to the next place. A lot of the time I think that in hindsight things you didn't think were related are in some way related. I'm hoping this hypothesis continues for the upcoming changes in my future as well as yours.

We will have to talk more thoroughly about this in some other venue. (Phone perhaps...?) I didn't know you were going through a transition too!

College was never for me, so I entered the commercial carpentry field after high school and its served me well for 30 years. I`ve switched companies more times than I can count. Jobs get completed, and they have no need for you, so you pack your tools and hopefully move on to the next big project with a different company. There have been years when I`ve been employed with as many as 10-12 employers. I`ve made a nice living most every year, and have built up a wonderful pension thanks to being a member of a labor union. The lack of job security can be a deal breaker for many, as the dropout rate for our apprenticeship program is more than 50%. I truly enjoy what I do, and I`ve never desired to leave.🙂

As to switching careers, my advice would be to do your homework and research not only your interest in a chosen field, but the demand. Returning to school can be very expensive....this could be one of the most important decisions of your life so think this through, and don`t be afraid to seek advice from others.

That is excellent advice. I'm going to be writing to the CMH Coordinator of a nearby city and telling her what I'm looking for and finding out what her best advice would be for how to pursue it, and in a less expensive and quicker fashion than dealing with the b.s. in a counselors office at a college who rarely knows the proper way to go about things.

I've never had a major career change other than going from crappy part-time jobs I worked as a teenager to actually starting my career, but I've had some job changes, and I've hated every single one. I haven't hated the new job, I just hate the process. Even though it's something similar to what I've done, I know exactly what you mean about being a job newbie. It blows. It's anxiety-provoking and really rocks my confidence.

I just try to remind myself that when you're new, you're new. Everybody knows it. They're not going to expect you to know what you don't know. As you know, I've worked in mental health for the past 5 years, and I can tell you that I've never felt like I was expected to do anything that I found I was unable to handle. Part of that is due to training and having an open line of communication with the people who were there to answer my questions. But a really big part of that was just me. I've come to find that I have a very natural ability to do this kind of work. It comes fairly easily to me, and in situations where I thought I'd have absolutely no idea what to do, I did okay. I don't say this to pat myself on the back or brag. I say it because I know you, and you have absolutely the same level of common sense, patience and people skills (that I know you think you don't have, but you do) to be amazing in this field. You know exactly when to be nurturing and let the maternal part of your personality come out, and you know exactly when it's no bullshit time. There is virtually nothing that I learned in any training besides how to do paperwork that really and truly helped me work with the individuals. It all came from experience - watching how other people do things and deciding if I think that is or isn't the best way - and everyone's favorite: trial and error! You need to know that you're going to fuck up, and be prepared for it. I know you're a perfectionist, and you're going to be thinking, "I'm going to go in there, and I'm going to pay attention and learn everything I need to learn and do this shit right." No, you're not. Get that out of your head now. You're going to fuck up, probably a few times. If you can accept that and get comfortable with it now, it may alleviate some of your stress (probably not, because it's you, but it's worth a shot ) The problem with making mistakes isn't making the mistake, it's being discouraged or frazzled from making that mistake and then making bigger mistakes (which I've also done several times).

Bottom line, Wifey, is that you have in you exactly what it takes to be amazing at so many things. Mental health is one of them, I guarantee it. You're going to rock the shit out of any job that you take. You just have to trust yourself and know that you can and will overcome any speedbumps that you come across. Like a boss.

You know me so well...ROTFL

Thank you my wife, very sound advice. Believe it or not, you were actually my inspiration to even consider going into this. Once I tried it with that job I've told you about, I know this is definitely my kind of field.

I've kind of drifted from job to job, and never really understood the concept of career planning until recent years. But I notice that you explicitly refer to your sense of personal identity being tied up with your career, and I strongly suggest that you not tie it too tightly. Jobs are so variable, you sense of identity must have other things holding it up. In my case, if I defined my identity by my job status now, I'd really despair, being a grossly underpaid adjunct teaching at two colleges which both involve long, out-of-the-way bus/train commutes.

I wouldn't say my identity is tied in terms of status, but I feel like my job now is definitely "for me". Unlike other jobs I've held, I have new ideas everyday for how to do better, how to make the environment better, and generally how to give the people I work with an amazing experience. (This totally sounds like prostitution at a massage parlor...I swear it's not.) I KNOW I'm successful at this job, and my "identity" likes that. Until I'm submerged fully into the mental health field, I can't KNOW it will be the same experience...which I guess is what scares me a bit.

I left an awesome 22 year career in the physical sciences when I our office was closed and 30 of us were laid off, and I went back to school for an extremely different profession (city planning) that I knew absolutely nothing about, but had jobs available at the time. A threatened layoff due to lack of seniority forced me to shift within my job to emergency management, another field I was clueless about. It's taken years to slowly learn these jobs and very gradually gain respect and credibility, but with patience and hard work and a good attitude it can work out. Plus this highly various experience gives me a little more confidence that I could land something else if I get laid off again.
So overall it's been pretty good. I've been lucky to always work with great people despite very different environments, which helps. Starting over is intimidating, but its also a fresh start. I wish you the best!

Thanks for sharing your experience, and thank you! I will take all the good luck wishes I can get. LOL

 

[myth77]

You know, I've seen you mention your arts organization before but have never actually asked you about it. Is that something you're doing on the side and hoping to turn it into a career? I knew a lot of people in the art field who did that: had a day job to support their arts until they took off.

Thank you for asking, Love . Right now, I have to spend as much time working on the organization as I do my regular job, but I still consider it a side-venture. Because I love it, I don't mind that it doesn't surpass my day job in terms of income. The goal of the organization is to promote the Arts and other artists, and to utilize at least 50% of the revenues from things like art sales and events to raise money for charities, Homeless organizations in particular. I have to maintain relationships with other artists from around the world, partner up with the right charities to raise money for (so far, there are 3 homeless charities officially, and 2 more in early planning stages), and I have to run 4 online art shops (there is a main art shop with lots of classic work, and 3 city-themed art shops to raise money for the charities in the cities my organization has partnered with). I also get to buy art supplies to support the arts therapy programs these charities have set up to help their homeless clients heal and express themselves (which I love shopping for 😀).

At some point, I do see this growing to a place where lots of money is raised, but honestly, I want most of the financial resources coming in from it to go towards the charities, so I will keep my day job unless I absolutely can't manage both at some point in the future. My day job helps me stay connected with business and marketing developments that I can apply towards my work with my organization, so it is a good arrangement.

 

[kurchatovium]

Life is not always a straight path.

I got my doctorate in Organic Chemistry and spent 7 months doing military research for small explosives company. Safety issues forced me to leave there and eventually I found a job as a protein chemist doing research in the medical field and stayed there for 14 years. Sadly a mixture of FDA regulations, the fact that I had no chance of ever moving up in the company, and that my mom and dad needed help in taking care of themselves forced me to leave and pursue making money at home. That was a hard decision because I loved doing chemistry research but it was clear that my future lied elsewhere. So I decided to pursue a career in Web Design and Graphic Arts. A major career shift but one that does allow to take care of my folks and pursue money making opportunities.