Current Events > Anyone ever done a career change? Advice?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I am a currently unemployed software engineer/web developer with about 2.5 years of professional experience. I quit my most recent job at the beginning of March (long story short they weren't paying me).

This is now be my third stint of unemployment since graduating in 2016 (laid off from first two jobs out of college) and job searching as an engineer has not been a fun experience (I am fucking horrible at technical interviews). Overall my experience working in the industry has been pretty miserable as well and now I find myself contemplating a career change. It doesn't help that anyone in my field appears to be hiring atm, was supposed to have an interview today and the company postponed it saying they were instituting a hiring freeze.

Money is not an issue for the forseeable future, so I am okay with seeking an industry/career with less pay (but is anyone else even hiring either?). What should I do?

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Some labour jobs are usually hiring. Army, cops, nurses, construction, carpenter, etc.

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I've been thinking about it for the last 6 months or so. Dunno what else to do.

Can't do it with the current circumstances anyway.

Vengeance29 posted...

I've been thinking about it for the last 6 months or so. Dunno what else to do.

Can't do it with the current circumstances anyway.

whats your industry?

I went from engineering to sales about 4.5 years ago. Bumped my salary up by $80k

Have you thought about what you want to do? Maybe become a PM? Do you have a CS degree?

first step is to figure out what you actually want to do, or at least are interested in

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Cleo_II posted...

I went from engineering to sales about 4.5 years ago. Bumped my salary up by $80k

Have you thought about what you want to do? Maybe become a PM? Do you have a CS degree?

sales is not for everyone.

it only works if youre either a frat boy with a lot of connections, a good old boy with a lot of connections (so, an aged frat boy) or a woman that flaunts her (covered) boobs during meetings, else meeting your quota is really hard

You chose the worst time to quit. Economy is about to contract like never before. Sincerely hope you stocked some dough away for a rainy day.

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Cleo_II posted...

I went from engineering to sales about 4.5 years ago. Bumped my salary up by $80k

Have you thought about what you want to do? Maybe become a PM? Do you have a CS degree?

I do have a CS degree, I don't think I'd enjoy being a PM much either but idk. I think more than anything I wanna just get as far from tech as possible.

Romulox28 posted...

first step is to figure out what you actually want to do, or at least are interested in

One field that does kinda interest me is urban planning. Given the above I have zero relevant experience or formal education in the field, i've considered looking for intern or entry level opportunities, would this even be a good time to be doing that before things are a little more stable?

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You could probably do urban planning, can you do anything with gis?

I think a lot of jobs in the field night ultimately require some kind of additional formal education or certification to get into but I'm not entirely sure

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Use your money to go back to school

Undergrad in biology

then Lepidopterology as a focus in grad school

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onedarksoul posted...

You chose the worst time to quit. Economy is about to contract like never before. Sincerely hope you stocked some dough away for a rainy day.

I know that. My hands felt kinda tied because they were behind like 2 months paying me and then they wrote me a bad check. THankfully I got all that sorted and between that and unemployment money is not an issue (also in the process of moving to a significantly cheaper apartment as well)

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I made a career change last summer, but it was into a career that I was passionate about, not one recommended to me by people on gamefaqs dot com

so Id suggest first you figure out what you actually want to do

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yeah I just changed from one field to a vaguely related field -- I was in biology, then switched to emergency medicine, and that segued into mountain guiding work

my advice is people are going to say "that's not a job"/"you won't make enough money"/"it's very competitive or really hard to get into" and they're absolutely full of shit

So what if you have to be low on the totem pole for a year? So what if you make 40k instead of 60k but it's your dream job? You do you. So what if you FAIL and have to move in with parents or go on unemployment? You just fucking try again. People were so pessimistic in my experience

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I hear you TC. I decided to be a pilot on a whim, almost. I'm having a blast and my checkride for my Private Pilot Certificate is next week. It should be the beginning of a long journey.

Oh, and I'm 38 with a BBA, but I never really found a job that I enjoyed that payed well. I currently make a little over 40K and my Wife makes over twice that doing Sales admin work for a large company.

The_Bitcoin posted...

sales is not for everyone.

it only works if youre either a frat boy with a lot of connections, a good old boy with a lot of connections (so, an aged frat boy) or a woman that flaunts her (covered) boobs during meetings, else meeting your quota is really hard

I dont fit with any of those. I have an engineering degree and I do well since its tech related, I can talk shop with clients and gain their trust very well. I never said sales is for everyone or suggested it to TC. So you can sit down now.

Network engineering is very complex, but not hard to do. Takes a lot of studying and you have to keep your knowledge up to date, but if you really commit to it, it's a great career.

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Cleo_II posted...

I dont fit with any of those. I have an engineering degree and I do well since its tech related, I can talk shop with clients and gain their trust very well. I never said sales is for everyone or suggested it to TC. So you can sit down now.

why do you take it personal? Its not like youre in sales, or have lots of connections, or are a girl, so why are you mad?

and even if you were I didnt mean it as an offense to you, so take your own advice and back off lol