Current Events > Have you ever made a drastic career change?

(+) Yeah! (+)

What was the change and how did you do it

I worked in a hospital
I quit
Now I work in a plant for ExxonMobil

I love it

I've been in carpentry, factory work, printing, drug rehab centers, photography, data management, chemical distribution and a bunch of others that I'm forgetting. I've never loved what I do, but if I'm comfortable at a place I can still enjoy myself. That's really all that I need.

Generally, I'd just apply for entry level stuff to get my foot in the door and quickly work my way up because I like to learn. At this point I'm a fairly generic executive, which makes it easier to make a lateral move to another company. My selling point is that I've worked at so many places, that I have a good idea of what works and what doesn't.

Just apply for stuff and see if you get any bites. It's sometimes demoralizing, but it works.

I went from insurance sales and home loans to IT, but the actual switch just came via luck, really.

I was a licensed life insurance salesman and loan officer in Texas, but I hated it. I made 1 sale in 2 years. I ended up getting an ISP tech support job because I needed something with a stable income and was hopping from job to job in search of something that wasn't absolutely miserable.

ISP tech support ended up being pretty miserable, but I was pretty good at it. A few years later, I moved to a desktop tech support job. About a year and a half later, I got a job at a network operations center. From there, I finally got serious about studying for Cisco certs and I became a network engineer.

I had a crappy 37 hours job a week. Then I was offered a 20 hours job a week. Making about the same money. Headhunting rules. LOL

Im considering one right now. Not super drastic, same industry I guess, but Im currently pretty high up and super involved in everything that happens. I lead a team of about 200 and am known industry wide for what we are doing. Makes me feel good when we accomplish things but Im essentially always working and that hasnt been great for my health, life, or family.

Considering taking a role with much less responsibility and a crazy good work schedule. I would go from like 60 hours a week to less than ten. The major draw back is its less money (around 150 so still decent though) and it would be really hard to advance from there. Its appealing but Im not sure Im ready to mail it in yet.

whitelytning posted...

Im considering one right now. Not super drastic, same industry I guess, but Im currently pretty high up and super involved in everything that happens. I lead a team of about 200 and am known industry wide for what we are doing. Makes me feel good when we accomplish things but Im essentially always working and that hasnt been great for my health, life, or family.

Considering taking a role with much less responsibility and a crazy good work schedule. I would go from like 60 hours a week to less than ten. The major draw back is its less money (around 150 so still decent though) and it would be really hard to advance from there. Its appealing but Im not sure Im ready to mail it in yet.

150k a year? Less than ten hours a week? Does not compute

AlCalavicci posted...

150k a year? Less than ten hours a week? Does not compute

Yup. I would essentially just stay available and be on call for when things came up.