Anyone change careers?

Winona · Mar 29, 2020

So, looking for real life stories as I re-examine my career choice and help my kids choose. Has anyone drastically changed careers? What career did you have and then change to and why? Any regrets?

I was a veterinary technician and worked at both animal hospitals and a zoo. It was a lot of fun, but very little $. I then went into nursing and became a nurse practitioner. I do like my job and love the $, but my love is still animals and nature and feel I have very little time for either. I hate sitting in an office all day and my back is feeling the effects. Looking to retire early.

dxqcanada · Mar 29, 2020

I started working a a Camera store in my late teens after leaving High School. I never made it to University due to life choices that I erroneously made, so I never did pursue the goals that I had laid out for myself.
I landed a job as a salesperson for a camera store. I worked for that photo company for 10+ years, and eventually made it up the chain to managing one of their prime stores ... but this is not what I liked to do, as I was best (and happiest) in product procurement ... it was the money that made me do it. Anyway, I got tired of managing people so I fired myself ... I told them I wanted to be demoted to a part-time salesperson.
I went back to school part-time to study computer programming ... which was something I was doing at school before all of this (and also was still playing around with at home). I did land a job doing technical support for a network/communication hardware manufacturer ... and I still work for them today (though not doing exactly that job).
Again I did go up the money chain and work for the Sales group, but I am not happy with that ... my best (happiest) skills are in "fixing" things, physical or logical. I am lucky that due to my experience, I do enough work with our Engineering group to keep me staying.
I am too old to change again ... but I would go sideways, if given the opportunity.

An interesting point ... after I started working in Tech Support the camera company offered me a job as their Buyer, which I turned down as it did not pay as much as I was making and also I knew that the end of the "Camera Store" era was over (due to the rise of digital and ecommerce).

Original katomi · Mar 29, 2020

I left school determined not to follow the family tradition of plasterers went into marine engineering making tanks rails for leasure yachts the collapse in the late 70s saw me go into the building trade and yep become 3 rd gen plasterer. Went on to become site manager 80s collapse saw me become humble stores man at well known fridge maker, that folded. Plus lots of odd jobs in between these finally became school caretaker from which I was retired
So yep a lot of changes, loved some like working with dad and g dad hated others stores man
took all the different skills into school caretaker, had 20 years of good days hard days wet and cold days but loved the job

480sparky · Mar 29, 2020

I started out as a photographer. Got sick of the rat race. Reinvented myself in the construction trade and have been an electrician for 31 years now. Now using a camera is a joy, not a job.

Original katomi · Mar 29, 2020

Hiya sparks, I was one of the “nice” chaps that filled all your wall boxes and cut off the tails that you left too long
As a caretaker I did not do gas or electric had to go on a local gov course to get a “ticket” to wire a plug and change a fuse, and the rule for working out what size fuse to use

Winona · Mar 29, 2020

Interesting stories!

Designer · Mar 29, 2020

Don't do it like I did. I've had so many different jobs, and changed "careers" more times than I'd like to admit. Got me exactly nowhere.

480sparky · Mar 29, 2020

Original katomi said:
Hiya sparks, I was one of the “nice” chaps that filled all your wall boxes and cut off the tails that you left too long........

I won't tell you what I did to your boxes of screws then..... :eyebrows:

SquarePeg · Mar 29, 2020

When I was young I bounced around a lot. Bartender, waitress, RMV clerk(!), office temp, mortgage processor... At age 30 a friend got me a job in a customer service call center at a communications company. I worked my way up and I’ve been there 25 years. Went back to school nights and got my degree, which they paid for. About 10 years ago I started thinking about what do I WANT to do? Mid life crisis maybe? I really had no idea. My work is not world changing but the pay and benefits are top notch, the people are great and I work from home.

Being a single parent, I decided to forego a job that was personally “fulfilling” in favor of financial stability and security for myself and my daughter. No regrets. I have plenty of joy in my personal life and from my hobbies.

hokies2379 · Mar 29, 2020

Went from retail to banking. Managed branches for years. Finally built up enough photography business to match my bank income if I went full time.....that was January 2020. Unfortunately it appears I'll be going back to banking after two really, really good months.

Winona · Apr 11, 2020

Thanks for all the stories and info. Hokies-sorry about the photography business. Hope it restarts after all this is over.

snowbear · Apr 11, 2020

Serious jobs: Police Dispatcher -> Police Dispatcher/Clerk (part-time at community college) -> Programmer/Systems Analyst (COBOL, 9-1-1 support, and some PBX work) -> IT Coordinator (account rep for internal government agencies) -> Systems Support manager (9-1-1 again but it didn't work out well) -> Background Investigator (duty assignment) -> Retirement / college student -> GIS Intern (NOAA then local Fire/EMS Department) -> Contracted GIS Developer (Geo-spatial Analyst / Cartographer).

With the exception of NOAA and the ten months at the community college, all have been with the same county government, though different agencies. I want my next career (I refuse to fully "retire") to be in the visual/fine arts, unless I drop dead while at this job; then I plan to be the office poltergeist.

pendennis · Apr 11, 2020

I started out in accounting. My first job was with the finance department in a large southern city. I worked there a couple of years, and then went to work for a major auto manufacturer, also in accounting. However, I'd had courses in systems, data processing and programming in business college, so I used those skills to practice in accounting systems, a kind of hybrid area. When we got word in 1982, that all plant accounting would be ended, I took the opportunity to take those skills and accepted a position transitioning from pure mainframe processing to programming accounting applications onto central mainframes, the original "cloud computing". I then worked on transitioning some of our applications to the personal computer, then a blend of mainframe and personal computing, and finally moving to servers, with mainframes being used less and less. During our initial transition in 1982, I had the opportunity to visit every assembly plant in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, to gather information on our centralization.

In the end, I did away with my job in accounting and took a position in infrastructure support in IT. First, I handled server and network administration; then I took on the job of supplying our building's customers with 1400 new PC's, servers, and fiber optic networks; later I moved over to building and site management. I finally moved into project management, earning my national project managment certification, and ending up in program management, as a manager for world-wide infrastructure projects. And along the way, the infrastructure management, knowing I had an accounting background, always managed to snag me for special projects, since I was one of the few in IT who could analyze departmental ledgers - Once an accountant...

I really had a great career, and loved everywhere I worked. The most important thing though, were the people, and the friendships I made over 40 years.