For those who've done a major career shift...

[kragore]

how did you know it was time?
what impacted your decision?
have you regretted it?

- K. - thinking.

Comments

[elissadondain.livejournal.com]

I knew it was time when I got let go, and was unable to find another job. I was also getting to the point when going to work was a chore. I did not enjoy my job anymore. Ok I enjoyed the job just not my boss. The thing that impacted the direction that I wanted to go in, was my desire/enthusiasm for the law since I was about 10 years old. No, I have not regretted it, however, I have not actually worked in the field yet, as I am still going to school. The only thing that I miss is the people at my previous job. I still get the chance to see them every once in a while, and most of them greet me with enthusiasm. It makes me feel good.

[medievalbooks.livejournal.com]

Up til I was 30 years old, I spent most of my time career-wise working or trying to get work in the school system. I took a job in a bookshop ostensibly for a short while til I was able to secure a job in the school system. I fell in love with what I was doing - it felt "right". I didn't plan this at all. I enjoyed what I was doing and wanted to find out more about the bookselling field. That was over 20 years ago and I am still in love with what I am doing - bookselling.

Ironic thing is, a month or so after I got the job in the bookshop, was offered a job in the school system. Turned it down and took another partime position that wouldn't impact my work at the bookshop.

I am one of the lucky ones..still love my work. Altho I do warn would be booksellers - it is not a business you will get rich at!

Gwyneth

[senormysterioso.livejournal.com]

K, I realize that what I have to say may well grate against your sensibilities about how you prefer to manage your career. I urge you nonetheless to consider what I have to say on the matter before dismissing it as "not right for you".

I am going to answer your questions, but first I want to share with you an insight that I've gained over my 14+ years working in various corporate environments. The single most valuable thing for you to realize and understand is that first and foremost, all companies are in business to make money. They may have other goals as well, some perhaps even about how they treat the people who work for them and their environment, etc. But there is an immutable bottom line and when push comes to shove, making money is the one thing that allows companies to do all those other things. Mind you, some places may prefer to make LESS money in favor of more people-friendly priorities. I would wager that in the medium to large business environment, those kinds of business priorities are luxuries. In publicly-traded companies, they are almost non-existent.

So...why am I telling you this? Because I know that many people enter the job market, especially the tech-related fields, hoping that they will be mentored, shepherded, allowed time to grow and mature. Sure, these things happen. But only within the tolerances allowed by the primary goal - making money. And quite often, serving your need to grow and stretch yourself is not very high on companies' priority list.

Because of this, you have an important obligations to look out for your own career. In many ways, your obligations to yourself are inverse to those I outlined above. In most cases, one must first make enough money to survive. That much is similar to a company's goals. However, whereas a company must look out for the whole, the individual should think more on their own personal level, their own priorities. The overwhelming likelihood is that no one within any given company is actively looking out for your career on your behalf. So YOU have to steer it. You have to regularly ask yourself what you need to get out of your career. Need, not want. And you need to empower yourself to make those changes when they become necessary. I know you feel change is difficult for you. I won't be so stupid as to suggest you should learn to like it. But I urge you to consider asking yourself if said career inertia has not caused you to suffer more than was necessary. I also urge you not to make the mistake of feeling as though you have to live in the career fast lane. Your obligations in this regard should only ever be about you feeling free and empowered to make good choices for your career.

Ok, so now I think I can answer your questions and have you understand a bit about my perspective.

I know its time to leave a job when it isn't giving me what I need to thrive. My decisions in the past have not been so good on this count. I stayed in positions because it felt comfortable, easy, and predictable. I have too often allowed companies' financial difficulties to determine my course of action (which is to say, I stayed beyond the ability of my companies' to justify keeping me). I have discovered that it is easier to get a job when I already had a job because I could speak about freshly-made accomplishments easier and my skills were often more current (an important thing in the technological fields). But possibly even more important - I simply worried less about the need to have income when I interviewed while still gainfully employed. That lack of stress-induced worrying put me in a better frame of mind to do well in the interview, to be calmer, to speak from a position of forethought rather than desperation. My regrets uniformly involve not leaving sinking ships early enough before they pulled me down with them.

[kragore.livejournal.com]

I realize that companies have that bottom line. I've experienced that bottom line a few times now. It sucks, but I understand it. I am painfully aware, every single time I apply for a job, that I am a dime a dozen, and that there are 12 newly-grads who'll do the job cheaper.
I too have bottom lines, like eating and maintaining my apartment.

I've been mentored by decent people, and I've been cowed by crazy people. Though most look at my relatively young age and assume I don't have any experience, I've been professionally active in my field for close to 8 years now, and I'm tired of fighting with/for my job, (something that isn't paying the bills, and that I'm not enjoying much lately.)

I'm tired of fighting with the software I can't afford to do my job.
I'm tired of fighting with the clients and the vendors.
I'm tired of fighting with myself to sit down and design when my clients haven't paid me in months.

I guess I'm growing more frustrated and directionless, no matter which way I push professionally, and it's effecting other areas of my life, which bothers me greatly. I'm wondering if it isn't time for a change.

Like resident wombat hearder. ;)
- k.

[senormysterioso.livejournal.com]

*hug* Let me further answer the question by asking you one.

Why do you feel you shouldn't you make a change now in your career?

[kragore.livejournal.com]

Because I do have this experience, and this rather pricey (to me) piece of paper that says that's what I shall do with my life.

I don't really know anything else, (save for slinging burgers, selling t-shirts, and shoveling stalls. Oh, and a little bit of customer service in there, but nothing really documentable.)

I feel like I've committed to this path, and I should play it out. But another part of me wonders if it isn't played out, and if there's something more important I should be doing.

[medievalbooks.livejournal.com]

Can you see yourself doing what you are doing now the rest of your life?

Do you want to find a career? Or would you like to try several differnt paths just for the experience.

Cause that is the bottom line.

Gwyneth

hmm. ..

[illustrator.livejournal.com]

'm tired of fighting with the software I can't afford to do my job.
I'm tired of fighting with the clients and the vendors.
I'm tired of fighting with myself to sit down and design when my clients haven't paid me in months.

you have yet to say that you do not enjoy/are not fullfilled by the type of work you are doing. . .frustrating tech and communication issues will be found in all career paths. . .

Re: hmm. ..

[kragore.livejournal.com]

I guess I feel I should have grown beyond "I just don't like this anymore" (stomp stomp stomp pout,) and into things that I can define about why I don't like it anymore. Hense, the things I can define.

I guess it's not so much about the enjoyment, because, in a perfect senerio, when everything's going perfectly, I don't mind it. But it never goes prefectly according to plan.
I don't feel like this is where I'm supposed to be. Sounds stupid, I know, but it feel like I'm trying to jam a round peg in a square hole...

And, you know, perhaps it's not even the work. Perhaps it's all the other crap that's going on lately. But the stress has manifested it's self through work, so that's what I guess I have to take care of first.

Re: hmm. ..

[illustrator.livejournal.com]

life is more than a career.

i know you know this, but i thought it might help to read it. i think your life has gotten all out of perspective because its so all over the place.

maybe a job doing something really mundane, like answering phones or waiting tables would get you financially on your feet enough to let go of some of the stress.

when senior mysterioso mentioned that it was easier to look for a job while he had a job i think he meant while he was employed-but not necessarily in his field. i think that statement could easily be misconstrued. he was working nights at a CVS to make ends meet so he could deal with the world and not have so much pressure on the "career" part of his decisions.

maybe now is not the time to be making a major life decision. maybe its just a time to get the bills paid so you can get into a groove where you CAN be makign life decisions. . .and sure. . blah blah patience . . .i know it'd be fun to have it all figured out now, but life doesn't work that way.

have you ever seen the movie Parenthood with Steve Martin? there is a scene towards the end of the movie about rollercoasters. . .i think you are not a rollercoaster person. . .and it will make your life infinitely harder because you're not. . .rolling with the punches is something you are good at in execution. . but not at all in mental comfortablity. . .

nothing ever goes like it should. . but sometimes that opens up opportunity for growth and greatness. . .you might find more peace if you could accept that cliche "the only thing that stays the same is change"
(sorry for the uber long response!)

[measanan.livejournal.com]

*hug*

Much like Elissa, I was laid off; unlike her, I'd have needed to move just to TRY to stay in my field. My then-fiancee had moved in with me three months before and I really didn't want to move.
BUT I had gotten very tired, and perhaps a bit stale, after 8 years with the company. *ponders*
I have it from my co-worker fennel_fox that designers are *expected* to change jobs at least once a year to stay fresh.

I think senormysterioso has a good question: what DO you like about what your current career path? Do you know what an ideal job would be?

[safirasilv.livejournal.com]

I've changed careers several times--once when I moved and couldn't find a job in my old field, once when I stumbled into the Aquarium position when I was frustrated with the work I'd been doing. The most recent and probably final time was when I finally had the guts to admit that the career I'd chosen was literally making me ill and it was well past time to do the work I'd wanted to do my entire life.

Sleepless nights, anxiety-related health problems, and a creeping sense of futility were *my* clues, but it took a while to decide it was all right to take what really was (and still is) a pretty big financial risk.