Changing Careers. Have you Done It ?

LeagueOfWolf

Has anyone had a full and hearty career and decided to random change paths?

If so what did you do and what do you do now?
What drove you to change paths? How did you do it?
Do you regret it? Or are you happy
Was it difficult? Did you require extra training?

I am in 2 minds at the moment.
I can either continue my career in design as I do love it but I also do it in my spare time. They say turning your passion into a career will destroy the passion. It's been good so far but I can feel myself burning out in the next 5 years lol.

I either want to go into programming OR go into UX product design but both I would need to brush up skillset and do a course, self-learning, time and dedication.
I'm not sure whether I should continue in my career and do this stuff on the side. If I revert back to a Junior position in those other roles my salary would stay the same as they pay more so that is not an issue. I just feel like I only have one life to live and I want to try out these other careers instead of thinking what if? But there are 2 options. Should I just go for it and try for one and see how that goes? Is this a millennial issue of job/skill greed that I am having. i.e the grass is always greener issue..???

Any advice???

fishybusiness

Did it years ago - when I was 35, I'm 50 now.

Left a salaried/pensioned job as I had been there since 16 yrs old and was desperate for more. Everyone said the safety of the job was worth more than 'fun' or change.

Tried another career, wasn't for me in the end, so carried on going forwards.

I'll be honest I was skint for years, watching the pennies and at times wished I hadn't jumped ship. It has come together in the last 3 years for various reasons, but I didn't every imagine I would be where I am now.

Training? Yes, quite a bit, some I received off the back of voluntary work, some I paid for.

I see it as a journey of discovery, a tough one for me, I don't regret it, I wish I could have predicted some of the outcomes so I could steer around them, but you know that is the journey.

Anything you do as your main income will have to be a business, and running a business isn't necessarily easy, it can be time consuming and overbearing at times. Perhaps that is what can take away the passion?

I think advice wise, only you will know if and when you will want a change, you may at that point jump or slowly migrate, which is a bit safer, and gives you a chance to backtrack.

LeagueOfWolf

When you carried on forward did you continue within the new path you took or did you backtrack or did you just kind of step over it and go in another direction? Was it COMPLETELY diffrent to what you was doing or did you have transferable skills?

It's good to hear you don't regret it otherwise I guess you'd regret your life decision which is a toughie to accept xD

Im scared because I love what I do and I'd be giving up something I already like in search for something I could love. Bits of these other career are incorporated into my current role but only snippets so I dont know whether this is making me enjoy it because it's not full on ?

Deep_In_Debt

I left a job in 2014 in an industry I'd worked in for 17 years. I'd started to hate the job and had become demotivated.
I left without another job to go to and went temping for 2 years to try different companies, different industries and job roles. I experienced a lot and loved my time temping.

I now work in healthcare recruitment having spent 17 years in Financial Services working in an admin role. I'm happy in my current role so I have no regrets at all.

trailingspouse

I've done it twice.


From leaving school, I worked in insurance. By 30 I was a Claims Negotiator with a major brokers, but I also had two kids and the cost of childcare in school holidays was crippling.



I left and became a childminder myself. Found that I enjoyed being with kids, and when my youngest started school I retrained and became a teacher.



After about 15 years I became seriously stressed and burnt out. Myself and OH were already running our own business, and so we took the decision that I would increase my role within the company (I was already doing the books) and take a salary. So I've been running a consultancy company for the last 7 years.


But - none of these major changes were 'random'.

jonnygee2

Is this a millennial issue of job/skill greed that I am having. i.e the grass is always greener issue..???

No, the grass actually is much greener in UX and programming than it is in 'design' (assuming you are in something like graphic or print design). There are big skills shortages in those fields, the opportunities rife and the salaries are crazy.

Im scared because I love what I do and I'd be giving up something I already like in search for something I could love.

It's so easy to find free or cheap programming courses online. You don't have to change your career yet - start it as a hobby and see if you enjoy doing it. Coding is quite a specific skill, you really need to enjoy doing it to work in it.

And for UX design, where do you work and do they have UX designers? (they must do! everyone does!). Can you shadow them, arrange to spend a few hours a week helping them informally, possibly leading to a part time secondment or something?

I completely switched careers not so long ago. It was a disaster, I hated it, and quickly moved back to something similar to my old role. I learned a lot about myself, though, and lost absolutely nothing.

Murphybear

I don't think it's ever too old to change jobs.

When I was in my late 30s I was stuck in a massive rut in a job I hated and it made me depressed. I left, signed on as unemployed and then went back to college for a year to update my qualifications. In those days (late 1980s) you could sign on while training if there was a skills shortage in your subject. I did extremely well on my course and as a boost to my self esteem won a prize and silver medal for the highest marks in the country . I found a lovely job working for a charity and went back to the college in the evenings to qualify to teach evening classes. I only left when I met someone and we moved out of London to buy a house together. The new skills and experience enabled me to get a brilliant job at a University.

Moral here is, go where your heart leads you.

fishybusiness

When you carried on forward did you continue within the new path you took or did you backtrack or did you just kind of step over it and go in another direction?

At times I wanted to backtrack, the security my first career gave me was missing and I wanted it back.

That's a good way to describe it - I stepped over it, I had learnt what things made me happy, and what had made me unhappy and did some brainstorming, crazy ideas I wouldn't have thought of.

Transferable skills - I am lucky really, my first job was a hands on engineering job in the aerospace world, a very broad skill set which also required budget and planning skills, I was able to utilise those skills later but had to learn to let go of the regimented way they had to be applied in my first job.

Second time around was completely different, to be honest I had fallen out with anything to do with the first job and I actively shunned anything that needed those skills. Voluntary work was the way in second time around, and I found I didn't have the patience others had, but also pay rates were dwindling as the face of the UK was changing and I decided it wasn't for me. I'm sill active in that world but only as a volunteer.

As jonny has said, I learnt alot about myself on that part of the journey, and I decided I didn't like much about being regularly skint.

So now, after all that I am gardener! One of my criteria was to be able to work outside, another was to be able to do something physcially more demanding than I was used to. I was surprised by how much knowledge I would need, and the learning has been both overwhelming and exciting. I've taken to to tree and chainsaw work, 5 years ago I wouldn't have had an insight in to any of what I do now, and I'm wanting more training to help me along the way.

I've also gone back a step or two in using skills I already had - I guess the grumbles of past work have gone.

Im scared because I love what I do and I'd be giving up something I already like in search for something I could love.

Do you do design at work and on the side? If you want a change, could you dop some of the 'on the side' work to leave space for skills update/ change and get a feel for how much you may like it - you know like dipping your toe and not risking your job at this point.

LeagueOfWolf

Ahh thank you so much for all the replies it was really inspiring and interesting to read them

none of these major changes were 'random'.

From reading it seems as though everything kind of flowed one into another even if it didn't work out no one died, went bankrupt and thrown out into the streets. I don't really know what I'm scared of. Probably the fear of failure or time wasting

I completely switched careers not so long ago. It was a disaster, I hated it, and quickly moved back to something similar to my old role. I learned a lot about myself, though, and lost absolutely nothing.

All I'm thinking now is #YOLO. I'm going to drop my freelance design work after I finish these 2 I have on at the moment and progress slowly into a new field whilst working as you mentioned @jonnygee2. It will free up time and work on my own skillset more rather than constantly working for others. I just get sucked in because I'm like oooo extra cash lol

And for UX design, where do you work and do they have UX designers? (they must do! everyone does!). Can you shadow them, arrange to spend a few hours a week helping them informally, possibly leading to a part time secondment or something?

I have a new job which I start in 2 weeks. It's different to my role but still in design I'm not sure if they have UX because as it's video advertising. They do have a strong development team but I'm scared to mention that I want to progress into it because well.. I haven't even started the job yet and they hired me for my design skills. I might wait a couple of months and mention it but I feel like its bad practise?

I love your journey @fishybusiness!! You've been super resilient and it's really cool that you went from office job to something more manual everyone talks about doing something crazy like quit and go travelleing for 2 years or to a completely diff career but not many really got the guts to actually do it. I speak to so many people in the office who want to "start their own business" but none of them have made any steps towards their dreams you guys are all so ballsy!! Well done it's inspired me xD :j

I think I know what to do now thanks everyone for sharing your stories

Brummie85

Yep. I was doing shop retail and leisure work and getting nowhere with it, so took myself back to college and started training as a Sparky. After music production, buildings and their systems were a major interest - so I chose the latter as a career path.

It was hard, The job didn't pay a lot and self-funding the 2 years of City & Guilds was a stretch. The only good thing was that the work was mostly evenings, so I could go to college during the day times.

On the advice of the tutors, I didn't do the final 2 quals to pass out as an Electrician. They told me to find someone that would take me on, give me experience and then do them. But this was during the recession and I was up against younger lads that would qualify as an apprentice. Essentially I was told that they wouldn't take me on, because they could get paid for training someone that was 2 years younger. It was a kick, but I didn't want to let my efforts of learning go to waste.

Instead, I started a HNC in Construction & The Built Environment. I completed the 1st year, but then had to stop. I ended up being taken on by an M&E contractor, but my role was mostly looking after HVAC systems. There were areas of knowledge & skill that were transferable from the classroom, which helped. I did learn a lot whilst there as well. They weren't interested in giving me any support to finish the HNC, the only qualification they gave me was the C&G to handle refrigerant gases. For almost 4 years they strung me along with promises of training, so I decided to leave last year.

I took a job looking after a factory. My current employers have had a much better attitude. They supported me (both in terms of study time and finances) to complete the HNC. There has been other training for things like confined spaces & use of MEWPs, but these are beneficial to them due to the work we do. I'm about to approach them for further training including the final quals for electrical work and I'm hopeful that they will see the benefit of allowing me to do them.

It isn't perfect. We deal with a lot of stuff that I've never had to or haven't done as much as I'd like to, which frustrates some of my more experienced colleagues at times because they know more then I do. But I learn something new almost every day and don't shy away from anything.

Compared to where I was 7/8 years ago. The pay is much better and the work is a lot more interesting. The opportunities for progression in the future and self development are there. I do have to do some night cover but it works out to maybe 40-50 days over a year which is still an improvement over working every evening & weekend.

From where I was I have come a long way. But I know there's always more to do. My long term plans are a degree in Building Services and then some recognised Project Management courses. I'm the first of our site team to finish a HNC with them, so I'm also the first to be looking at taking it further. The costs & time commitment to achieve these are making me slightly hesitant though. £9k a year (which I'd probably have to pay) for the degree and asking work to potentially lose me for another 20+ days a year for the next 2 or 3 years - It is a big ask all round.

jonnygee2

I think I know what to do now thanks everyone for sharing your stories

Good luck!

I haven't even started the job yet and they hired me for my design skills. I might wait a couple of months and mention it but I feel like its bad practise?

Not really, web/frontend design is a natural progression on from design anyway. You have visual skills, learning to code is just like learning a new tool with which to build stuff.

There's no harm in saying that you are thinking of heading into either 'UX' or coding long term.

A lot of tech companies don't even have 'UX' designers, they just have 'designers' who are expected to understand everything about design, from visual appeal to the way it interfaces with customers, and then be able to build protoypes in a frontend language.