So now I have to catch up on my own because the company wont do it for like 3 years, and by then i really will be obsolete! So from 10 to midnight in the evenings, after my kids are all in bed and i have some time to myself I have to self-learn php, mysql, vb.net, and a few other languages, or face having to go from Sr Programmer to Jr Programmer at a new company! aaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

But I could rant for hours on this subject, it’s been a sore spot for a while. But I know if I dont take it into my own hands, I will just end up a non hireable programmer.

@Jules Your path has some very strong similarities to my own. I too found myself in an academic program which made me miserable. Walking away seemed like failure to me at first, but in hindsight is was the smartest decision. I moved clear across the country to get away from all sources of family opinion. I wanted a huge change and went for it. I too built visual tools with magazines, newspaper clippings, and writings. I actually talk about this process in my first career series called Your Career is Calling: Five Paths to Job Perfection. Not worrying about “how to get there” was also key with me. It’s funny, when I stopped worrying about the future and just focussed more on the now, the later took care of itself.

Thank you for sharing your story…I kinda feel like I’m looking into a mirror.

What prompted the move was a combination of things, mostly due to the fact that I’d never had any real time off from school, and certainly not enough time away from family (a very strong influence in my life) to get an idea of what *I* wanted. If I’d taken a year between I don’t think I would have ever gone to medical school. Being forced into nine months of vacation also gave me plenty of time to think about what I wanted, what made me happy.

The most important thing to do if you’re contemplating a career change, I think, is to be healthy. The second most important thing to do (and I just started this, and I think it’s amazing) is to actually put down, on paper, the sort of life you want for yourself five, ten years from now. It can be a list, it can be drawings, it can be magazine cutouts and newspaper clippings. Don’t worry about whether it’s feasible, how you’re going to pay for it, or whether you’ll actually be able to find a spouse that looks like the one you’ve pictured. Just get it down. Eventually you’ll work past the false expectations and external pressures to conform and arrive at what you really want. And then it’s just a matter of doing it.