Comments on: How to Choose a New Career

By: Tanya

Tanya — Tue, 03 May 2011 19:08:52 +0000

Mike,I am quite curious what path you have chosen, being 2 years since your post, I think there are a few things to consider..have you tried cooking in a food service establishment, as a chef for 10 years, I can tell you it is not all what it is cracked up to be, but depending on the type of service, food etc, it can be much more! My very 1st recomendation would be to get a job, even if you only peel potatoes for a few weeks, see what the enviroment is like, as it is like no other, then research options of how you might work for yourself to make enough $$ for that morgage..
and speaking of the morgage, do you really need it, or is it just a huge expense society says you need??
I personally have chosen the path of interest free living,exept the interest I earn, instead of the “look at me I fit right in with the shine of the (very broke) Jones!!!” and chose career happiness over owing my life to my bank. I do have beautiful things, 4 vehicles, the newest being a ’97 but most importantly, a smile on my face ever day I come home from my low paying job because it takes care of all my wants and needs..sometimes those wants and needs just need to be reevaluated.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:39:11 +0000

My career WAS manufacturing engineering for 20 years, but lost my job in the Big 3 downsizing. What I WANT to do is culinary arts and become a chef, but once I finish the schooling, I can only earn about 20% of my previous salary, if I’m lucky, and have to fend for my own benefits and insurances to boot! But my PASSION is cooking, so do I sell myself out and augment my engineering resume with learning CAD software programs, or chase my passion and have a huge bake sale to pay my mortgage?
Any recommendations would be nice. I’m torn to bits.

By: Erica

Erica — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:22:05 +0000

Well, I know what my career is… unfortunately the stability of my current position, as well as my marketability if i have to find the same job somewhere else is in serious question. The company Im with hasn’t really moved ahead with the times and the software out there. And out of curiosity I started looking around to see what else I can get. After 10 years with the same place, I am almost obsolete in the job market out there. Doesn’t help our main software is built with other software which is now 3 versions behind.

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.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:16:14 +0000

@Turn One Pound It does take inner strength. LOTS of inner strength. Change is not easy..but really, change is the only constant in life.

@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.

By: Jules

Jules — Sat, 31 May 2008 19:20:22 +0000

Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt: I left an MD/PhD program because it was making me miserable. I now work as a “lowly” lab tech, doing the exact same kinds of experiments I did during graduate school, with a commute from hell, in a country whose language I can’t speak (and can just read)–and I’m loving it. It may or may not be a career for me; veterinary school is still pending, awaiting my mastery of the Dutch language, but I like it enough that I wouldn’t mind this being a career.

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.

By: Turn One Pound Into One Million

Turn One Pound Into One Million — Fri, 30 May 2008 07:51:00 +0000

I think one of the most important things is finding the inner strength to take the leap into an unknown territory. You need to remain focussed on why you want a career change and what the benefits will be for you.