Career change after many years in the same job?

[JtB]

There was a thread a couple of weeks ago where someone who after spending many years in the same job made a complete and sudden career change. Just wondering how many people have done this, what they moved from/to, what prompted them to do it and what their experience was.

 

[Tollers]

There was a thread a couple of weeks ago where someone who after spending many years in the same job made a complete and sudden career change. Just wondering how many people have done this, what they moved from/to, what prompted them to do it and what their experience was.

Hi Shaun, I started my career as a database geek in an insurance company. After 3 years i realised that 1) Insurance was the most boring thing in the world 2) Databases were the second most boring. I was very ready for a complete change and wanted to get into management consulting. Now, i generally believe that its not too hard to change functions within an industry, or to change industries, whilst keeping the same function; however, i think it's not easy to change the two together (although everything is possible). My route out was to do a masters in business so i just draw a line in the sand and head in my chosen direction.

After 3 years of "abuse" in consulting working in mines, manugacturing plants, yoghurt processing etc, i ended up quitting and moving to a search engine. Perhaps as we get older, experience is there already and it's a matter of "fit"?

Tollers

 

[gbb]

23 years as a stock controller / engineering administrator, producing budget reports, engineering buyer, assisting engineers etc etc...all round job but not 'on the tools'. Mostly office based. Brilliant job but didnt pay much.

Made redundant 10 years ago and fancied going into a full time buying position...but theyre rare positions in engineering.

While on redundancy notice, i happened upon a guy at an electrical wholesalers who's company was looking for an engineer 'on the tools'. He asked me to come down for a chat. I explained ive never worked on machinery etc...no problem, we'll teach you.


The first 6 months were as scary as hell...how the hell do i remember all i have learned, and keep learning all the time. So so much to learn Every machine, every problem, all the potential causes and solutions etc etc etc.

10 years on, i have an intimate knowledge of Spanish packing machinery, i can fault trace on 3 phase electrics, pneumatics, PLCs etc etc. I dont have real depth of knowledge, but enough to make things work.
I have no qualifications..no apprenticeship. I'm constantly amazed what you can learn, given a chance.

In the job (citrus importing / packing) , i've worked regularly in Cyprus, been to Uruguay and even went to Spain to help them with some technical problems (thats like selling coals to Newcastle...they make the bloody things)

Best thing i ever did.

The only downside is...i had a responsible job as a buyer / stock controller, but no qualifications, which will always hold you back.
Now i'm an experienced maintenance engineer...with no qualifications

 

[Fnaar]

I moved from nursing 25 years ago... I realised I hated it and was a potential danger to patients

 

[Arch]

Well, mine was a job rather than a career, but...

Doing O levels, I wanted to be a vet. Stepping up to the appropriate A levels, I realised I just didn't have drive/ability, and flunked them badly. I'd applied to do environmental science at uni, but really only because I thought I ought to do something, and it fitted the subjects. So with 2 E's and no uni place, I went out and got the first job I saw advertised, in Bejam (forerunner to Iceland, for the young ones), while I decided what to do next.

12 years later, still in the same rut - no ambition to move up the retail scale, not real idea what else I wanted to do, dreadful inertia. I'd done an OU degree, but it was so general it didn't point to any particular vocation. And then, one day, out of the blue, I thought "I know, I'd like to go away to Uni and study archaeology". Being my day off, I went into town to the careers office, got the form, looked at the options and applied. York gave me an interview, and then a place, and that was that.

I took to it very well. I met some great people, and loved the work, and got a first. I was told I was PhD material, so I did an MSc, and then after a year out working (in cycling promotion, it was someone I met at York who got me into cycling), got department funding for a doctorate. I fancied a career in academia, teaching and so on.

Two years into it, I was starting to lose motivation. I realised how much of lecturing was chasing funding for projects and I'm not a competitive person, and know I'd hate that bit. And I'd done the data gathering, which I liked, and was trying to come to terms with statistics, which I didn't. Then I had a major traumatic bereavment, and the work just went to pot. Everyone understood and a suspension for a year was suggested, which I took in the hope that the motivation would return when I did. It didn't. I quit the PhD 6 weeks before the final final deadline, a few months ago, knowing it was hopeless.

Luckily, I was able to walk into a job, something I'd been doing for the odd day on a casual basis. I collect recycling 4 days a week, and one day a week I carry on working for Velo Vision magazine which I've done for a couple of years. The money is enough, and the recycling job is physical and outdoors and everyone I work with are great people. I leave work at work, and have no ambition beyond staying solvent and saving up enough to go off one day and explore Europe on my bike for a few months.

So, I sort of lurched from job, to almost career, to job again. Along the way I've been very happy, and very sad, but overall I'm happier now than I was at the beginning....

 

[Crankarm]

Well, mine was a job rather than a career, but...

Doing O levels, I wanted to be a vet. Stepping up to the appropriate A levels, I realised I just didn't have drive/ability, and flunked them badly. I'd applied to do environmental science at uni, but really only because I thought I ought to do something, and it fitted the subjects. So with 2 E's and no uni place, I went out and got the first job I saw advertised, in Bejam (forerunner to Iceland, for the young ones), while I decided what to do next.

12 years later, still in the same rut - no ambition to move up the retail scale, not real idea what else I wanted to do, dreadful inertia. I'd done an OU degree, but it was so general it didn't point to any particular vocation. And then, one day, out of the blue, I thought "I know, I'd like to go away to Uni and study archaeology". Being my day off, I went into town to the careers office, got the form, looked at the options and applied. York gave me an interview, and then a place, and that was that.

I took to it very well. I met some great people, and loved the work, and got a first. I was told I was PhD material, so I did an MSc, and then after a year out working (in cycling promotion, it was someone I met at York who got me into cycling), got department funding for a doctorate. I fancied a career in academia, teaching and so on.

Two years into it, I was starting to lose motivation. I realised how much of lecturing was chasing funding for projects and I'm not a competitive person, and know I'd hate that bit. And I'd done the data gathering, which I liked, and was trying to come to terms with statistics, which I didn't. Then I had a major traumatic bereavment, and the work just went to pot. Everyone understood and a suspension for a year was suggested, which I took in the hope that the motivation would return when I did. It didn't. I quit the PhD 6 weeks before the final final deadline, a few months ago, knowing it was hopeless.

Luckily, I was able to walk into a job, something I'd been doing for the odd day on a casual basis. I collect recycling 4 days a week, and one day a week I carry on working for Velo Vision magazine which I've done for a couple of years. The money is enough, and the recycling job is physical and outdoors and everyone I work with are great people. I leave work at work, and have no ambition beyond staying solvent and saving up enough to go off one day and explore Europe on my bike for a few months.

So, I sort of lurched from job, to almost career, to job again. Along the way I've been very happy, and very sad, but overall I'm happier now than I was at the beginning....

Thanks for sharing your life story Arch. I enjoyed reading it.

 

[Arch]

Sorry, I did run on a bit didn't I....

I won't give you the first 18 years, that would be unutterably dull...

 

[Crankarm]

Sorry, I did run on a bit didn't I....

I won't give you the first 18 years, that would be unutterably dull...

Or so you think . I'm sure you have a string of adventures to tell .....

 

[Gromit]

Spent 5 years working as a Printroom Technician for Sundour Fabrics, got made redundant, went into an other printing job, however that started going the same way. So went to work for Index in the returns section. Things weren't going well at home so decided to go to Coleg Harlech to do a diploma in general studies.

Thought I wanted to do an Environmental Science and Policy degree, so applied to York and John Moores University, York wouldn't take me on so took the unconditional offer from John Moores. I stayed there for a year, I was doing really well on the course but hated Liverpool. There was an Archaeology module on the course so I do that one. It lead to me applying to York University to do an Archaeology degree, that's how I met Arch.

I graduated with a 3rd. Did a few jobs after, I was a costumed Viking in Jorvik for a year, then left to be a care assistant. Had enough of wiping peoples bums so left to volunteer for BTCV full-time for a year, knowing very well that I should have stuck to conservation in the first place.

Got a few jobs as a Ranger but hated the short term employment they offered. I got sick of travelling round, loosing a very close friend didn't help ether. So applied to do recycling at St Nicks, were after a year my arms started to drop off . Roped Arch in on the round a few times, that how she got hooked on a life as a womble

Now after the year of 4 jobs I decided to go to college to do a foundation degree in Horticulture. I'm now very happy and loving it.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Completed my Degree in Applied Physics and Scientific Instrumentation back in 1994 and realised that I didn't want to work in the field or to do research type stuff either, or to teach the subject, so I went out and got the first job I applied for which happened to be as a Marketing Assistant at a local College (yep, a strongly linked career following on from my studies!) which looked like it could be interesting.

Whilst in post I studied part-time to gain a Marketing Qualification and completed both an Advanced Certificate and a Diploma in Marketing.

I stayed in the field of Education Marketing for the next 5 years before becoming completely disillusioned with the whole thing (all the colleges/Universities I worked for just paid lip service to Marketing and didn't assign any proper budget for it) so began to retrain in IT by completing an MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) in my own time.

I passed this and in 1999 got a job as a Network Technician back at the College where I had begun my Marketing 'career' and learnt all the actual "hands-on" skills which the qualification didn't really cover. I then moved to the University (where I still work) as a Computing Officer and did about 8 months of Help Desk/First Line IT support before getting bored with dealing with the same old problems day in and day out.

At this time my Boss was setting up a new section to deal with the Academic staff and their requests for Research Support so I moved into that to do Database design and website coding to be able to get data in/out of the datastore, both things about which I knew precious little. I completed an OU course on Databases and taught myself to code with various languages starting with Cold Fusion then on to PHP, C# and now getting into Java.

Getting itchy feet a bit now so may undertake another career change at some point soon... no idea about what this may be just yet though.

 

[JtB]

I'm really enjoying reading EVERY story.

The reason I asked the question in the first place is twofold. Firstly, I've worked for the same company (in different roles) ever since I graduated in 1982. I enjoy working there and they treat me well, but I don't know what direction I'd take if ever I got fed up with the company or was made redundant. Also, my eldest son has just started his A-levels and I feel totally unqualified to help him see how qualifications, experience and interests can be translated into future career directions.

Thanks all.

 

[Arch]

I'm really enjoying reading EVERY story.

The reason I asked the question in the first place is twofold. Firstly, I've worked for the same company (in different roles) ever since I graduated in 1982. I enjoy working there and they treat me well, but I don't know what direction I'd take if ever I got fed up with the company or was made redundant

I suspect most people don't. It can depend so much on what happens to be available.

Also, my eldest son has just started his A-levels and I feel totally unqualified to help him see how qualifications, experience and interests can be translated into future career directions.

Thanks all.

My feeling would be that these days, it doesn't matter so much. Yes, if you have a burning desire to be a doctor, or a lawyer, then you have to do the appropriate degree, but so much of university degrees* are about transferable skills that it shouldn't tie someone to one career for ever. I guess my advice would always be to do something you like, because you're more likely to persevere, but to always be open to changing direction....

*although I'm not keen on this idea that everyone has to get to university, and only a degree counts as anything. There shouldn't be anything wrong with being a car mechanic, or a plumber and having a practical education to match. Bring back polytechnics and apprentiships....

 

[Night Train]

I started as a mechanic but soon gave that up to be an electrician.

After running an electrical contracting company with my late brother I eventually gave it up shortly after his death and moved into housing management. That was due to needing time to grieve and my then wife finding me a job to occupy me.

I spent ten years in housing working my way up to managing stock transfer developments and area renewal. I was in a fairly cushy desk job when I realised that I wasn't actually doing anything useful and had no real output that I could be proud of. I was just inspecting and signing off works.
One day I booked all my leave and handed in my notice and walked out of the job. It was pretty much without warning to either my manager or to myself. I just did it one day.

I then took a short break while I thought about what to do with myself.
I considered being an electrician again but I wasn't keen on all the regulations, that ruled out plumbing too.
In the end I gathered up my woodworking tools and began to ask around for small joinery jobs with some electrical and plumbing thrown in.
After doing that for a while I enriolled on a carpentry and joinery course but then found the furniture course at college and enrolled to learn furniture making. From there I was asked to teach some electrical classes and then some joinery while I was studying and finally, when I had qualified, I began to teach furniture. I have been teaching HND furniture studies for four years now and have my own furniture workshop and a few clients to work for.