Career Change

[bigandhairy]

Hi Guys,

I have been pondering a career change for the last few years. I'm 34 and I've never really known what I wanted to be when I grow up. I have always worked in the fruit and vege industry, on the retail side, and pretty much covered all bases in the field from stacking shelves to buying and marketing for one of the big chains to business owner (fruit shop) to wholsale and currently as a retail support specialist. Its a job thats been pretty good to me and my family as well as rewarding financially, my only problem is I find it boring as batshit and my current role means I travel a fair bit and I really dont like being away from my family. Over the years I have thought of doing different things but with no other qualifications changing jobs has been difficult. I do believe I get paid well and it always has been daunting to consider taking a large pay drop however I'm at stage in life were taking a financial sacrifice with a goal at the end is achievable. I'm currently thinking that I would like to do a mature-age apprenticeship as an electrician and possibly running a small electrical business at some stage, but thats all a long way off being decided. I'm still nervous as hell about chucking in a well paid job and taking off on a dream especially if I don't end up liking it :unsure: .

Like I said I've always struggled knowing what I want to be when I grow up, so its scary to think 'OK, I'll go do this' only to find out I hate it. So has anyone been in a similar situation and made a big career change? What were your experiences? Did it work out? Are you still in the job you changed to? etc etc. It would be great to hear some first hand stories if anyone is willing to share.

bah

 

[Fish13]

I did the career change thing. In high school i loved science and chemistry and anything that involved reactions. So i went that way with 3 years of study and then 2 years in the role of a lab assistant. Was good fun, the money was ok and the hours were great! 6am to 3:30pm every day. There was a company restructure and i took a redundancy adn it was put to me to follow my interest in fabrication/engineering and i ended up taking a drafting course. Then followed that up with a year study for a mech engineering course at tafe that i failed in statics. Hey i like to go fast and loved velocity and gravity but dont like static weights and forces that aren't moving....

SO i got into drafting. I have been from bassendean in W.A. to Mackay in Queensland then back to kewdale W.A to Bunbury W.A. Saw a whole lot of aus and a few doors opened up in the industry and yu could do/go where ever you wanted to. Then my missus got pregnant and my whole world changed again.....

Now i and the missus work together at a timbermill and have 2 wonderful little girls......

If there is nothing stopping you mate go for it!

 

[Bizier]

I studied graphic design at the same time as every ******* got a computer and the industry underwent some big changes. I did not really enjoy it due to the necessity for creative comprimises on a daily basis (I probably still have this, though I am perhaps a little more mature and less idealistic). I ended up in pre-press in printing, and as a production manager, but even though I was good at it, the market went to shit and I found it depressing manufacturing what would essentially all become rubbish on delivery - even more so when you see your work litter the street.

My partner made a move to WA to start an office for her company, and I came along, promising not to get back into printing. I worked in liquor retail at the large end, and at a small brewery, and am now moving to a large-ish brewery. Even though I could be earning more money for the moment in printing, I would basically be trying to hold onto what I have, where I currently feel that I now have a path I can travel down, I can continue learning in an industry I love, so I am far happier overall.

I still have the odd shit day, but that is life.

 

[JestersDarts]

I went straight from High School to Uni and studies Manufacturing Management and Operations - didnt really like it too much but felt 'pushed' through by my peers - uni man it was what had to be done. I worked for a couple of large manufacturing companies, in the production side, scheduling, management - and heck - it payed OK - hours were good, no weekend work. But I was BORED! I felt like i was working for the man and I was only 25!!

Long story short, I pestered a small starting up microbrewery for a job as their brewer, took about 6 months of pestering and a few weekends of free work,
Got the OK - quit my job, moved to the country, and now I am brewing beer!
not earning much money, but my quality of life far outweighs that for now. I'm having the time of my life.

Go for it - things will always work out in the end no matter what happens!

J

 

[bigandhairy]

Thanks for the replies guys. I think I relate in some way to each of your stories. I'm really confident that I'll make the jump and I'm thinking/hoping its getting close. With 2 young kids and a mortgage its not something to rush into but time will tell.

Cheers
bah

 

[Kai]

I went straight from High School to Uni and studies Manufacturing Management and Operations - didnt really like it too much but felt 'pushed' through by my peers - uni man it was what had to be done. I worked for a couple of large manufacturing companies, in the production side, scheduling, management - and heck - it payed OK - hours were good, no weekend work. But I was BORED! I felt like i was working for the man and I was only 25!!

Long story short, I pestered a small starting up microbrewery for a job as their brewer, took about 6 months of pestering and a few weekends of free work,
Got the OK - quit my job, moved to the country, and now I am brewing beer!
not earning much money, but my quality of life far outweighs that for now. I'm having the time of my life.

Go for it - things will always work out in the end no matter what happens!

J

Are you talking about the Woolshed brewery? I went to high school in Renmark, but left the state a few years before that brewery started up.

Definitely good quality of life to be had up that way though, if you know what you're looking for.

 

[barls]

im in the process of a career change, im still working on it and it been a huge change.

 

[komodo]

Often concidered it...
But no
10 years in the building industry
Left school on the thursday after finishing my final year 11 exam started working as a trainee structural steel detail draftsman & 3d modeller. Didnt even get my exam results...
after 4 years I got offered a job as an estimator for a fabricator - i knocked that back 12 months later got offered a possition as an assistant manager for a structural fabricator (dads business) and I took it.

Hats off to any one who can do it and do it well. I havent the balls to do it. I get paid well to do my job and my partner couldnt afford to support us (she couldn't even cover the mortgage) if I was to bail out and look for a different career - so I'd have to start on a decent wicket from the get go. Probably not going to happen. Bit of a pipe dream though as the stress of my job is likely to kill me (my job isnt hard - just high stress). Most guys in my type roll in this industry by 45 either have had a heart attack or suffer high blood pressure...

 

[ledgenko]

Big and hairy ... mate I am about to start a career change with quite a few obstacles in my way even though I like to think I am a glass is 1/2 full kinda guy .. I have been playing Full contact hide and seek ( lets just say I have done my Tour of Duty) for the past 17 years... I have unfortunately lost a big chunk of my hearing and hence can not keep doing my job in the funny suit .. I am fit enough to work in the real world and whilst am looking forward to seeing how different it is It is bloody scary ... But the change of life is going to be HUGE and welcomed ... I have a couple of kids, a wife who is running herself into the ground whilst I am awaiting the enforced change ..( see 6 months to achieve discharge) .. and a mortgage or two to maintain ....

I am a believer that shit happens in your life for a damn good reason .. some of it really does suck ass ... but after a while it makes sense and we become wiser or better off from the experience ...

So Hairy ... my advice is (from a 38 yr old) ... life is short ... dont be scared to live it ... make a change if you need to .... no one ever lays on their death bed and wishes they could spend more time at work ... do they ???

Best of luck in what ever you decide to do ...

Matt

 

[schooey]

I walked out of school after the HSC piss up on Friday and into my old man's business as an apprentice boilermaker on the Monday. It served me well and I ended up going back to study Engineering. After spending 12 months or so in front of CAD screens and juggling quotes, staff and blah blah blah, I picked up the wife, the 11 month old daughter and packed them and all our worldy possessions and we moved from a little old town in north west NSW to Sydney. I had this wild idea I could be a big shot in sales in the big smoke...

We lived in a rental for a few years, paid more in childcare for a week than we did for rent and still managed to pay off a car and save for a deposit on a house. We never had much, but we had fun anyway. I think if you really want to do something bad enough and you back yourself, you'll make it work out. For me, one job led to another to another to another all in the space of 12 months. I told a fair bit of bullshit to get a couple of them but I backed myself that I could do what they wanted and I did. Finally I landed a good paying job that was a brilliant stepping stone to where I am now. It all worked out in the end, but yeah, I was a little anxious at a few times.

Just being made redundant, I too thought about the mature age apprentice gig. It's not totally gone from my head, but I still have a little bit of a liking for what I do. But there is still no harm venturing out into the maze in case the cheese runs out at cheese station 42.

 

[thelastspud]

I've just started studying again after 10 years out of school. I've always had sort of bottom of the heap jobs but after travelling around and, finding myself in Spain for a while (22% unemployment here) though i'd make the best of it and study for a while try and get a career going when I come home.

 

[bigandhairy]

Thanks guys,

@ komodo, i know what you mean about needing to move to a job that pays well to maintain the cost of living. I have had that issue in the past, and you almost feel trapped in a job you begin to hate. Luckily tho my wife is a accountant so we just have go get her back to work (post baby) and then really seriously start looking at what i want to do. While we still owe money on the house we are in a position were i can take a large paycut and still get by knowing a better wage is 4yrs away. I guess i'm just really looking forward to doing a job that i'll enjoy, cos i have never had one. I know every job has its moments, but you know what i mean.

@ barls, ledgenko, schooey and bradley - thanks for your stories guys. It all helps trying to piece it together in my mind.

Cheers
bah

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I was thinking about a career change into prostituition, I mean think about it, lots of hot chicks, sex and money..

Then the missus pointed out that no one would pay me for it.....yet alone be in interested in a beared, scruffy 38yr old.....


Oh well, one can only dream...

 

[pk.sax]

I don't per se hate what I do. Don't even dislike the area of my work. But I know I'd move on and make a change in my work circumstances at some stage in a year or two.... It will take a bucketload of planning, saving, learning and who knows what else, but I'm sure I can make it happen at some stage. Like Komodo up there said, its not that I don't like the work, its the stress and BS that goes with it.
I've tried to study along with work, I for one can't do it. The rigidity of most formal courses will drive me nuts trying to keep up with both a job and study. If only I could do 100% of my study in the classroom with no homework...

 

[mxd]

for me, I left school half way through year 12, then went and worked in the bank for a couple of years. I didn't enjoy that too much, so packed the bags and went travelling Oz (the intention was to get into a mine get some $ then head OS), this was in 1986-88, we had 17% interest rates and it was the recession we had to have.

As a non skilled laborer I was doing shit work (egg classing, washing buckets in a commercial bakery, cleaning beer garden, etc..) when I could get it. So when I got home (22 year old single), I moved back in with my Mum and went back to do my VCE then off to uni for Comp Sci. As a single 22 year old it was easy (go Aus Study free accommodation etc..).

in 2007, wife 2 kids, mortgage, we bought a business, the thought was the wife could start running it and then if it was successful then I could join her. At this point her business is on the market and I will have to find another way for a career change

 

[leiothrix]

Then the missus pointed out that no one would pay me for it.....yet alone be in interested in a beared, scruffy 38yr old.....

Doesn't matter who you are or what you look like, there is a market for everything -- might not be what you expected though . . .

 

[Muggus]

All assumptions would have placed me in an IT job after finishing school, being one of top students in the state for the subject in the trial HSC.
Somewhere between then and the actually HSC I turned 18 and started to lose my way a bit, didn't get good enough marks to study the IT degree I wanted to at uni, and wound up getting into a Mechanical Engineering degree.

Then, once again, lost my way AGAIN between the end of the HSC and the beginning of Uni...some 5 months away. The usual suspects...sex, drugs, rock 'n roll, starting to homebrew, Schoolies, and my first fulltime job working on a golf course.

By the time uni came around, I had very little motivation to study, but stuck with for 18 months before throwing in the towel, and becoming a essentially a bum for a few months...spending my days playing guitar for hours and drinking beer that I couldn't afford.

Eventually I got off my ass and scored a job managing a produce department in a small local supermarket in Sydney, which I actually enjoyed and had alot of pride in. Batted on with that for 6 years or so, combined with "living at home", had a great social life, a great longterm girlfriend who I enjoyed many holidays with including a couple of Europe trips, and a few doing a bit of wining and dining around the state...

Anyhow, after coming back from a 2 month stint in Europe a few years ago, going back the work in the supermarket, it hit me that this was not where I wanted to be, and the girlfriend was of the same mindset. So in one foul swoop, left our jobs, left our friends and social group, moved out of home, moved in together in Newcastle, and I enrolled in a Viticulture and Winemaking course in the Hunter Valley.

Since then, of course, things have changed a bit; the ex was finding it hard living up here and couldn't find the kind of work she was looking for, and moved back to Sydney, which was tough to deal with. But i'm happy with where I am now, there's finally that sense of belonging...having a job in the wine industry, gotten use to a new city with new people, and almost finished my studies for the first time in 10 years.

10 years ago I would have never predicted where I am now, i'd probably hardly recognise myself. And who knows, things will probably some more change in another 10 years...but i'm looking forward to it!

 

[StalkingWilbur]

I know I'm digging up an old thread, but it's been great to read some of these stories (especially the successful ones!).

I'm about to leave FIFO work (and money) to go back to uni (and being broke).

I had attempted doing renewable energy engineering twice, once when I was about 19 and again when I was working away. The first time my heart wasn't in and I enjoyed partying too much. The second time my heart wasn't in it and I took on four units on top of FIFO and a relationship.

I've just been accepted into a bachelor of science in preclinical human biology which I've found my heart is in from my experience in the emergency response team on site.

I'm very excited, but also very scared. Going to be a massive change of lifestyle, but it's exactly what I need.

Going to have stop buying all those barrel aged beers. That's the most depressing part haha.

 

[Camo6]

Know how you feel Wilbur. Left my trade of 15 years about 3 months ago to train towards another trade. Being mature age and the fact that the government has provided less incentive for MA candidates has made my chances of landing a job a bit harder. I certainly haven't enjoyed the lack of income recently and my brewing and beer enjoyment has suffered because of it.
On the plus side, the missus will get the house painted at long last!

 

[StalkingWilbur]

Haha. Yeah, I've told the girlfriend I'm not going to be able to spoil her like a princess but she'll get more time with me. She's excited... Now. I have a feeling that novelty will wear off at some point.

I'm hoping to increase the brewing and dramatically decrease the craft beer purchases. I have been spending a ridiculous amount on craft, so hopefully that'll help balance the transition.

What are you training for?