NGKUR: Work / Career Change Advice

[LadyNymeria]

I don't like my job. If it wasn't for the people I worked with I think I would say I hated it. I didn't like the job before this one either. Currently I'm doing investment accounting for companies that have outsourced their investment accounting to my company. Before this I was an auditor in a public accounting company.

I'm not sure I even like accounting, but I feel stuck. And I have no idea what I'd want to do instead anyway.

- Has anyone gone through a career change? What did you do? Has it gone well?
- Obviously not asking for numbers, but did you have to accept a large salary decrease to change?

I don't even know where to start. I just know I'm not happy with what I'm doing. I would be willing to go back to school, but it would have to be part time. The salary differential between MH and I is too big for me to ever stop working. If it was an option, I'd probably try to go back to pharmacy school.

- Any suggestions for someone trying to figure out WTF they actually want to do for work?

Thanks for any tips or suggestions you can give me. I'm just feeling a bit lost right now. I'm not even 30, so the fact that I feel stuck already is freaking me out.

[ironbaby]

Just following this. Big hugs, girl. I know the feeling.

[piccyami]

I'm kind of in the same spot. I like what I do when I get to do what I went to school to do. I hate it when I'm stuck doing things outside of physics. I've looked into moving to a slightly different field, but I would have to get another degree to do that. A third degree would look good and probably increase my pay, but there are pre-reqs for the program that I would either need to test out of or take. I don't have that much focus right now while we're dealing with IF. I'm hoping I'll be able to focus on what I need to do after we deal with IF.

Basically, I know the feeling, it sucks, and not liking the field you went to school for so early doesn't seem to make sense.

[doodler]

This is such a hard one and I feel like it comes up all the time on the working moms board. For me it really came down to sitting down with my husband and making tough decisions about our priorities. I am currently in a job that I am happy in. My hours can't be beat and I get tons of paid time off. It is important to me that at least one of us be home at a decent time for DS. I typically get home by 3:45-4:00 and DH might not be home until 7 or later. DS goes to bed at 7 so some days he doesn't even see DH. Also, I get snow days, holiday closures, etc. BUT, my salary is much lower than it could be. I could go somewhere else and make more money but I would trade all of my other perks. At this point we decided that these things are more important.

However, DH makes twice my salary. It might be totally different if that were not the case.

[daystardreams]

Oh man. I know the feeling. I have always loved kids so much and started babysitting very regularly when I was 11. (My older sister lived with my parents when my nephew was born, she also worked nights/was just 17 so I ended up with my nephew ALOT!) So when I went to college I decided to major in Child Development. I got a great job working for Head Start and even made more money than my husband.

The problem was that I hated it with every ounce of my being. I love working with children, I did not love the politics that comes from working with a federally run organization.

We made a lot of tough decisions and I had to decide if the perks of having the summer off plus the high salary was worth the stress during the school year. After my second loss, I decided that it was not worth it and I quit. I took a job at the daycare I worked at during the summer after I graduated college and I'm so much happier here. This is my true calling. I work at a place that lets me just love the kids and it's perfect. That being said I took $6 an hour pay cut which was huge!

I don't regret it in the least! I'm so much happier and I can enjoy life more! A lot of people think I'm crazy when I tell them the pay cut I took to be happy but I guess some people are just better equipped to hate their jobs. I just couldn't do it anymore!

Good luck! I hope you find a good solution for you.

[LadyNymeria]

Nov 4, 2015 12:08:52 GMT -5 doodler said:

This is such a hard one and I feel like it comes up all the time on the working moms board. For me it really came down to sitting down with my husband and making tough decisions about our priorities. I am currently in a job that I am happy in. My hours can't be beat and I get tons of paid time off. It is important to me that at least one of us be home at a decent time for DS. I typically get home by 3:45-4:00 and DH might not be home until 7 or later. DS goes to bed at 7 so some days he doesn't even see DH. Also, I get snow days, holiday closures, etc. BUT, my salary is much lower than it could be. I could go somewhere else and make more money but I would trade all of my other perks. At this point we decided that these things are more important.

However, DH makes twice my salary. It might be totally different if that were not the case.

We're flipped - I make twice what MH makes and I think it's throwing a huge wrench into how I approach this whole situation.

[LadyNymeria]

Sorry to see some of you are in the same/similar positions.

[TheEleventhHour]

I have a BS in Psychology and started in the social work field after college. I hated it! I had always had interest in the medical field since my parents were both in it growing up. I eventually went back to school in September 2013 to get my BSN and become a RN. It was a tough time. I wasn't able to work since the curriculum was so intense (getting another Bachelor's in 4 semesters!) so being one income for that time was tough. But in the long run I have no regrets. We made it work and now I am in a career I love. I make twice what I was before (more if you count the differentials I get for nights/weekends). I would have made the change as long as I was able to make at least the same amount I had before. We would not have been able to make it work if I were going to have to take a pay cut.

Hugs. I hope you are able to find something that works for you and makes you happy!

[Deleted]

LadyNymeria, I have no suggestions; except to say 30 is young! I think a lot of your generation/next will have major career changes over their lifetime and it not be an odd thing. I cannot imagine going back to school at my age/life things; but when I was 32 I had the chance and didn't take it. I now wish I had. I hope you are able to find the sweet spot that allows you all you seek in your life.

[notagoddess]

My situation was different because my job paid very little and did not have benefits. I felt stuck because most jobs in social science research required advanced degrees, which I did not have. Even though my income was low, we still needed it to make ends meet. I did not know which direction to go in for the next step. It was a paralyzing situation for several years. Actually, my loss was the catalyst for making a change.

What I ended up doing was a job search with my existing skills to see what's out there in all kinds of related fields. I did not actually get another position out of the search, but I learned about career options that I did not know existed before. I ended up finding a field that interested me and was a good match for my skills and strengths. I applied for a degree program that I had planned to do part-time while continuing my job. Unexpected financial circumstances let me quit my job and focus on school full-time.

The field I am hoping to go into is something I would have never known even existed had I not undertaken a very open-ended job search process. I would recommend using a job search site like Indeed.com or whatever and type one of your skills at a time to see what kinds of related positions exist. Then if something seems interesting, try to find out more about that type of career.

Best of luck. It's not easy!

[notagoddess]

Also, this may be very out there... but do you have any interest in actuarial science? I knew several people in the field and they all love it. I'm mentioning it because it's very self-taught. You study for and take a bunch of exams on your own, and that is the standard for qualifications instead of grad school.

[babycowbell]

I'm an accountant as well. I did public accounting for awhile, then I worked for a boring company in their accounting group, and now I'm at a "cool" company still doing accounting. The job isn't very different from place to place but the people and culture are very different. Maybe if there is an industry or company that you are passionate about you could try to work there even if it's still in accounting, but you'd be more excited about it.

Good luck to you!

[wannabmama]

I'm like a lot of the other people who have posted and am struggling myself so I don't have a lot of advice. I also make more than H by a good margin and even took a huge pay cut a couple years ago to come to this job. The hours at my new job are much better, but just about everything else is worse. I can't decide whether to stick to my current field (law) or not and if I do stick to it whether there's a change in the type of law or role that would make it better...and I'm knocking on the door of 40...so there's not a lot of time! It's really hard. One thing I've been doing is reaching out to everyone I know and getting together for lunch, drinks, etc., and talking to them about their jobs and sort of explaining my position because you just don't know when someone might know someone who has something interesting. It's also given me a chance to learn a bit about other types of things I might be interested in. It also just makes me feel like I'm doing "something" which helps me feel a little less stuck.
I'm also trying to apply for one thing a week, at least. Even if it's not a perfect fit or I'm not sure it's what I'd want to do. Again, nothing has come of it yet...but I know doing nothing ensures that nothing will come of it, at least trying gives me hope and makes me feel like I'm moving forward and it might open some more doors, you just never know.

[LadyNymeria]

Nov 4, 2015 13:53:02 GMT -5 notagoddess said:

Also, this may be very out there... but do you have any interest in actuarial science? I knew several people in the field and they all love it. I'm mentioning it because it's very self-taught. You study for and take a bunch of exams on your own, and that is the standard for qualifications instead of grad school.

I don't know much about it - I'll have to look into it.

[kariann12]

I did this a couple years ago. I completely changed careers when I was 29. In order to switch I went to school full time during the day and worked full time at night. It was hell. But, I got through, and have a job that I love now. So, my advice is to do it. Obviously it'll be hard, but it'll be worth it in the end.

[LadyNymeria]

Nov 4, 2015 15:20:57 GMT -5 kariann12 said:

I did this a couple years ago. I completely changed careers when I was 29. In order to switch I went to school full time during the day and worked full time at night. It was hell. But, I got through, and have a job that I love now. So, my advice is to do it. Obviously it'll be hard, but it'll be worth it in the end.

I'm glad it worked out so well for you!!

I just don't actually know what I want to do - need to figure that out first.

[ohinvrtedworld]

I wish I had advice about career changes, but I just wanted to throw out there the idea of websites like Khan Academy and Coursera. They have a variety of free online lessons that can introduce you to some other fields that might be easy to get into without a whole additional degree.

You might also in the very least find some skills you can hone that might help you transition into something else. Knowing how to code or use programs like Illustrator might be attractive to employers in other fields, even if your main job won't be design per se. And you might find that you really like doing certain things and can even start talking to other people in those fields for more information.

[butlerfan]

I have a degree in accounting and had a job in if for 7+ years until my ex boss fired me and then accused me of stealing. Trying to find another job in that field is difficult currently and after a year of unemployment I found my current job where I was an admin assistant and then HR assistant. There is some accounting in it but not as much as I would like but they treat me much better then my ex boss ever did. We shall see if I get back to accounting or not.

[michelleca]

I'm an accountant too. I hated working in public accounting, and since I moved to a charity a year ago, I have been SO happy. It's a really fantastic job. Sure, the salary is under market, but they make up for it in pension, benefits, and vacation / personal / educational time. I knew I wanted to actually do the accounting and reporting, and I knew that a charity/ NPO was more my style. I feel like I am doing something good.
What are the things that are important to you about your career? I took a big hit to work part-time after DS, but honestly I don't remember what we even did with the extra money!