Changing career

magpie

Just wandering if anyone here had any positive/negative experiences of changing career they could share?

I'm looking seriously at changing career after 7 years, predominantly due to lack of opportunity for advancement. I've been looking at training as a Solicitor, but tbh the vast amount of money required for fees, the amount of time required and then the prospect of having to work like a navvy whilst an apprentice doesn't appeal. Plus I have financial commitments.

What to do?

Dingatron

I took the same step about 5 years ago. I was in sales for about 12 years and bored silly. I was on good money but it is not everything if your not happy. I had to take a drop in salary short term however long term it was worth it. I started by taking a good look at where I would like to be and went from there. I then did a few courses to get reskilled etc and waited for the right oportuinity to come about. You have to be commited and to put the work in but the rewards are worth it in the end. Good luck with whatever you decide. :-)

WhiteWashMan

i moved from being a techie to sales about 3 years ao and havent looked back.
i think a lot it depends on the situation to be honest. mine was cool because i got to do it within the company iw as working for, and my pay went, i got a company car, my holidays went up.
of course, they took a huge risk in bringing in someone with no sales experience, but thats the luck you need sometimes.
but i think when most people think of changing career, they are looking at doing it on their own, and off their own back, and its a lot riskier!

but, if its what you want, then follow your dream. the worse thing that can happen is you need to get a job doing the same sort of work as you currently do.

but if you are not happy, then unles syou are getting 6 figure sums a year, i *personally* would always go with doing the more enjoyable work. after all, it makes up a third of your life. why be miserable?

magpie

Thanks for the advice guys. Hmmm, how to find the right career is the next question.

p.pete

magpie wrote:

Hmmm, how to find the right career is the next question.

Figure that one out and you'll have it sorted! I'm pretty much in the same boat, doing IT but not exactly enthralled. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what it is that I want to do (even going to the lengths of reading books with titles such as "I can do anything if I only knew what it is") but not coming up with much.

Try imagine you won the lottery, instead of using the money to give yourself an expensively small liver imagine for a second that you used it to retrain and get yourself started in a career direction that you'd really like to go in. Hasn't worked for me but hey...

flav0rflav

F1 racing driver, I'd just have to give the lottery money to Minardi.

magpie

So how do you retrain as a rockstar/professional gambler/polar explorer?

WhiteWashMan

magpie wrote:

So how do you retrain as a rockstar/professional gambler/polar explorer?

when you figure it out, let me kow.

i have an opening in my career for lounging around all day and being high maintence

p.pete

flav0rflav wrote:

F1 racing driver, I'd just have to give the lottery money to Minardi.

You could probably get a ride with Jordan at this stage (at least there'd be good airbags)

sceptre

magpie wrote:

Hmmm, how to find the right career is the next question.

And obviously the big question. Stating the obvious but it's pointless changing career direction until you're pretty sure of what direction you want to go in.