How Many Career Changes Have You Made In Your Life?

I ask because I am contemplating a serious career change in my own life. Something that may require going back to school to get the skills to learn how to do them. I'm hesitant because college is expensive and I've already got two college degrees, I'm kind of tired of schooling as it is. Most of the adult influences I had growing up all stuck with the same careers their whole lives.

When I was in high school, I had an interest in restoring classic cars and thought I would try to pursue that for a living. I apprenticed for a guy who ran his own body shop operation out of a small garage, where I helped him do body work and painting. This went on when I was between the age of 18-22. It was hard work, but the result was very rewarding. The big reason why I didn't go down this route was because I was pursuing a liberal arts degree at the same time, while the guy I was apprenticing for developed a serious alcohol problem; he wouldn't begin work with me unless I got him a handle of cheap vodka at the liquor store. He got into trouble with the law regarding domestic problems with his ex fiance, and fell into poverty. He kept telling me not to do this for a living, so I didn't. I was young and impressionable and did not want to end up like him. So I continued on with my liberal arts degree in field ecology, hoping that whatever happens after graduation will fall into place. Unfortunately I graduated in the year 2008, when the major recession hit. Struggling for a couple years to find entry level work in field ecology, I decided to pursue a degree in design. I had enough transfer credits to bypass all the general ed classes. So I was able to get my product design education and degree in slightly more than 2.5 years. Little did I know how competitive and limited product design jobs would be. So for the next year and a half I worked menial jobs in hope to one day get hired for a designer role. Until I finally met someone who hired me as a freelancer, and later an employee at his small business I helped him grow as a designer. I helped the company get its first product into production. Unfortunately I was laid off because he canceled my next project midway through my work due to how expensive it would be for the company.

I'm considering doing a drastic career change by going back to my roots and go into auto repair, or pilot school. A different career that offers more excitement than this. I am almost 31 and tired of living paycheck to paycheck.

How many career changes have you made in your life? Were they good? Did you regret any decisions?

 

It depends on how you define a career change. I think by most definitions, either 1 or 2.

After college I had no remaining interest in pursuing a career in my field of study, so I kept my pizza delivery job for a while and quickly climbed the pizza career chain. So for a little while I actually thought I might make a career out of that. I changed my mind pretty quickly though and went back to school to get a masters in my current field. I got a job right out of school doing almost exactly what I had wanted to do (but on a smaller scale than I ultimately wanted). Then about a year later I was offered a job in the same general field, but with a completely different type of employer. So that's the one that may or may not count as a career change.

No regrets, each career path has been better than the one before it.

 

mm, I guess one, in that I was in one kind of job, saw myself being promoted into a better position in that field of work, panicked, went back to school for skills in a new field and am now looking for work in that field. But I've not really had what I'd term a carreer, just a string of jobs. hoping to get my foot on a new ladder soon though.

 

I've held several jobs in the food industry, working long hours and busting my butt. I actually liked it a lot, and had a supervisory gig for a few years. At the end of the day, I knew that I couldn't sustain it in the long term. Tried farm work for a little while, another exhausting yet fun experience, but knew that it wasn't a career.

After I got my master's I got a job in the exact field I wanted to. I like my job, it's quite rewarding and the pay is very doable, but it's also very high stress, and somewhat dangerous. I can see myself staying in the general field but perhaps moving into a more administrative role. I'd also love to pursue a PhD at some point.

 

I can relate to this. There've been times when I landed a temp job in a career field only to have it last only a month or so.

 

The way to go about selecting a career path is by checking out the job market beforehand. Make sure you understand what you are getting into.

Start here http://www.bls.gov/ooh/. This site will help you get a heads up on what is out there, how much they make, and whether or not they say they're hiring (projected growth rate).

You have to take the occupational outlook seriously! Good luck and may the force be with you!

 

I do a lot of temping. Part of the problem that I'm having is that my chosen career field is saturated with people willing to work for free. The entry-level positions that used to exist no longer do, because low-level work can be outsourced to people on the internet who want exposure and unpaid interns desperate for experience. To get a paid position, you need experience, to get experience, you need to work for free. This naturally privileges those who are wealthy or have wealthy parents willing to support them. I'm working temporary jobs to get enough money to work for free until i run out then temping again, then free. Repeat until I can land a paid position. Its pretty common in a lot of creative industries. Even those with serious skills and expertise involved like film-making, graphic design and audio engineering. I know people in all these areas with serious chops who can't get a decent gig, and are jobbing or doing unpaid work.

Still, I could have had a future in sales. I left on my own terms because I knew it would never make me happy. I'm struggling at the moment but I'm still glad I made the choice, and I believe it will pay off.

When I get down, I just try and imagine being three years into the salesman life, ringing a fucking gong every time I got one, surrounded by competitive, aggressive sales associates, feigning interest in football....

....I can survive for a while longer on instant noodles, thanks

 

What's a career?

 

I've worked dozens of unrelated jobs in my teens and 20's. Carpenter, Teaching English as a foreign language, CNC, welding, cooking, pool sales, maintenance, management, mindless warehouse gigs, bartending , courier, canvassing, I was a lab rat for a while..

About four years ago I started programming as a marketable side skill to add to my knowledge of networking. It was something I never thought I'd be interested in. I'm madly in love. It appeals to the megalomania in me I think. Complete control of my digital world. I'm signed up for the developer edition of Microsoft HoloLens. So in a few months I'll get a set of these bad boys.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/26/11309624/microsoft-hololens-holoportation-star-wars

If you have the inclination for it the amount you can learn, and what you can is truly limitless.

 

Have had over 12 jobs so far. Worked in food stores for majority of those. Have also been a car groomer, delivery driver & a floor sander - just to name a few

 

Your son sounds like he's got his act together better than I do. I also use Solidworks professionally. I'm not an expert at it, but I know my way around it enough to get paid gigs for it. And I've got a couple of my designs in mass production right now thanks to my Solidworks skills (I don't make any royalties on them but I wish I did). I used to work at a company that let me test prototypes with a Makerbot 3d printer. However It's been tough for me to hold onto a solidworks job for more than a year, so that's good for him that he's been able to hold onto a job designing something with it. Solidworks is good, up until you realize your geometric line segments are misaligned by 0.00004657mm and the program refuses to comply with you, making you wanna punch your fist through the monitor.

 

0

 

career is just not a way that has ever made sense to me to look at life, so i guess both infinite and none.
i did start out from childhood with different ideas i wanted to pursue.
mostly i just want to be old and wise and live for ever being old and wise.
so i never really accomplished any big deal in any of them, but so what.
i have seen and been and enjoyed a range of things i don't believe i ever would have if i had spent life obsessively pursuing one goal, or even one goal at a time.

i really can't call anything i've ever done a career. but i've done a bunch of different things. most of them not for a living, other then when i was younger i did several.

i've worked in geology and heavy equipment and resteraunt, but not fast food. as hobbies though, i've done or am doing, most kinds of art.
i've always been interested in engineering and the sciences, and never in business. political issues interest me, but early on i came to realize i didn't have a thick enough skin to actually do anything about them.
i could have been a preacher too, but my conscience would have always nagged me that everything we think we know about it, someone human made up.

 

blender is free and has tons of online tutorials. the only advantage of 3d software costing thousands of dollars is a more intuitive user interface. and while blender isn't allowed to copy any of them, it will do, everything any of them will and more. and there are others besides blender too. show them a good demo reel, and they might just not care what you made it in.

 

3 career changes. Happy with what I do for a living now but it's hard bloody work.

 

Just Been A Farmer All My Life Till I Retired In 2000, Also Had Lots Of Part Time Jobs When Things Were Quiet On The

Farm, Like Driving Buses, Trucks, And Furniture Delivery.

I Have No Regrets Over Which Direction I Took In Life.....



Cheers Glen.

 

i started with autocad, and yes, the one thing blender isn't is oriented toward is for drafting and dimensionning, it can be done, but i have to admit its not the best tool for that job. its a real swiss army knife for everything else.