Big career change?

[geekgrl]

Have any of you made major career changes?? Please, if you have, share with me!!!!

As many many of you have noticed, I've been very unhappy with my job for a long time. I keep switching from different computer and engineering oriented "majors", and moving departments at work. I just can't get happy.
Soooooooooo.............
I've decided to dump computers/engineering for good.
Every since I was a little girl, I wanted to do something in the medical field. But, in high school, a guidance counselor told me that I wasn't good at math or science, and I should do some sort of humanities. Well, I saw that I was placing first in every art show I entered, so I decided to be an art major. My parents begged me to at least have a minor in computer information systems, so I did, for backup. That's why I have the job I have now. So, I thought in order to move up here, and get out of a job I didn't like... I needed to go back and get my degree in comp science. Then, I changed to engineering because I didn't like comp science that much. Engineering/computing has just always been an afterthought.
So, I'm going to drop everything and go do something in the medical field. I've gotten it narrowed down to: Physicians' Assistant, Dental School, and/or Pharmacy School.
I think that I need to do something I've wanted to do since I was old enough to think about being in a career....... "When I grow up I want to be a doctor"

[korgul]

Well I went from Heavy equipment operation to Warehouse work to computer tech.

I waited until I was 30 to make the change, the reason was that when my father passed away he was 6 months from retiring with 20 yrs at a company, 3 months from relizing his dream of being a fully liscensed auctioneer. I realised that I have to get off my a@@ and get my dream. I went back to school and got a degree and now have a tech job.

If your dream is to work in the medical field then grab it by the horns, wrestle it to the ground and live it.

Good Luck in your quest
korgul

[TonTo]

go for it! good luck!

all the money in the world means nothing if you're unhappy

[NeoStarO1]

Well orginially I was majoring in Welding manufacturing and design. After about a year of college of this and 2 years of spot welding jobs I had found one job that I liked but I couldn't go on the site location because of insurance liablity. So I had asked the boss for his honest opionion of what my chances were staying in this field and he said pretty low, Said I would more than likely end up stuck in a shop doing welding and prep work in the shop for the other guys to take to the site locations. This was 15 years ago. Wow has it been that long already.

Plain and simple I was an insurance liablity so I decided it was time for a carrer change and went over to Vocational rehabilitation to see what my options were for changing carreers and they ended up training me for secretatial work and I had one job which I was fired for and couldn't get another job in that and finally eventually I got my own first computer and that is how i ended up in the computer industry and have been taking classes for it for the past 4 years now.

man time flys when you don't think about where you been. Wow!!!

[caddmannq]

Well, I've told this story before, but....

I studied mechanical engineering in college (and some CS), and went to work for a wood truss & building manufacturer that was doing semi-automated production & some early CAD-CAM work. That was the first place I actually got paid for writing code (No PC's...with a pencil! we had key-punch girls to make the IBM cards for our mini-mainframe system.)

I wrote programs for early desktop programmables to do sheet-metal development & layout.

Later I worked for some large & small companies that used Net terminal & PC based CAE (computer aided engineering) methods & did some serious CAD schooling. I also did tool design, process design & project coordination.

I spent some 8 years doing design work for high-rise building systems.

Later, I did contract CAM programming and CAD for a big manufacturing firm & became very involved in the setup & operation of modern PC's & CNC machines.

I started a CAD dept. at a large machine shop & was the company engineer & project manager.

Finally I went to work for a consulting engineering group, modernized their CAD/CAE program & built up their network, manage all their computer operations, & build & service all their PC's. That's where I am today.

The only actual programming I do any more is a little AUTOLISP (paid) & (for fun) hacking into computer games so I can "tweak" them. I consult on design and manufacturing issues, but I don't do any design work myself, except for hobby stuff.

So it's all been little changes that added up to a major change, sorta.

[jman01pa]

Seven years ago I was managing an Equipment Rental Store for construction equipment. Today I am a Net Admin for a Nuts and Bolts Distributor...

After leaving the Rental business I joined up with an Uncle that had a Computer shop and went to work for him as a bench tech with no experience. From there I went to work for one of our customers as their Net Admin. Now I am doing the same at my current job...

Good Luck. There is nothing worse than being at a job you dont like...

J

[tarpat1]

I went from being an Accountant to being a Cisco Engineer. You need to follow your dream, nothing is worse then going to a job everyday that you hate!!!

[Knothead]

I've made my living as an artist for the last 24 years (although the picken's have been slim these last 3 or 4, so I wouldn't recommend THIS vocation).
Point is, I have noticed that anything you do for a paycheck is work; it really doesn't matter what it is, if you HAVE to do it, it's work.

Heh, having said THAT, though... I once said the same thing to some guys at a commercial shoot who had wandered onto the set...They looked at each other and said, "yeah, but I bet this sure beats running a tree saw 8 hours a day!"

I stopped complaining right then!

I think you're doing the right thing, Geekgrl.

[MegalosSkylaki]

I don't know what the basis of G.C.'s staement was, but if it was some "test", let me explain how they bascally work.

Questions are adminstered to person various fields to develop the "Norms" or avarages;typically the question require endorsing some statement like, "Do you like fishing ?" If you score a profile "similar" to thew Norms, well, you must be the type for that. Huh?

Females have been historically been told they are not "good" at "male fields".

Guidance Counselors in H.S. in USA typically are the "administrative assistants" to Principle. Rarely are they selected for clinical acumen but usefulness and friendliness to Principle.. In fact, IF they have a GC degree, it is almost entirely lacking in clinical training. Often they are teachers "acting" as Counselors.

Now don't let me start a Flame here with all the Good Guidance Counselors around. Just talking err..."norms".

The only way to find out if you are "good" in math and science is to take math and science courses, preferably with decent teachers.

"The proof of the pudding...etc."

I think I wrote this once before: It is a great error to pick a career based on a single test or a single person's opinion.

OK, like most of us you have found yourself in a situation: the philosopher Heiddegger (hate to quote him ) called "throwness". You simply have to work your way out of whatever jam you are in now.

Look at the job market, your present interests [see below], actual working conditions (not the same thing as the "field" ) and how you are going to get training aka support yourself while retraining.

There are ancillary medical fields like Dental Hygeinist, EMT, radiological tecnician, MRI technician which don't require a quarter century of training--maybe 6 months to a year. (CK the foregoing--maybe wrong on some) but you get the idea. (Many can be done Part time. Didn't notice where you live.)

Keep an open mind. and be careful what you wish for: you might get it !

By the way; know several people perfectly content to do some job that brings in the moolah, while pursuing their "real" interests on the side; e.g. a chef who records his own music. Hence, consider "top dollar" jobs as an alternative.

DOOOOOG

[geekgrl]

Thanks to all those who posted their stories.
Dooog: Thanks for the other occupation ideas.. I hadn't thought of some of those.