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Have you made a major career change? How did you approach it and how has it worked out for you?
Was there an adjustment period? Did you feel out of place until you found your footing?
Was there an adjustment period? Did you feel out of place until you found your footing?
So I noticed your questions are kinda broad, and I'm gonna need to pop on my “helpful Tildes user” hat for this one. Context matters a lot in career changes, like, are we talking about a lawyer turning into a baker, or an accountant turning into a financial analyst? But, let's dive in with some general thoughts!
First things first, major career changes. People approach these in many different ways. For me, I did make a career switch from a freelancing consultant to a full time job in higher education. I found that making a list of pros and cons and discussing it with people whose opinions I valued helped me. Networking is big - don't underestimate the power of knowing people. They can give you insights into the industry you're eyeing. Some folks take a more gradual approach by doing part-time or taking classes on the side until they’re ready to take the full plunge.
About the adjustment period - I’d say, “Yes, absolutely!” When I switched, I felt like a little fish in a big pond. I had to learn new skills and unlearn old habits. It can be overwhelming, and impostor syndrome is a real thing. But keep in mind, almost everyone goes through this. The key is to be patient, open to learning, and not be too hard on yourself. Now that I'm in a leadership position and have onboarded many new employees, 6 months seems to be the magic number when I see them feel part of the organization.
Finding your footing can be challenging, but it’s also exciting. This is where you get to explore, make mistakes, and figure out how you fit in. There is typically a period of "new hire grace" where you can ask any questions, inquire "why" on process, and generally be unknowing of the job without doing too much damage. Networking (again, it’s the secret sauce) helps you understand the unwritten rules and culture of your new field. And be ready to accept that you won't know everything right off the bat, and that's okay! Ask for help when you need it, and always keep learning.
Lastly, don’t forget to keep a check on your well-being. A career change can be like an emotional roller coaster. There’s excitement, anxiety, moments of self-doubt, and triumphs. Talk to family and friends, or consider speaking with a career counselor or coach.
A career change is a mix of preparation, learning, adjustment, and resilience. It may not be a smooth ride, but with determination and support, it can be one of the most rewarding experiences.
This is spot on! I'm currently almost 3 months into a higher ed general IT position, coming from being an elementary science teacher. My supervisor has mentioned the 6 months period when someone feels comfortable that you mention.
I've found the feeling of imposter syndrome can quickly be mitigated by actively communicating with people who've been at the institution a long time and trying to learn from them. No need to be nervous about asking around. At least, that works well for me.
Congratulations on the new position! Transitioning from K-12 to higher education is a huge culture shift when working with adults. The core idea is still learning/teaching/education, but the dynamics and expectations take a shift in thinking.
You've nailed it about actively communicating with the veterans at the institution. There’s a treasure trove of knowledge and wisdom in those corridors, and tapping into that is just brilliant. Watch out for the negative people who can only complain and don't align yourself with them or else it will hurt you. HE is underfunded and position duties are sometimes rough, but that shouldn't be an excuse to be a complainer. If it is a toxic environment you should consider leaving, but overall be conscious of your high and low achieving peers.
I can relate to you on many levels! I've been in the HE for around 15 years. Started off as an individual contributor and worked my way through the ranks to become the Executive Director. And you guessed it - imposter syndrome has been my uninvited companion every step of the way. Hell I feel that right now as I write this! Should I be even giving advice!?
The one thing that has kept me going, and it seems like you've got a good grasp on this too, is to keep the focus on learning. The moment I embraced the fact that learning is an ongoing process, things started falling into place. Each day offers new challenges and opportunities to learn, and that is the foundation that helps in pushing through the self-doubts.
Keep that thirst for learning alive, continue building relationships, and you'll find that not only will you become an indispensable asset, but the journey will be so much more enriching.
Thank you for your reply! I was looking for either of your definitions of 'major career change' so I left it pretty vague. I'm considering making a move somewhere between the two so I was looking for comments like yours.
You're most welcome! Glad my ramblings could offer some insights. The great wide world of career changes can be both intimidating and exhilarating, so it’s smart to gather perspectives.
Now, my curiosity is piqued - what inspired you to ask these questions? Are you contemplating making a career switch or just doing some recon for future possibilities? There's always something thrilling (and scary) about standing at the crossroads of a new career journey. Whether it’s a small sidestep or a giant leap across fields, each path holds its own set of adventures and learning experiences.
I just joined Tildes btw, and so I am still learning my way around the culture here. So excuse any misteps as I progress. I'm heading to work now so I'll check in later.
My wife was offered a position offering 3x what she currently makes, but it requires us relocating. I can get a transfer with the company I've been with for 15 years, but it'd be a demotion for me. Plus I'm feeling some serious burnout in my field. I've decided to take this as an opportunity to go back to school, and I'm going for a degree in Computational Data Science. I'm currently in warehouse logistics and those two fields are miles apart.
So yeah, definitely exciting but scary too!
I would be curious about an example of what you had to unlearn
I subbed to various subreddits that were relevant to my profession and others that were my hobbies. I lost touch with hunting for the content in other areas of the web and I especially appreciated the discourse Reddit offered deeper in the threads. As a creature of habit, I developed a routine to wake up and spend 30 minutes on Reddit every morning for 10 years to get a broad view of current events relevant to the feeds I developed or to PM friends I've made. Bare in mine I have no other social media sites I actively participate in aside from YouTube and Twitch.
many subreddits gave me ideas on research, learning opportunities, or insights on areas of interest. Specially, in IT, AI, creative design, diy, 3d printing, streaming, politics, philosophy, relationships, and cooking. I ended up having to limit my Redditing using the wellness app on my phone because I would scroll endlessly
I wake up now and have been opening Tildes and have a bit of FOMO on current events and specifics feeds I had been used to lurk or participate. I'm in full boycott mode for Reddit right now, but I may be sucked back to lurk on some things I haven't found as good replacements.
It's a shift is all I am saying. I am consciously and intentionally putting effort to find more out there. It was my fault I didn't expand much outside that bubble.
I actually asked a similar question not too long ago. Lot of great responses in that post that might help answer your question: https://tildes.net/~life/16ba/how_did_you_make_the_career_pivot
Thank you! I'm new to Tildes and didn't notice your thread!
I did this in 2016. My undergraduate degree was in Middle Eastern Studies, and I used it to work for the ICRC in the ME and Central Asia for a few years. I got really burnt out with this, and one day when I was back in London for a break someone suggested I learn how to code. I got a few books and went back to Tehran with them and slowly worked away at them. Before long I had to make a choice; there was a 1-year Masters programme in the UK that I got accepted to, I think the total cost was around $10k at the time. I took my savings, moved and completed the course.
Now, the course was not great, but I put in the time to learn stuff on my own and managed to get a job when I graduated with a bodyshop in the UK called ThoughtWorks. Terrible place to work, absolutely awful salary for the field and location (<$30k/year), but there are always a few good technical people there at any given point in time and I got lucky enough to be mentored by one of them after a very shaky start with an awful tech lead. This got me into DevOps, and after maybe a year and a half I was able to jump ship to a series A startup and double my salary. The rest is history!
These days I'm on the other side of a mental shift which sees me putting the most time, care and effort into my own open source and creative projects; work is work and play is play 🙏
While I think often then term ‘major’ implies ‘non-traditional’/unpredictable changes in career, some more ‘natural’ changes often feel major. I fall into the latter category. I spent a decade chasing the academia dream, a PhD followed by two long but really interesting post doctoral positions. The normal route from there was fellowships and lectureships etc, these logical progressions would have been easier (I actually found academic life very relaxed - both time commitments and workload) but they didn’t feel like what I wanted to do. So I moved into the private sector.
Now I’m sure that is seen by many as a minor, pretty normal, career move. However, I felt as I had two kids and had little stress from my work i didn’t want to ‘rock the boat’ and risk taking on a job which brought extra stress into my life. I happened to find a great opportunity at a small scale up machine learning company and joined over a year ago. It’s been nothing short of a revelation for what I considered my career to be. It’s been more stress, but also more reward. A clearer, more fulfilling career path and hopefully some more transferable skills and cv bolstering. I’ve been very lucky that I’ve not had to sacrifice my home/work balance and have a career now that I really enjoy and has really driven me to push my career forwards (and get paid well for it to boot).
I hope if you do similar it works out for you!
My wife is in the process of doing the same thing that you did! I'd consider that a pretty major career move, my wife struggled with the idea of leaving Academia for a while. It's a big change. Congratulations!
Yes, I went from journal editor to speech pathology to stay at home mom to lactation consultant. I would say there was an adjustment for the first three, but for the third one, it was so obviously my calling that the only adjustment was that I was new to it and needed a lot of education and experience.
I used to work in design. Left a designer position within a pretty decent marketing company in 2010 to work overseas for a time. It was a volunteer position, and one of the best experiences of my life.
Then it went all downhill from there.
About that time the 'credit crunch' happened, and as a result the job market was much more competitive than it used to be. I attended interview after interview but was always turned down. This went on for years. I was unemployed and claiming for benefits for long stretches of time, with dead end minimum wage jobs in between. It killed my confidence.
In that time I tried to re-invent myself several times. One of my past jobs offered a web design/admin position but basically tried to screw me, so that didn't pan out. Then I tried to move into the teaching career path since demand is always there. I was a zero hours contract tutor at my local community college, then tried to manage my own tutoring business. When that failed I tried to get into teaching kids - high school level was impossible, but I was able to get a teaching support position at a primary school. The experience was awful and they sacked me after a few terms. Somewhere in there I was given a great opportunity with a car dealership company - but my self esteem was so shot I experienced a full blown panic attack the night before I was supposed to work alone and just quit.
I think you get the picture.
It was my girlfriend (now wife) that helped me get back on track. After a tough heart to heart conversation with her, I applied for a job I thought was beneath me. A local call centre. It was terrible, but I managed better than I thought I would. I was there for about 7 months until I got a job at a local motor insurance office as an FNOL handler. This was my first full time role in years.
I have been at that same company for...5 years this November? And I have since moved to a team that specialises in fraud investigation as a support bod. These days I speak with witnesses, complete background checks - I'm actually pretty good at this work and my wage is the highest its ever been.
Now, it's not my dream job. But it pays well and these days my work/life balance is more important to me than completing work that 'matters.' My advice is to take every opportunity that comes your way, even ones you might not like the look of. You never know what it could develop into.
I got jolted into a job change when my company outsourced its entire development staff. In this scenario, I took the following approach:
My first position was on contract for a large company. What helped me get through this period was:
I think the biggest mental shift I had to make contracting was that they're kind of "snapping you in place to fill a role," that at first you're just a skills cog in the machine. Once I made this mildly dehumanizing discovery, I was able to make a mental shift and focus on providing value, which encouraged them to renew my contract.
I just recently did a job change within my field, and the new position is contract-to-hire. I appreciate being able to "try each other on" in a new role, and will probably never go back to being a direct hire again.
Oh yeah. Went from teaching to founding a mobile outreach center for street kids, back to education as a principal, and then because I wanted a low stress job, to driving a bus and then into being a landlord/investor. Were there adjustments. Yep, thats an understatement, especially going from being a principal with a smidgen of name recognition in the city, to driving a bus like a thousand other drivers in the city.
Edit: Are 90% of Tildes in some computer/tech related field?
Switched from a developer to a product designer. Got burnt out and tired of waking up at 3am for on call as a dev. There was a bit of an adjustment going to product design, but product was a new concept at my company, so we all kinda learned what worked together.
I guess I fit here. My progression goes something like this:
Undergrad -> Med school for 1 year (withdrew) -> High school teacher -> Grad school for a PhD (finished) -> Software engineer.
I didn't really ever feel out of place. I adapt pretty well no matter where I go. I do feel a bit weird as a software engineer sometimes. I have the title but joke that I'm not a real one because I'm still learning fundamental SWE things like architecture. I can code like crazy, but I don't really know a lot of the stuff you'd learn in school.
As far as an adjustment period... Not really. I taught myself to write processing code as well as software in grad school. I read extensively about best practices, clean code, programming on a team, etc. So I was able to arrive and get to work on things. Sometimes I feel inadequate but it's never the coding portion. And that may just be my personality as well. There is always more to learn and know than I can learn or know. Since I can't know everything, I just have to learn what I can each day and be content with that.