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Making drastic career changes...

B

bassturtle

Apr 9, 2004
4,322
4
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#1
Was looking for advice from some of you folks who've made drastic career changes. I'm 26 years old. I've owned a vintage guitar store for coming up on 6 years this November. A while back I started working as a state licensed investigator in the evenings. Not totally sure why I did it, but I think I was looking for something more satisfying and it was a way for my wife to not have to work anymore. I also was really concerned about supporting a family off of just self employed income. We could have done it, but when we have slow months around here, they're REALLY slow.

Anyway, I really love the investigative work and have the opportunity to come on full time. The money is great and the agency is wonderful. Also, I've been in talks with another guitar store in town about buying my shop out from me. All four of the owners are coming in tomorrow to take a look at the place and decide if my asking price is fair or not.

So, if they buy it, my plan is this - take the full time work and get back into school to finish up a criminal justice degree. However, the whole idea scares the hell out of me...I don't like change :rollno: Anyone have advice?
 
#2
My wife and I have recently made changes; kind of in a different direction but for reasons that are similar to yours at the core of it.

My wife left a well-paying position in financial services to get a doctorate in psychology (yes, a few of her friends thought she was crazy; but more were a little jealous). She is done now and entering a new field at a lower rate of pay. She is as good, if not better, at her new work than her previous career and she is much, much happier.

I left a secure, reasonably well-paid position in a government job to go on my own as developer and consultant. I took a hit financially so far, but I can see that turning around in the next year or so to where I'll be where I was when I left and then with luck beyond where I was. But I too am much happier with what I am doing now.

A couple of things helped
1. We were starting from a reasonably secure place as we had some savings from always living below our means.
2. Neither of us burned any bridges in our old jobs, in case things didn't work out as planned
3. We were both totally supportive of each other. She went first and as she was finishing up, I left.

The whole idea is scary; it should be a little scary. But your plans sound pretty well-thought through to me. And if you have been able to make a living running a small retail shop; you have some serious skills that will see you through anything.

Most people don't like a lot of change; but most people are much more adaptable to change (whether voluntary or involuntary) then they think. Look forward, stay positive and someday you might look back and say "It was scary at the time, but it was certainly worth it."
 
#3
I was a full time musician for about 20 years after graduating from college, had varying levels of success and failure over that time, to be sure ..... During one of those times of failure I took a day gig for about 3 months where I was trained to deal with the Code of Federal Rgulations for transportation and environmental stuff. The company actually put me through formal training and then would sub-contract me periodically over the next several years when i had the time to do some side-work for them.

In the early '90's I had a significant and very serious health issue in the my family that I had to deal with, and due to a crummy insurance plan it cost me a large sum of money out-of-pocket. Because of this I was forced to get a full-time day gig and cut waaaayyy back on music. It nearly broke my heart and definitely broke my spirit at the time.

In retrospect, it was probably the smartest thing I've ever done. I've come to really enjoy my job, all of my financial worries are well behind me, and I take great comfort in knowing that my family's health is secure. I was scared about it at the time, but it's worked out well. And now, music is very active in my life and I'm playing what feels good, not just playing because I need the cake ..... :cool:
 
#5
Do it ESPECIALLY if you can get an employer to assist with or foot the bill.

Juggled jobs and bands from 1974~1985. In 1985, returned to college competing as the "old" guy against teenagers. Got done and put it to work. About the "smartest" thing I've done.

The HARDEST thing was selling EVERYTHING(1989: bye Alembic, Stenberger, 1960's T-Birds, SVT, etc.) to move family to Texas as Louisiana had no work for a rookie engineering grad in 1989. The 2nd smartest thing I've ever done(move to where the work is DOH!) in retrospect.

And as said above:

"It was scary at the time, but it was certainly worth it."
 
#6
Johnny Crab said:
......In 1985, returned to college competing as the "old" guy against teenagers. Got done and put it to work. About the "smartest" thing I've done.

[/I]
Click to expand...

This is a great point. Don't worry about the age differnece and don't worry so much about the school work.

Now that my son is a senior in high school and looking at colleges, I think back to my own college experience. The thing that really hits me is that, even though I was a pretty good student, I did not make the most of that opportunity. If I could go back as an undergraduate now, I would would learn double, if not triple, what I did as a 18-21 year old. Your maturity and motivation will be higher than most of your peers and you'll be able to draw on all your life experience which will help in making sense of whatever the teacher is presenting.

My wife was 10-15 years older than her peers when she went back to grad school; and once she got used to how to write psychology papers as opposed to business cases, she was home free.
 
#7
Johnny Crab said:
Do it ESPECIALLY if you can get an employer to assist with or foot the bill.

Juggled jobs and bands from 1974~1985. In 1985, returned to college competing as the "old" guy against teenagers. Got done and put it to work. About the "smartest" thing I've done.

The HARDEST thing was selling EVERYTHING(1989: bye Alembic, Stenberger, 1960's T-Birds, SVT, etc.) to move family to Texas as Louisiana had no work for a rookie engineering grad in 1989. The 2nd smartest thing I've ever done(move to where the work is DOH!) in retrospect.

And as said above:

"It was scary at the time, but it was certainly worth it."
Click to expand...


Thanks everyone for the encouragement. Yeah, it's funny because I wasn't interested in college at all when I was in, but I actually LONG to be back in school. I think I'm at a lot better place in life to absorb schooling than I was at 18 and 19 years old. Plus, at 26, I can still pass for 21 or 22 :p
 
#9
Sorry, but I'm not understanding the conundrum. Then again, after doing all sorts of jobs...I went back to college at the age of 26...part-time at first so I could get my legs under me. Ended up going to law school at age 35...and I wasn't even the oldest in the school...not that it mattered one bit. It may not be for everybody but It was great...i'd still be in school if i could earn a living at it...HA! Best of luck!!
 

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