[masraum]

Hmm, quit college because I didn't have the drive to go and didn't know what I wanted to do. I got into the 'real world' in retail auto parts. In 2 years I was managing a store and knew that it was not a good "career". So after a year as a manager I met a woman and moved to Houston. She knew the manager of a night club and I started bartending. Financially that wasn't too hard a move because retail pays crap, but either way I was pretty poor. After a few years of that I knew that I needed to find something that might be a career and decided to get into IT. I got my foot in the door and kept bartending 1 day a week to supplement the meager money I was making in the beginning. Part of the problem was that I had self taught myself a lot of stuff, but I didn't have any certifications or formal training. After about 4 months I moved into a different position and got a sizeable raise. Things were much better financially, but I was still working the extra day a week bartending. After about 6 months in the new position I was making more than double what I had been when I started a not quite a year earlier. I stopped bartending. Then things started going REALLY well, then a year later the stock market crashed before 9-11 and IT went to crap. I got out of IT for a year and actually was making really good money working a weird job, but was eager to get back into IT. I'm still in IT and not quite making what I was in the heyday, but I'm glad I'm still in it and I'm doing well.

I went back to college a year ago. I'm mostly starting over and planning to go Mechanical Engineering. I'm afraid that it'll probably take me about 8 years, but I'm in no hurry.

I've heard stories and read stories about people that were able to seamlessly change careers. It can be done, but as they say in those 'get rich quick' commercials, "results not typical". I think it greatly depends upon a couple of things, how well are you doing in your current field, the better you are doing the harder it'll be to move, what field are you going to, some will be better than others, and who are you, some people have the right drive and personality to really pull this off well.

Good luck, it may be the best move that you ever make.