Was a lawyer. Now I'm a stock analyst for a mutual fund company.
I was 34 when I left law, in 1997. Spent most of a year traveling around the world, then 1.75 years getting an MBA. Started the new career at 37, in 1999.
The "financial suffering" is hard to measure.
My income went to zero for about two years, during the traveling and school, and my wife, baby daughter, and I burned through most of our savings. So in that sense I suffered.
A year or two after getting into stocks (say in 2001), I was making as much as I had made in my last year as a lawyer. So in that sense I did not suffer.
However, had I stayed a lawyer I would have started my own firm with a couple of friends who left the firm right when I quit, and had asked me to go with them. If things had worked out, I'd have at least doubled my income. So in that sense I suffered.
And when the stock market crashed my income as an analyst crashed too, and stayed down for a couple of years. At its lowest it was about 30% lower than in my last year as a lawyer. So in that sense I also suffered.
But my income has recovered and this year it will be about 2X what it was in my last year as a lawyer. So in that sense I haven't suffered.
See, it depends on how you measure it.
It was totally worth it. I was really bored with being a lawyer, many of the other lawyers I had started with were bored. I don't think I could have remained a lawyer for another 9 years. Well, maybe I could have, but I'd likely be a miserable guy by now, anguishing over lost opportunities and wasting my life. Instead, I like what I do - sometimes I love it - and I'm challenged to learn something new every day.
One thing to remember is that the workplace penalizes older people. By the time you're 40, it's damn hard to change careers. Unless you can slide sideways into some related field, you're probably going to start at the bottom rung again, and some 25 y/o guy isn't going to want to hire or supervise someone 20 years older. I ran into that a lot when I was looking for my first job out of B-school, and I was just 36-37. I guess this will depend a lot on the field, but beware.
Another thing to remember is that you are in fact starting as a novice. You can't come in with a big head, feeling that you know more than everyone, or that you're owed special treatment, because of your years in the prior career. Some of the older guys I went to B-school with had that problem, and they had a really hard time transitioning. You've got to be just as humble, hungry, and hard-working as you were when you were 20.
The biggest point to remember: all of the challenges and pitfalls of changing careers don't compare to spending the rest of your one and only life toiling away doing something you don't want to be doing.
Quote:
Originally posted by VaSteve
Anyone here change careers? Please answer some questions for me....
What did you do before? Do now?
How old were you?
How much did you suffer financially? Not a dollar quantity, just qualitatively. Or a %, maybe.
How long did it take you to recover (assuming you did)?
How long did it take to make a full transition?
Was it worth it? Really, we all make mistakes.
What other pitfalls, problems did you have?
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