The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
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Ok anybody here done a career change? Know any good resources for counseling/assessment or just getting ideas for a new career?
I had a massive career shift about a decade ago, moving from my background and training to something almost completely unrelated. The reason for the change was primarily to switch cities and be with my girlfriend (now wife, this worked perfectly). I disliked what I was doing enough that even though it was a difficult decision, I was able to talk myself into it. Ultimately, the switch resulted in much higher compensation and much more enjoyment of my new work than my old work. There was no counseling or assessment to be done - I had spent two years in a long-distance relationship, it was time to fix that situation, and switching careers to something that was good enough to get the move done was an acceptable tradeoff.
The biggest piece of advice I could give my old self is that I should have been quicker to make that switch and more flexible about what I was switching to. Holding a career as an identity, for me, was a pointless waste of time that was based on personal insecurity rather than a genuine love of what I was doing. Switching careers added new skills, made me a lot more money, and offered opportunities for personal and professional growth. There was little or no meaningful risk involved - if I had disliked what I switched to, going back after a couple years would have not only been feasible, but I likely would also have had a better position thanks to the broader set of marketable skills I had acquired. Risk aversion in careers tends to be a mistake for people with skills that scale well across different companies and roles.
Yeah, I'm probably a bit too afraid of risk. Part of the issue, as I mentioned above is that I've developed chronic health problems and I'm plagued with the worry that they'll fuck up whatever career I switch to, as they fucked up my last one. Alas.
I should likely just go out and try something that seems like a decent fit with a future at this point, and be willing to switch down the road if it's not.
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