If you had to start your career over again, what would you do?

I was raised in the country and heard all the time “go learn a trade! Fck college! Make that money without debt!”


And I regret listening to it. Sure being blue collar makes good money fast but I’m only 30 and burned out of it. I hate killing my body and back daily, having to work stupid hours and overtime, and being pretty limited on a salary cap.

if I spent 10 years in a different field , I would’ve started off lower but would be making more than I am now after 10 years in the welding world. And I could do it in the AC and use my brain more than my back.

I don’t know what I’m gonna switch to or how , but I’m on a mission to find a job that pays the same (60k) or more but without taking years off my life to earn it.

 

anything but factory work.

 

After HS I joined the Navy and did 8 years on active duty and got a Bachelors degree.

After the Navy I became a cop and have worked for a major metro area Department for 19 years. I’m too close to retirement now to leave despite being burned out. If I left now I’d just leave too much money on the table. Don’t get me wrong, the job has been good to me and I make a decent living. It has just taken a toll.

If I could press a do over button…. I’d get a biology degree and do some sort of conservation work. Maybe study fisheries or something along those lines.

I guess it would just be nice not to be treated with such rancor and worry that the next shift will be my last.

 

Wife and I went thru that in our mid 30's. Got out of lucrative tech jobs and moved to Maui. Lived in Lahaina loved it and sold art in the galleries. The wife hostessed at the cheeseburger in Paradise. We made about 75k a year (prior around 250k). Rid of everything showed up their with a laptop, bag of clubs and a duffel bag, no place to live. Rode bikes the first year there and then bought a $400 audi 4000s with 186k miles on it (prior car was a 1998 Mercedes c43 AMG, and 1999 SLK 230 AMG). Did that for about 5 years. Moved to Oahu and we got lured back into IT and analytics and made more money that we would have if we had stayed in and only do jobs on our terms. Amazing what happens when you control your own life and can tell people to pound sand they want you more (learned that in sales the take away sale ). (Whether you have FU money or not act like you do) Realized we didn't need to keep up with the Joneses and because of that we can now blow the Joneses away. I called it midlife retirement. Why Wait? you can always go back. It gave us great focus on what's important and what's not. It also taught us we can survive and prosper no matter what we do and your job and career don't define you. Best of all I learned a lot from people who had gone thru similar experiences an had come out the other side. It was a great 5 years of experience that was priceless.

 

I think these days, a lot of people are going through the same COVID realization:
- life's too short to stay in a work environment that is quickly grinding your life away...

I had many career tracks before I "hit my stride." It takes a bit of luck, combined with good fortune, and some bli d faith. Also, making career changes like this gets harder (and involves much less options) after you hit 40. Cost of living, and juggling married life, career development, and financial considerations are much more complex after this point.

With that in mind, here's my career path:

16: realized I didn't know a f*$k about anything, so enlisted into the Navy (yes, my parents signed for me while I awaited graduating HS, was the only good thing they did for me).
17: Navy boot camp, tech training in aviation electronics. Realistically, became a gate guard, and flight line person (glorified airport gas station tech).
21: Warehouse worker, delivery (small p/u truck delivery covering 350 miles/day route).
22: went to college, AA in General Studies (akin to basket weaving).
24: picked up another Assic. in Forestry/Land Surveying
25: Worked in a paperboard mill. Long house, back breaking work, mill closed down, and went on unemployment for 6 mos. Took opportunity to take many interview/resume building workshops for free through Inemployment Office.
26-32: First Land Surveying Job, took evening classes for AutoCAD. Drafter, then got into GIS.
34 to today: Utility Tech, GIS Tech...Sr GIS Analyst. During this time, got a BS (4 year degree). Make good bank, and have a career that I do like.

I've had many hobbies, and experiences along the way, that makes me a very fluid worker, which will tend to happen as you make your journey through life.

So, my suggestion is:

1. Before you leave your current profession, check out your Unployment Office, see if they have any career surveys, and better yet, Resume building, and Interview skills workshops. This is especially important I'd you've not had to look for work for awhile.

2. Take the jump, but expect to put in the work to rebuild the new career.

You'll likely find you'll be competing with a much younger workforce that is able to work for cheaper (this is true moreso if you're over a more "seasoned" person, with family, mortgage, car payments, and other costs of living). But, oftentimes, the younger workers won't have the many life skills you'll possess, so keep that in mind as well.

Best of luck!

 

$250k doing tech careers ?

what’s the first step or move you’d recommend for someone looking into a career in that field?

the money would be nice but personally I want the freedom/option of working remote when possible and not getting burned all day welding.

 

Don't buy into the hype. People will tell you take this 6 week course for 10k and you'll make 100k next week and work 100% remote, you will just be out 10k and it'll never happen. Only 3% of the workforce was 100% remote prior to the pandemic and alot of those companies right now are pulling people back in. Try a course in Udemy for $15 and see how you like it. If you are creative type use Tableau and learn SQL. Join a Tableau user group in your area network with people. Learn Statistics and understand business. IT is very vast in what you can do. You can be a cellar dweller and never see the light of day or be a data scientist and be out on the front lines presenting and solving puzzles and mysteries.

It really depends on how you are wired and if critical thinking is your thing. I'd say honestly only 5% of the people in this field actually have critical thinking not sure what the other 95% are doing here lol. I would at this point love to learn how to weld and if I could do it over again would have become an electrician. One advantage you have as a welder is getting paid for every hour. As a FTE at a company doing tech they can work you 70 plus hours a week including weekends, put you on call etc. you really don't have much freedom and that extra 30 hours of OT a week is free for them anyway , and you can do it all over again the next week again for free.

 

If i could start my career over again, i would've tried to work more internships while in college instead of working for the quick buck catering food or in retail. Many friends of mine we able to work those internships which turned into an early employment letter making a nice salary before even graduating college. Having grown up working hard since 14 in restaurants i kind of assumed my work ethic would land me a nice job early on, however it took many years to get there and in 2009-2010 wasn't the best time to graduate with a basic business degree.

One temp job my friend took sounded like a fun entry level job working for for the BMW M Group power tour. They would drive and transport all the Motorsport cars for press launches, shows, driver events and work the events, shuttle people around, etc. Worked the events by day driving around sub 100k vehicles, partied at night, what more would you want said my 22 year old brain.

 

have you considered inspection? specifically weld inspection, but if you are in TX then there is always more infrastructure being built and you could expand on your weld inspection to do all types of construction inspection, bridge inspection, etc.

 

I know I'm quoting myself but, I am 4 months into work and 7 months into school and I have to say; I am loving the time I've had for myself and family!

I've been on more vacations in these few months than I did in years at my old job. Multiple trips to Las Vegas, many wheeling trips, tons of camping trips, etc.

Hell I even welded up my own bumper at work seeing as how I now have a full shop at my disposal.

This career has been the best decision I've ever made.

 

I would not join the navy but instead go straight to college. Go straight into an Electrical Engineering degree instead of now finally getting my associates.

 

kinda surprised, not one person here mentioned being a race car driver or porn star if they could do it all over again...
everyone wants to relive the same nightmare??

 

Being a porn star would be miserable for real lol. You’d have such a emotional disconnect from sex that it would ruin you if you ever wanted to get married AND then who wants to explain to their kids one day why their parent is having sex on the internet with strangers.

 

those are not strangers, those are daddys coworkers

 

I'd like be a porn star that works remote

 

Same. I went into HVAC straight out of high school. Worked in a fab shop for a few years and the went into the oil fields and made good money. Decided to become an ironworker as well along the way and have J-man tickets in both. By the time I became an ironworker I was pretty much done with it. Worked a few more years with a ton of overtime killing myself.

I really like both trades and have a lot of fun on job sites but I always found myself working too hard. I never say no to anything and will work all day if given the chance even if it's exhausting me.

I'm 37 now and wondering what the heck I should do. I worked as a bike courier for two years and now work in a bike shop. I enjoy it for the most part but the pay isn't really there and at the end of the day it isn't super fulfilling.

Im truly fortunate that my wife is now, by far, the breadwinner of the house so I can try and figure it out.

I've found a job as a school bus driver for the next school year. I think that could be pretty fun. I like kids but I also get to just drop them off at school or home and be done with them. Haha. Plus it leaves me with the middle of the day to keep the house in order so my wife and I can enjoy the evenings without chores and errands.

Still... I'd like a "career" at some point that I don't loathe to go to every day.

I remember I had an ironworking job at the airport. Every morning I'd look at the news as soon as woke up to see if there was some sort of terrorism overnight that would shut the airport down so I didn't have to go in. What a shit way, and a shit attitude, to start a day with.

 

Can relate to the over 40 thing. Been at my job 22 years and I like the job but the pay isn't progressing like it once did..actually regressing and in some ways I don't agree at all with. Tough to think of going elsewhere because:

The perks: 5 weeks vacation ain't happening when I walk in somewhere, which is important for its intrinsic value plus having a family member needing help. I have a pension on top of the 401K which is not happening anywhere pretty much other than union work.

The insurance has been better but still better than most other places, especially important at 48 and 60 years old.

True re the last piece. Those people aren't as much in for the perks like I mentioned as just a paycheck.

 

I was thrown a curve a few years ago at the age of 39 or 40...can't remember. I was working for large automotive brake parts manufacturer as the tech/failure analysis/QC/bunch of other stuff guy....I enjoyed the work but grew to hate the job as we became more and more corporate. I left for about 6 months to direct a technician training program for a large wholesale parts distributor...but that came to an end when COVID hit. So I went back to the old job for about 8 months until we got bought out and the new overlords fired most of the people (me included) and moved our jobs to call centers in Romania and Mexico. I had spent 19 years getting to be about the best at what I did....I didn't really want to start over, so I started my own business doing all the things my way that we used to do at work the wrong way. Last year was my first full year in business and it was a good year. Next year should be better. Its a shit ton of hours, but rewarding. Most of the profits went towards inventory and a new company truck (tacoma..lol)....I'm trying to sit real heavy on inventory due to several factors in the industry that have come up recently, but this year should be a good one if the first month was any indicator of what's to come.

 

Sounds like a lot of time working, but if it's something that directly benefits you that's much different than a salary job expecting you to work that kind of schedule for sure.

 

As someone who did the opposite and did the college degree and office job route, all I can say is I wish I never did school and went into the trades.

Office jobs are the new modern slavery. We make no money and are used and abused by our corporate overlords until we quit or die.

My brother and I graduated HS at the same time. He went into structural welding and I went into copyright and intellectual property management.

He makes over 110k/ year and I can't afford to heat my ghetto apartment. Go figure lol
Fk school and fk working for large corporations.