Tell me your "career change" sucess stories

Thanks puppage. The corporate grind is sucking the life out of me! Definitely time for a change.

 

after military, construction w/college on the side.

then to quality control inspector to dept manager.

they went out of business and a friend had me shuttle6 wheelers around the south east and I was hooked.

haven't looked back for almost 30 yrs.

don't go as far (no northeast or far west) or make as much, but home every weekend, friday night to monday AM.

still like driving. hate big cities though.lol

 

Necessity made me change careers. I worked for a local sheriff's office and my wife teaches. I had rank and I loved my job. When we had our son my paycheck didnt keep up with our expenses so I sold all my stuff and drove a van up to North Dakota and lived in my van for almost a year to get us caught up. I only saw my wife and son once in that time period when a nice family who had oil money gave me a roundtrip ticket home for 5 days. While I was there I learned what a demand there is for truck drivers. It was a way for me to come home every 3 or 4 weeks to support them instead of once or twice a year. I went to truck school and now I am an OTR driver. Where we live in Tennessee there isn't much work but my son gets to grow up around family and in the country and that is important to me. North Dakota is where work is. So is truck driving. Sometimes in order to eat you have to follow the herd.

 

Man, I couldn't agree more. The money is great, but at this stage in my life, 52, it's not what I am after. I've banked a bunch and don't really need much. Recently divorced, no kids, and in the midst of selling my home which will only add the the bank acct. I am SO tired and bored of Corp IT Sales I am going nuts. Time to do something for ME, ya know?

Pete

 

Sounds like we think alike puppage. No wife or kids here either. I was planning to stick it out another 5 or ten years, but I just cant do it. I havent saved a bunch of money (less than 250k), but I've run the numbers and should be able to retire comfortably assuming I can make 50k trucking after my first year. It is still a stupid decision financially for me, but so be it.

 

I hear ya, man. The reality is that I think we'll surprise ourselves with what we can live on. I am sure, like me, you've wanted to drive for years. It may very well be the dumbest decision we could ever make, but to go through life not attempting to do something you've always wanted to seems foolish.
I just know know that I am tired of the babies in IT I have to deal with on a fail basis. To heck with the money.

 

21 years in the Navy as an administrator, then 2 more years as a GS civil servant as an administrator, sooooooooooo bored of being in an office, I wanted to be outside to enjoy the weather! The pay is the same depending on the employer, is more than what I made in an office. I could not do another 20 years in an office just for a 2nd pension, so trucking it is! I like seeing the open plains of the mid west, not being home as much, but used to being gone when in the Navy. With Skype, mobile phone and email, trucking away from home is not so bad!

 

Other occupations and lines of work are doing the same thing. I believe that certain areas of electronics are resorting to the same thing as trucking and flying: If you leave it for any amount of time, you are deemed to start over as a beginner, due to technological advances and changes. In some ways, I can understand it.

 

It definitely makes sense, particularly in the IT field where I come from. The landscape changes almost on a quarterly basis.

 

The landscape maybe at the bleeding edge. But I deal with so many companies that still have a exchange 2003 or a sql 2005 in there extremely old domain. Admittly part of my job recently has been to bring these up to date but god I'm so bored with this job. I used to have such a spark when it came to computers and IT but my current employer has crushed that. I can't wait till I get out of this job. Basement, no window, and I work next to the server rack so I can't even stand to go more then 5 minutes without a pair of headphones on.

I was trying to explain my want to change jobs to my family figuring that there would be a a lot of push back. (You already have a job, Why would you want to do THAT.) But I was suprized as they all knew someone who had done the same thing later in life and thought it was a great idea for me to do it early. It was actually very nice to have their support. I got a lot of offers to stay with them since they (like myself) think its stupid to have an apartment if I'm only going to be "home" a limited amount of time. My grandma even offered to pay for training but I can't bring myself to take that offer.