Major Change of Career, who has done it?

[Burky]

Ok so heres the deal been in the current job over 6yrs, worked in a shop 5yrs prior to that with the same company. Now it's just getting to the point that i have had enough, the political side of things and a few other things that have happened. The main problem is what i want to do? being in retail all my life from sales assistant to National buyer for a major retailer.Wouldn't mind getting out of retail all together, but go to what industry??????

Has any body made this major change, how and money issues going from a reasonable salary to the unknown (morgage/loans/wife/kid)??

Any info or a career adviser, please let me know..

[red_dave]

I went from a retail background into a wholesale company and i haven't looked back at all!

Only advice - make sure you enjoy it - whatever it is!

[Burky]

Thanks Dave, the thing is i don't even know where to start

Thought about going into wholesale, even as a rep. but i know what we do to our reps and to be honest the amout of reps i see there isn't that many happy ones

[red_dave]

It takes a special breed to be a Rep/Account Manager...

[Neka79]

geez mate i kno how u feel...
ive been in retail 10 yrs or so ...since i left school...i wish i was sumthin else now (plumber or sparky or sumthin)...

im pretty much just sick of customers, most of them are assholes, they think if they carry on like a jerk, they will get what the ywant... not at our place, we tell em to bugger off....

thinking of changing myself..have been for a while..but what to do??....

good luck with what ever u choose mate...

[photomike666]

Amazing how many of us seem to be in this boat - can a man truely change his stars... (Extra point for guessing the film).

[daffy67]

It can be a chance of make your own luck, or be in the right place at the right time, or know someone in the right place.

So many variables.
I graduated with an IT/Business degree in 2005 (trying to get into I.T.), and in my final year of Uni i was nightfilling at Coles to pay the bills.
Whilst at Coles i met someone who's in Aviation, i was presented with an opportunity and i'm still working in that industry now even though it was not my intended choice.
Next week i have an interview for a management position after only 2 years in the industry (here's hoping i don't flunk the interview).

It's somewhat of an employees market at the moment, if you have some good transferrable skills then emphasise these in your CV. Get a professionally done CV (have many people critique it before paying $$), don't BS too much as some of it you may have to back up.

Use any contacts you have to let as many people know as possible your looking to expand your horizons, the gift of the gab certainly helps.

Use the 'net, papers, people you know, to search for jobs.

[aardvark]

I spent 9 years in the IT industry before joining the cops. I started off as a tech, then moved to retail sales, then went to wholesale, then went back to being a tech, then went to network design and sales and finally finished up doing wholesale sales again.

I finally got the shits with bosses, customers, looking at walls all day and ridiculous targets, so I thought I'd try something different.

I took a pay cut for a year or so, but now I have a secure career and love what I'm doing.

You don't want to be looking down the barrell of being retired and still hating your job, wishing you'd tried something else.

[Nanna10r]

I did it, but under the safety of a Physical Rehabilitation sponsorship from nsw gov. & went back to College full time for 2 years with a young family. Sure we struggled through that period ... but ....
It was one of the Best things i ever did, even though what i do know is way more stressfull with less money I would.nt be doing anything else.

[Neka79]

Amazing how many of us seem to be in this boat - can a man truely change his stars... (Extra point for guessing the film).

two hands..... heath ledger...

[red_dave]

two hands..... heath ledger...

okay, and i'll have Rose Byrne...

[Glen]

Amazing how many of us seem to be in this boat - can a man truely change his stars... (Extra point for guessing the film).

two hands..... heath ledger...

Close but no Cigar.

That would be A Knights Tale, of course with young Heath before he turned Gay ie Brokeback style....

I haven't changed career, always been in finance but I've worked in a stack of industries ie Manufacturing Consumer Goods, Transport, Steel Manufacturing, Steel Distribution, Wholesale. I've always figured getting as broad a range of experience as possible is good.

[damo137]

yeah, I've bin wanting to change my career for a few years now. I've worked in finance for 15 years and now I am just fed up with it. But with a young family, single income and a reasonable pay packet it's very hard to take the step. And where do I go?? I don't have any other skills....

[esie]

I went from 13 years in banking to a career in health, and I have been studying nursing for 6 years and graduate at the end of the year. When I made the decision to go to uni to study nursing, I had just been promoted to asst branch manager position, and was lining up for branch manager position, with a view to go into commercial lending. I had seriously been considering going to do a commerce degree, but I sat down and had a good think, and realised that banking wasn't what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I stayed with the Bank until halfway through my fourth year of nursing, with the bank trying to persuade me every month or so to swap back to commerce or accounting whilst waving a branch manager carrot under my nose - ie swap into commerce and we will give you XYZ branch manager position. Early through fourth year I began to find it hard to go from a day at uni, or a week on prac, thinking and performing in a nursing role, to going back to arguing with Loan Centre about the status of documents, and advising customers on the best home loans. I was highly stressed, and I started to think about why was I staying in banking, when my future was in health? Although I still got satisfaction from getting someone into their first home, or a business loan for a company to buy it's first commercial building, I wasn't enjoying my working life.

So I applied for, and got into, a communications position with Qld Ambulance as a casual, which I still have and quite enjoy, and is flexible around my uni timetable and weeks out on nursing prac. I also do a couple of shifts a fortnight as an AIN at QEII Hospital to get my hand into nursing and to get known at the hospital I wouldn't mind getting a grad position at. I am looking forward to my new career in nursing, and I believe that I will get a lot of personal satisfaction from it.

The change from a secure permanent position in banking with a successful corporate ladder climb, to a casual position at Ambulance was a huge change, both financially and emotionally, but looking back now, I would have done exactly the same thing! Had I stayed with the Bank and done commerce, I would no doubt be a lot better off financially, but I certainly would be stressed out to the max, unhappy, and wishing for something else.

It might take a couple of years of hard slog studying, apprenticing, working your way up the corporate ladder, but if it means a happier and healthier you and your personal relationship, it is certainly worth it!! I say go for it - you won't recognise the change in yourself!

[Gosling1]

I have been busy shining my arse since 1992, with no plans to change now. The super is *too* good to let go....