Antikarma

After years of sitting in a suit at a desk and feeling useless, and after many discussions with my wife, I finally bit the bullet and decided to do a career 180. Today I signed a contract to start my apprenticeship as an electrician.

I absolutely could not take the office politics, the mundanity, the feeling that at the end of the day absolutely nothing had been achieved, or that my job could have been completed by a drunken monkey. I've worked for the government or consulting firms for years, and I never want to be in a suit or an office again.

The guy who hired me commented that he'd never had someone as old as me start his apprenticeship. Surely I'm not the only one who has decided to do a career 180. Anyone else decide to take a different route than the one they originally planned on?

__________________

"Whoever you are, go out into the evening,
leaving your room, of which you know each bit;
your house is the last before the infinite,
whoever you are."

squirrelyburt

I haven't done what you have, happy doing what I am. but good for you! Life is too short to be miserable in your job! Good luck!! And age don't matter, sometimes we do a better job than younger folks, perhaps the ''experience of life'' can keep us more focused.

__________________
If you've ever felt there was a reason to be afraid of the dark, you were right.

mikec

I've been dying to do just what you said - but losing the steady paycheck keeps me chained down like a drunken monkey. good luck!!

__________________
Until the 20th century, reality was everything humans could touch, smell, see, and hear. Since the initial publication of the charted electromagnetic spectrum, humans have learned that what they can touch, smell, see, and hear is less than one millionth of reality

StephenSa

I'm thirty-seven and am in the midst of a drastic career change now. I've worked for many years in advertising/video production and have grown completely sick of it. I'm going into the the health and fitness field. I'm attending the Cooper Institute in July (tuition has been paid, no backing out now!) and will be leaving my current position sometime soon after (when I get offered a job!). You sound a lot like me. I go home every day completely unsatisfied and exhausted from doing nothing worthwhile. I commute for an hour each way to a job I loathe. Lifes just too short for that. I'll take a huge drop in pay but I think the emotional satisfaction will more than make up for it. Actually I'm very good at what I do and I hate it so I figure if I actually LIKED my job then perhaps the skies the limit on my success. I know for sure if I'm never on another location shoot or studio set again it'll be too soon. I say if you can at all pull it off financially, even if it takes a bit of belt tightening and sacrifice, do it. Who knows what gold lies in a happier, more contented future? COngratulations on your new direction and on getting your wife to buy in on the idea. When I first suggested it to my wife I thought I'd get a lot of resistance but she's seen how unhappy I've been and jumped right on the band wagon telling me to go for it. God I love that woman!

__________________
Thousands of Monkeys, all screaming at once. Pulling God's finger.

BigBen

The monkey that could do my job was doing some drunk driving and recieved a severe head injury. My performance has never been better...

Seriously, the desk I am tied down to just keeps getting projects thrown at it. I have yet to finish anything. Things just keep going along, and we have a paranoia about saying that something is finished, so we (the monkey and I) put the file in a cabinet until the issue flares up again. It is so frustrating that I would like to electrocute myself.

I have done it the other way though... suffered the back-breaking physical labour and long hours for shitty pay. This tie is feeling pretty good right now. Thank you for reminding me why I like having a brain-injured monkey job. The fucking monkey gets paid more and does less than the guy on the ground with the wrench in hand.

I congratulate you on having the courage to do what you did. Electricians get paid good money where I am.

Could you rig a button to my desk that sends a powerful electrical current to the person walking by? I would pay you for your time.

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3.141592654
Hey, if you are impressed with my memorizing pi to 10 digits, you should see the size of my penis.

Antikarma

My wife was the same way. Luckily my wife is a sugar momma and makes enough to support us while going through the training and apprenticeship, but even I was shocked when she supported me. She told me she was wondering when I was going to quit, and was happy I had decided what I REALLY wanted to do.

Now if only I could get over the "living 2000 kilometers away from her and the kids for a year" thing I'd be set, heh. But like you said, no backing out now.

And ten years from now, I'll be a helluva lot happier than I will if I were still at that water cooler

__________________

"Whoever you are, go out into the evening,
leaving your room, of which you know each bit;
your house is the last before the infinite,
whoever you are."

StephenSa

Again, good for you Antikarma! Again, similar story. My wife makes enough to support us while I work towards my new goals. In fact the other day she asked why I hadn't already quit! I told her I couldn't go to school until July anyway and it could take a while to get decent employment so why not keep slugging it out and until everything (well, most things) were in place. I didn't realize you'd have to live so far from your family. I don't know if my wife would've gone for that so you've definitely got a good one! The looking back ten years from now thing is what got me as well. I have trouble going in each day. Ten more years would kill me! I've already wasted enough time working just to get a paycheck. Now I want a paycheck and some job satisfaction too. I don't think big career changes are as uncommon as we tend to think. Heck, people change and what seemed like a good idea ten, even twenty years ago might not work for the person you've grown in to. Change can be good. It keeps us young and alive! Good luck with your new path.

__________________
Thousands of Monkeys, all screaming at once. Pulling God's finger.

eribrav

I applaud your courage. Also, I think you've chosen an excellent field to enter. In this part of NY there is a real lack of skilled tradespeople.

BTW, you didn't tell us how old you are?

Antikarma

ooops, I'm 27.

__________________

"Whoever you are, go out into the evening,
leaving your room, of which you know each bit;
your house is the last before the infinite,
whoever you are."

RickB

I think I read somewhere that most people have 3 or 4 "careers" in their lifetimes. I know I didn't start my current one until I was about 32. As long as you like what you are doing and it keeps your life interesting, I'd say congratulation on your career change.

absorbentishe

Work sucks not matter what. I congratulate you on doing what you did. The only thing stopping me is the 4 mouths to feed that are at my house. I lost my job right before christmas, and it took me 6 weeks to find a new one, and it's a sales job. When I signed on, I didn't think it was sales, and after 3 months, I'm growing tired of the b-s, not selling enough, and my response is I didn't sign on to sell. I know where I'll be soon, so I need to start re-thinking my path.

Rodney

Age 49. Career change: technical writer to elementary school teacher. 1/3 the money, exhausting work, but it was the right thing to do.

Your life, as you live it, is nothing but memories. Memories and experience that you add to your being and which make your existence richer. I looked back on the last three years of my job and found almost nothing worth remembering. Whole months were blank. I almost suffered from sensory deprivation. In my new job, hard though it is, I find something new worth remembering every day. I've lived more in the last year than in the previous 10 years, at least on the job. Not everything that happens is fun, but even the worst days I have beat the numb and lifeless existence I had in CorporateLand.