Discussion
There have been a few threads on PH in the past about career changes, and the general consensus is go for it if you can. I want a new direction, but for the life of me cannot come up wih anything that really turns me on. There are the usual stupid ideas, pornstar, F1 team owner, member of stadium filling rock band etc, but nothing realistic or sensible.
If you have gone for it, how and why did you choose the particular path that you have taken, and more importantly, has it worked out and brought you what you wanted?
If you have gone for it, how and why did you choose the particular path that you have taken, and more importantly, has it worked out and brought you what you wanted?
Yep, I've done it. From city fund manager to playing with classic and performance cars. 3 years in, it has been fun but very hard work. My motivation for jacking it in (other than hating London) was knowing that I had this opportunity and not done it I would have spend the rest of my life wondering what it would have been like.
Go for it, it is a lot easier (after you've done it) than you think.
Go for it, it is a lot easier (after you've done it) than you think.
cccscotland said:
Yep, I've done it. From city fund manager to playing with classic and performance cars. 3 years in, it has been fun but very hard work. My motivation for jacking it in (other than hating London) was knowing that I had this opportunity and not done it I would have spend the rest of my life wondering what it would have been like.
Go for it, it is a lot easier (after you've done it) than you think.
Nice to know you've done it, but please be more helpful! We need to know what it is you do now, how you financed it, what challenges there were, what sacrifices had to be made etc etc.
I'm also sick of my career (City lawyer - fat salary but can't even afford to buy and run a £10k TVR without a loan due to living costs of London) and seriously thinking about something completely different. All very well people saying 'I did it - it's fine'; but those of us thinking about it need a bit more to go on!
Please help us!
I'm nearly there. Jacked in my corporate whoring as a Sales bod and have almost completed the process of applying for the police. Haven't felt this good in many years 
As for how I did it - got pi$$ed off enough with having to sell $hite to unsuspecting strangers - jacked it in, got a temp job, gym membership and an application pack.
>> Edited by julianhj on Thursday 2nd December 12:24
As for how I did it - got pi$$ed off enough with having to sell $hite to unsuspecting strangers - jacked it in, got a temp job, gym membership and an application pack.
>> Edited by julianhj on Thursday 2nd December 12:24
I got out of being a wage slave and started my own business. Does that count as a career change?
Advice:
1) Work out what you are going to do, how much money it will make, realistically how long it will take to start making money and how to keep startup costs really, really low. Low startup costs is how you make it work.
2) Save up the cash needed to live during the time the business will make no money.
3) Go for it.
The key to making it work is to drive unecessary costs out of both your business and your lifestyle. Its amazing how little you can survive on if you do this.
I imagine some of the above holds true if you are moving from one job type to another. It certainly holds true if you intend to do an MBA / HND in Farming or similar.
Advice:
1) Work out what you are going to do, how much money it will make, realistically how long it will take to start making money and how to keep startup costs really, really low. Low startup costs is how you make it work.
2) Save up the cash needed to live during the time the business will make no money.
3) Go for it.
The key to making it work is to drive unecessary costs out of both your business and your lifestyle. Its amazing how little you can survive on if you do this.
I imagine some of the above holds true if you are moving from one job type to another. It certainly holds true if you intend to do an MBA / HND in Farming or similar.
Harry Flashman said:
Yep, I've done it. From city fund manager to playing with classic and performance cars. 3 years in, it has been fun but very hard work. My motivation for jacking it in (other than hating London) was knowing that I had this opportunity and not done it I would have spend the rest of my life wondering what it would have been like.
Go for it, it is a lot easier (after you've done it) than you think.
Nice to know you've done it, but please be more helpful! We need to know what it is you do now, how you financed it, what challenges there were, what sacrifices had to be made etc etc.
I'm also sick of my career (City lawyer - fat salary but can't even afford to buy and run a £10k TVR without a loan due to living costs of London) and seriously thinking about something completely different. All very well people saying 'I did it - it's fine'; but those of us thinking about it need a bit more to go on!
Please help us!
Sounds exactly like me. Just struggling for ideas just now as being a City lawyer is growing pretty boring. I can't afford to run a TVR either, although I do, which is why I am halfway down the road to bankruptcy. Hurrah
I did it about 14 years ago. Before that I was a Trader and an Equities Analyst, now I head up an IT division of an investment bank. Total career change, although same industry. Certainly was odd, jumping over the fence, but have never looked back. I am big believer, go with it.
I also know a lot of city IT folk who have downsized there jobs because the pressure is still huge and I also admire that.
I also know a lot of city IT folk who have downsized there jobs because the pressure is still huge and I also admire that.
vixpy1 said:
A good plan for the future, Vixpy. However, home counties not much cheaper than London these days, especially when you factor in travelling costs...
Not much cheaper than london.. Pah,
4 bed house in london.. 700K +++
4 bed house in surrey.. 400K
There are 4 bed houses in London at 200K and 4 bed houses in Surrey at well over £1m
They are pretty comparable...
Harry Flashman said:
Nice to know you've done it, but please be more helpful! We need to know what it is you do now, how you financed it, what challenges there were, what sacrifices had to be made etc etc.
For me, I think the most important thing to do was to decide where I wanted to live - After 8 years of London it was really getting to me. Again for me, Edinburgh was an obvious choice - a great, beautiful, exciting, small city that offered all London could, but with the advantage that you could drive for 20 mins, and after that never see a speed camera.
The other thing that is probably not relevant now is the Clapham / Edinburgh property trade was clearly a good one 3 years ago, and this allowed me to raise a good deal of capital to start my own business.
Before that though, the next thing to do was to work out how to make a living. Another of the benefits of Edinburgh was the abundance of Fund Managers should I feel the need to return to that industry. However, the opportunity to do the car thing reared it's head, so I thought I would lose nothing by trying it.
Benefits: once you been your own boss, you will never want to work for anyone else again. Work is tough, but you reap what you sow.
Disadvantages: no guaranteed salary, potential to lose money, bloody government do not make it easy to run a small business.
Mates from London need no excuse to visit, and you probably end up seeing them just as much as if they lived on the other side of London.
I wasn't being glib about it being easy - once you get out of the mindset that your world will collapse if you don't have your stable, well-paid lawyer's job, it's just a small hop of imagination. Do you want to still be doing the same thing in 10 years time and locked into London because the kids are at expensive schools and you can't afford to jack your job in and move away? I see too many of my mates slowly sliding towards that despite protestations that 'next year' they'll sort their lives out. 3 years on, and the change of lifestyle was the best thing I could have done.
So, to recap. 1) change mindset re careerism. It is tough, as we've been sent through school and uni having the need for a career hammered into us, but I think we are probably the first generation to rebel away from that. Telling that when I told my parents of the plans their first reaction was to question whether it was a good use of an oxbridge degree..... They now see the light and think it is great. 2) decide where to live. A close mate who is a lawyer moved from London to a village outside Bristol and is practicing in Bristol, he loves his life - maybe it is not the job but the place? 3) after deciding place think of job. Is their any hobby that could be usefully be used to make a job from? If work is your hobby you need to earn far less money. Go to enterprise agencies and draft business plans, work out whether it is feasible - we've all seen the programs on telly where complete muppets try to open their own business - just because you want to make a living from it doesn't mean you will 4) pull your finger out and do it. The more you time you take, the less likely you are to do it.
Good luck, and remember you only get 1 innings at life...
>> Edited by cccscotland on Friday 3rd December 10:32
>> Edited by cccscotland on Friday 3rd December 10:34
cccscotland said:
Is their any hobby that could be usefully be used to make a job from? If work is your hobby you need to earn far less money.
My hobby was radio & electronics in my teens. Eventually I got an electronics-based job, then another and another, and no longer have any interest in picking up a soldering iron when I come in from work.
Ian
Nevin said:
cccscotland said:
Yep, I've done it. From city fund manager to playing with classic and performance cars. 3 years in, it has been fun but very hard work. My motivation for jacking it in (other than hating London) was knowing that I had this opportunity and not done it I would have spend the rest of my life wondering what it would have been like.
Go for it, it is a lot easier (after you've done it) than you think.
Nice to know you've done it, but please be more helpful! We need to know what it is you do now, how you financed it, what challenges there were, what sacrifices had to be made etc etc.
I'm also sick of my career (City lawyer - fat salary but can't even afford to buy and run a £10k TVR without a loan due to living costs of London) and seriously thinking about something completely different. All very well people saying 'I did it - it's fine'; but those of us thinking about it need a bit more to go on!
Please help us!
Sounds exactly like me. Just struggling for ideas just now as being a City lawyer is growing pretty boring. I can't afford to run a TVR either, although I do, which is why I am halfway down the road to bankruptcy. Hurrah
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