I began writing this article by profiling a few of my clients who succeeded in changing careers.
But on reflection, I decided that you might derive more benefit from composite profiles with nuggets drawn from among the literally thousands of clients I've worked with over the last 30 years.
From psychotherapist to librarian. From way back in high school, Molly wanted to be a psychotherapist—She was always helping friends with their personal and relationship issues. So she majored in psychology and went on to get a masters and marriage-and-family therapy license.. Modestly, she attributes the ease with which she then landed a job at an Employee Assistance firm to the Mental Health Parity Act, which requires that mental health services be provided to the same extent as physical health ones. But trained in and believing in long-term therapy, she grew frustrated with the company’s ten-session limit and because her husband had a good, benefited job, she decided to quit and start a psychotherapy practice. Alas, she wasn’t a great marketer and so had a tough time attracting clients. And perhaps because in recent years, clients too wanted faster results, she had trouble retaining them. So at age 34, she decided to look for a new career that would still allow her to help people in a peaceful environment. So she got a master’s in library and information sciences. Having heard that it was difficult to land a job as a public librarian, she focused on becoming an academic librarian who specialized in psychology. She tried to land a job at a university library near home but couldn’t and so applied in geographic areas near where her husband could be transferred. After applying for dozens of jobs and having networked by participating in American Library Association conferences and online forums, she landed a job as the psychology librarian at a university in the South.
From financial analyst to novelist. Growing up in a family with a gardener dad and stay-at-home mom, Neil saw his father’s income decline to unsustainable as the number of gardeners increased. So Neil decided to aim for a career that would pay well and likely continue to. So he majored in business with a quantitative emphasis and after graduation got a job as a financial analyst at a large investment firm. But within months, he grew sad at the thought of a life staring at a computer to decide which stocks deserved a buy rating. He admired John Grisham who leveraged his experience as a lawyer to become a novelist and decided to try something parallel: writing fiction set in financial services firms. He started by, evenings and weekends, replacing TV watching and video-game playing with writing short stories—Before committing to writing a novel, let alone quitting his well-paying job as an analyst, he wanted to see how readers reacted to his stories. So he posted his creations on his blog and submitted them to contests. His blog got some traffic and positive comments, and two of his short stories won honorable mention in a contest, not a clear sign that he should quit his job. But as time went on, Neil grew more dispirited at the thought that his career would be number cruncher. So, single and unencumbered, he quit and started writing in earnest. He has yet to make more than $100 for a piece for his fiction but supports his fiction writing dream by doing financial writing gigs for his former employer and other financial services companies: writing mutual fund annual reports, letters to shareholders, etc. He has acquired a literary agent, providing him some hope of eventually making his living from fiction writing.
Fundraiser to tech sales. Michelle was non-profit-oriented from the get-go. Although growing up in and attending college in Silicon Valley, she majored in sociology and, in college, described herself as a social justice warrior. So, after graduating, she got a job at a women’s non-profit by arguing that because she was young, she could be an effective fundraiser for the many young women now hired in Silicon Valley. But she had a hard time giving convincing yet honest answers to tough questions from potential donors. One question really stumped her, indeed rocked her: “What’s your evidence that my dollars donated to your charity would make a bigger difference than if I gave it to other charities or even invested it in my company’s stock, which makes products that improve the life of every customer?” Michelle had no answer, which led her to look for a job selling software for a company she believed might, as the questioner said, more clearly make a difference in people's lives. In her networking, job applications, and interviewing, she argued that the skills used in fundraising were those also needed in sales. After an extended, focused effort, she landed a job at a company that sold a well-regarded app for managing anxiety.
Botanist to program evaluator. Bookish and mathematical, Sarah got a PhD in botany and landed a job at a leading food grain company. Her goal was to use gene editing to try to create more disease-resistant and protein-enriched wheat for export to developing nations. But progress was far slower than she had hoped and, after a year, decided to switch to a field with faster progress and more novelty—She had grown bored of working on the same project for a whole year. Googling on such terms as “statistics careers” and “research methodology careers,” she discovered the field of program evaluation. She applied for jobs at evaluation firms and government agencies, and landed a job evaluating innovative education programs for the U.S. Department of Education.
The takeaway
These composite stories may imply that changing careers is easy. It is not. Most of my clients who attempted a radical career change ended up deciding to merely tweak their existing career: get their job description changed to accentuate their strengths and preferences, move to a new boss or place of employment, and/or up-skill so they could make a modest pivot within their career, for example, a psychotherapist taking a course in counseling interracial couples.
But if you are unhappy in your current career, I hope these anecdotes provide some ideas and even inspiration.
