Why You Should Consider a Career Change

Two years ago I was teaching philosophy at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and at Cabrillo College (a local community college). Now I am a senior content developer for a major textbook publishing company, and I am happier now than I had been in a long time. I owe a substantial portion of this increased happiness to my career change, which was frightening at the time, but in retrospect it was the best thing to happen to my professional life in a long time.

As an adjunct college instructor and lecturer, I was making less than $40,000 per year, and I did not have consistent employment. Every term, I would have to scrounge to find teaching work, and I often had to supplement my teaching work with other income such as from retail or construction work. While I loved the face-to-face interaction with my students, I was often frustrated by the long hours, difficult students, administrative bureaucracy, and the general thanklessness of being a teacher.

After the spring term of 2008, I was unable to locate any teaching work for the following fall, which meant that I had to seek out other options. By chance I stumbled upon a job posting for a philosophy/logic content writer position with my current company. After the interview process I was hired, and I haven't looked back since. The hours are longer, and I get significantly less time off than I did as an adjunct instructor. But the work is satisfying, still within my field of expertise, and I make more than double the salary that I was making as an adjunct instructor.

Being in a non-academic job has given me a sense of stability and tranquility in this time of economic unrest, and I have been given the opportunity to pursue work that will affect not just a handful of students, but instead thousands of students at once. At times I do miss the face-to-face interaction with my students, but I now work in an office that is genuinely collaborative, fun, and full of people who are passionate about what they do for a living. So the trade-off was well worth it, in my mind.

If you are dissatisfied with your present career, my advice for you is to be open to the possibility of reinventing your professional life through a career change. You could change careers radically, or try to find something tangentially related to your current career but with a greater chance for success, income, or stability. In previous generation, it was common to have one or two careers during a lifetime. However, it is more common for the current generation to change careers multiple times in the course of a lifetime. So your chance at success may be dependent on your ability to roll with the punches and find opportunities in times of professional crisis or dissatisfaction.

Changing careers can be a frightening and trying experience, since you do not know beforehand whether the career change will be a good move. However, you should trust your instincts when evaluating your current career. If you are unhappy a lot of the time, overly stressed out or exhausted, or have lost the passion for what you are doing, then a career change may be the right solution. But, you should use caution so that you do not make a hasty career move. Do your research beforehand, obtain whatever supplemental education or training you may need, and take the plunge only when you have a solid plan in place. By contrast, if you are looking for a new career out of necessity due to a layoff or downsizing, then you have nothing to lose in forging a new career path.

In conclusion, a career change can be a good way to reinvigorate your professional life and find the happiness, stability, or success you have been wanting. Trust your instincts and your gut feelings to know whether a career change is right for you, but use your head and your mind to find the new career path that suits you best when you decide to change careers.