Changing Careers - Returning to School. (universities, degree, salary, biology)
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So I've decided to do it. And everyday I wonder if I'm crazy. And then I think I'd be crazy not to follow my dream. I currently work in real estate/banking - something I sort of "fell" into. I made good money, work for a great company. I could grow and develop for years here. But I don't enjoy the work. My passion is genetics/biology/neuroscience. Has been for years.
I'm scared to leave the stability of a good income. (I will have to relocate for school - there are no good programs in my area for this. I'm an adult (30) with responisibilities and bills to pay. Of course I will have to work, at LEAST part-time while in school.
Who on this forum has done this? Left a good, stable job to go back to school and completely change careers? I'm driving myself nuts with the "go for it" vs. "you're nuts" voices in my head!!!!!!!
I think you should go for it. It will be hard for a few years but in the long run you will be much happier with your decision. Im thinking about doing the same thing, im in a similar situation. I got a degree in Linguistics with a focus on Neurolinguistics and would love to go to grad school for Cognitive Science. I am now working in finance and making pretty good money but it is not my passion. It just pays the bills. I want to apply to grad school but I want to get a handle on my debt first. My plan is to finish paying off my credit card debt by the end of this year and then next year apply to a few programs around the country. I hope I dont chicken out and just stick to my plan.
Around the office I hear many people saying how if they could be my age again they would do things differently and take a different career path. I dont want to be one of those people. I dont think it's ever too late to go back and change your career but the sooner you do it the better it will be.
Let's look at it from an economic perspective. In order to establish what the opportunity cost of making that career change you have to realistically establish where you'll be sitting once you get going with the re-education and job likelihood after such re-education. What is the demand for genetics/neuroscience these days? Where are the hot spots for such work? It is localized to a metroplex in particular, or will you depend on the universities and academic work to find a niche? How much are you going in the hole for the re-education? Then there is the starting salary differential to your current employment, and time required to make up the lost income while in school. That's your opportunity cost.
Bear in mind I didn't include the non-currency value of such a career move, which incidentally IS the primary reason you're thinking about it in the first place. Look, in a perfect world we would all be able to pursue our passions in life AND be able to afford the lifestyle we think we deserve while pursuing such vocation. The real world unfortunately doesn't work this way. Some of us found vocations that we love but that "cannot pay the rent", so to speak, this is truly the paradox of the american dream (not home ownership as classicaly viewed). If it was that fruitful of an endeavor you've done it in the first place instead of getting into banking, so clearly there were reasons you didn't pursue it in the first place. Also bear in mind that the income you have today has you anchored in. Your family is accustomed to it and it gets you by. By voluntarily displacing yourself from that situation for several years with NO promise of making more, or even the same income, will put pressure on your family and not everybody will necessarily see it as rosy as you do. If you are unmarried and no kids, then that aspect of the opportunity cost becomes way way more bearable. Also the older you get the more expensive your cost of living gets, because as you suggested with age people get into more responsibilities which directly impact their monthly minimum number.
If I were you I would seriously take a look at what it takes to get to a position in that industry that you find comfortable, take a look at the competition for such position, the current demand, and the ladder to get there. If, when adding that cost to the cost of relocating and re-training, you see that you just put your financial self-sufficiency in hold for years, then my friend you just need to accept the fact that the banking thing it's just a job and pursue the field as a hobby or find a hobby to keep your mind off it. People commonly complain about a job that suits their economic needs but leaves them bored/empty inside. What you don't commonly hear is the flip of that coin, people who pursued their passion in life and are starving. From somebody who is in that position (I'm a pilot and I love what I do but I'm certainly behind in my ability/expectation when it comes to compensation, I'm also trained as an engineer, so that's my opportunity cost) I can tell you that the stress of hating your job with good money is no different than loving the *idea* of your job but having no money to enjoy life. People making good money can always say 'yeah I hate my job', but when faced with the opportunity cost of slashing your salary in half, particularly to below a living wage, for the luxury of pursuing your love in life, most people gut check that and realize they wouldn't tolerate not being able to afford anything they did yesterday for the inconvenience of being bored at work. 'Self-fulfilment level' is an afterthought when you can't meet the 'basic need' level of the pyramid, which is why starving for a happy job doesn't work; let's face it if everybody could make a living at what they love these threads wouldn't exist.
Good luck in whatever you decide, as a final recommendation, since you didn't say, if your annual income TODAY is at least twice above the median individual (40K), so 80K, and your starting salary in the new job, after substracting re-payment of training cost, does not reach the median income (40K), then don't do it, you won't be able to catch-up in less than a decade. At 30, you'd be 40 before you can go back to your previous life at 30, it's a bad economic move. If your current salary is less than the median of 40K then it's a wash so you could do it and come out ahead. good luck
Last edited by hindsight2020; 03-27-2008 at 11:42 AM..
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