I've seen quite a few people jump into construction here in the Houston area from other industries (primarily from O&G layoffs, etc). There's a good bit of opportunity as construction (especially residential) seems to be going strong in the major cities. I think some people shy away because of the misconception that the only opportunities out there are builders/superintendents. That simply not true. Lots of opportunities in sales and field roles, but there are plenty of jobs out there that translate well from other industries (accounting, procurement, planning, IT, etc). I work in the building materials supplier side of things and I would love to see some people come in from other industries to give some fresh perspective and ideas. The VAST majority of our mid to high level employees have never worked for another company, much less in a different industry and it shows (in a bad way).
Changing Careers at 40
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Last: 2 yr ago by FarmerKeith
I did not read all the post. Have you considered Higher Education? Universities and colleges have job that would allow you to teach or to work on the administrative side. Try higheredsjobs.com Not all universities post jobs on this site so you might check the websites of universities in your area. Be sure to read each job description as the title might not reflect the job duties.
Deputy Travis Junior said:
Lots of burnt-out lawyers chiming in on this thread, so it seems like a great place to get informed opinions.
I'm married to a lawyer who's at ~8 years of experience (2 as a prosecutor, 6 in civil insurance defense). Her hours are terrible - she bills 7-8 hours every weekday and usually 6-10 over the weekend - and it's grinding her into dust. It's seriously been 8 months since she took a weekend completely off.
Any recs on achieving legal escape velocity? What have y'all done or what have your friends done to escape the firm grind?
Has she considered hanging a shingle? Her prosecutorial experience could probably qualify her for some court appointments. It's a start. Controlling your own hours is, well, amazing. And the bankruptcy poster is dead on: you don't have to bill too many hours to make a good living. And the control you have over your life makes it feel sustainable.
On air broadcaster/journalist to sales at the age of 35.
Drug my family all over Texas and the Midwest. Radio for half of the time and ended it in Television.
The TV station General Manager strolled through the newsroom on major holidays ie Christmas, and would say "working in broadcasting is like working on a dairy farm. Those cows need to be milked everyday. In TV it is at 6 and 10 PM." Then he would leave and go home.
It was a wonder I did not throw a punch...but I digress.
I was fortunate enough to be hired by a Fortune 50 company in sales. I had no background in sales at all but their HR knew that journalist knew how to ask questions and that is what sales people do. I climbed the ladder and retired with a great retirement.
I still pinch myself for being so fortunate and grateful that Texas A&M Journalism department required all J majors to have a worthwhile minor. Mine was in Marketing.
My advice is make the career change. My last years in TV, I hated to go to work. That is no way to live your life.
Drug my family all over Texas and the Midwest. Radio for half of the time and ended it in Television.
The TV station General Manager strolled through the newsroom on major holidays ie Christmas, and would say "working in broadcasting is like working on a dairy farm. Those cows need to be milked everyday. In TV it is at 6 and 10 PM." Then he would leave and go home.
It was a wonder I did not throw a punch...but I digress.
I was fortunate enough to be hired by a Fortune 50 company in sales. I had no background in sales at all but their HR knew that journalist knew how to ask questions and that is what sales people do. I climbed the ladder and retired with a great retirement.
I still pinch myself for being so fortunate and grateful that Texas A&M Journalism department required all J majors to have a worthwhile minor. Mine was in Marketing.
My advice is make the career change. My last years in TV, I hated to go to work. That is no way to live your life.
Went from Engineering to medicine in my late twenties-early thirties. Pretty much had to start from scratch with taking night classes to get all the prerequisites done. Definitely some hard years, but am much happier with what I do now.
I can't say whether or not I'd do the same thing at 40.
I can't say whether or not I'd do the same thing at 40.
Wow... love this thread as there's much I can relate to. I graduated A&M 2 decades ago with a Chem E. Worked the next 7ish years as a semiconductor manufacturing engineer with a pause to complete my MBA full time. After that decided it was time for a change as I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in a cubicle staring at charts.
Bounced around a few years before settling in for the next decade as a nursing home administrator. At this point I'm ready for another change. Being an administrator, while never boring, is extremely stressful. I'm not looking for a complete change... open to assisted living jobs or hospital middle management. I have one offer on the table and looking to add a few more this week. If all goes well I'll hopefully be employed as something other than a nursing home administrator is about a week or so.
It wasn't easy tho. I've been looking off and on for over a year. Didn't start to get traction until more recently.
Bounced around a few years before settling in for the next decade as a nursing home administrator. At this point I'm ready for another change. Being an administrator, while never boring, is extremely stressful. I'm not looking for a complete change... open to assisted living jobs or hospital middle management. I have one offer on the table and looking to add a few more this week. If all goes well I'll hopefully be employed as something other than a nursing home administrator is about a week or so.
It wasn't easy tho. I've been looking off and on for over a year. Didn't start to get traction until more recently.
Lavender Gooms said:
Went from Engineering to medicine in my late twenties-early thirties. Pretty much had to start from scratch with taking night classes to get all the prerequisites done. Definitely some hard years, but am much happier with what I do now.
I can't say whether or not I'd do the same thing at 40.
My dad entered medical school at around 30 after working as an administrator in the prison system. I always admired his commitment to make that kind of change. Kudos to you.
Perhaps not as viable for a lawyer but I did make a change from the private side to the public side of structural engineering. I am a bridge engineer and worked at a specialty (bridge) engineering company that was growing rapidly. In the early part of my career I loved the challenges and "being pushed" to meet hard deadlines to design what could only be described as signature bridges around the country and internationally.
As I was there for some years and promoted up I was feeling the burn out that some more seasoned engineers complained about. All projects started to shift to design builds and required crazy hours to cater to contractors and meet deadlines or project costs that you were locked into. Now a licensed engineer you're considered "a professional" and don't get overtime but do get a couple of thousand dollars as a bonus at the end of the year. Doesn't nearly make up for the time lost from your wife and family. I could do easy math and divide my bonus by the 20+ hours I was donating weekly to see they were getting pennies on the dollar. As we had 1 kid and another on the way we decided an change was necessary as this job was now affecting my personal life too.
I knew that to reduce hours consistently I was going to have to go to Public side (municipalities, states, or feds). Coming from a technical specialty bridge firm I feared I wasn't going to find job satisfaction. In the end I found a job where I've now worked for the last 6+ years in Alaska of all places. I get to design bridges that have the most extreme site conditions seismically, geotechnically, and thermally (suck it California!). I also fly around the whole State inspecting structure, learning rope access and rappelling/rigging for high inspections. My workweek is 37.5 hours and any work I do over that is put into a flex leave bank. For my schedule inspection trips that can be up to 80+ hours in a week I can bank 50+ hours of flex leave. Great for vacations or taking random days off to fish/hike with the family.
My work/life balance is much better now and I know I'm a better husband/dad. The best piece of advice I got from a fellow engineer when deciding if I wanted to take this job was "you should be working to live, not living to work". I can honestly say I'm doing that now.
Good luck!
As I was there for some years and promoted up I was feeling the burn out that some more seasoned engineers complained about. All projects started to shift to design builds and required crazy hours to cater to contractors and meet deadlines or project costs that you were locked into. Now a licensed engineer you're considered "a professional" and don't get overtime but do get a couple of thousand dollars as a bonus at the end of the year. Doesn't nearly make up for the time lost from your wife and family. I could do easy math and divide my bonus by the 20+ hours I was donating weekly to see they were getting pennies on the dollar. As we had 1 kid and another on the way we decided an change was necessary as this job was now affecting my personal life too.
I knew that to reduce hours consistently I was going to have to go to Public side (municipalities, states, or feds). Coming from a technical specialty bridge firm I feared I wasn't going to find job satisfaction. In the end I found a job where I've now worked for the last 6+ years in Alaska of all places. I get to design bridges that have the most extreme site conditions seismically, geotechnically, and thermally (suck it California!). I also fly around the whole State inspecting structure, learning rope access and rappelling/rigging for high inspections. My workweek is 37.5 hours and any work I do over that is put into a flex leave bank. For my schedule inspection trips that can be up to 80+ hours in a week I can bank 50+ hours of flex leave. Great for vacations or taking random days off to fish/hike with the family.
My work/life balance is much better now and I know I'm a better husband/dad. The best piece of advice I got from a fellow engineer when deciding if I wanted to take this job was "you should be working to live, not living to work". I can honestly say I'm doing that now.
Good luck!
That's awesome!
I'm considering something similar to this. Is there a way I can get in contact with you?
Since Rollo has posted on here a few times I figured I'd chime in about insurance as a career. I'm a niche large account casualty underwriter at an insurance carrier in Dallas. I'm more or less who Rollo would call if he was trying to place coverage for a company like Baylor Health System, Texas Health Resources, etc.
Every job has its ups and downs, and I have no experience with Rollo, but just about anyone can find a role in insurance that fits their skill set. The main thing I'll say is that job security is about guaranteed if you don't show up to work tanked. Well, I know some brokerages that actually have beer taps in the office so you might be able to get away with showing up tanked. Think about the number of insurance products you or your company are legally obligated to purchase(and the $$$ spent) and you'll understand why.
I'm not advocating that you go sell personal lines coverage, which is what Rollo primarily does, but don't roll your eyes when he says insurance. It's been a great fit for me.
Every job has its ups and downs, and I have no experience with Rollo, but just about anyone can find a role in insurance that fits their skill set. The main thing I'll say is that job security is about guaranteed if you don't show up to work tanked. Well, I know some brokerages that actually have beer taps in the office so you might be able to get away with showing up tanked. Think about the number of insurance products you or your company are legally obligated to purchase(and the $$$ spent) and you'll understand why.
I'm not advocating that you go sell personal lines coverage, which is what Rollo primarily does, but don't roll your eyes when he says insurance. It's been a great fit for me.
“There is no red.
There is no blue.
There is the state.
And there is you.”
“As government expands, Liberty contracts” - R. Reagan
There is no blue.
There is the state.
And there is you.”
“As government expands, Liberty contracts” - R. Reagan
Absolutely. Email me at LavenderGooms012 at gmail
Happy to share more about it.
Happy to share more about it.
Rollo actually does a LOT more than just personal lines. We do churches, non-profits, retail commercial, contractors, habitational, energy, transportation, farm & ranch, commercial ag, group life, health, and benefits, worker's compensation, and a whole lot more...
It's not just what we do that makes us different, it's how we do it. I don't know of another careers that allows you to utilize knowledge from your previous career in pursuit of a new career. If anyone out there wants to earn the blessings of entrepreneurship, send me an email.
It's not just what we do that makes us different, it's how we do it. I don't know of another careers that allows you to utilize knowledge from your previous career in pursuit of a new career. If anyone out there wants to earn the blessings of entrepreneurship, send me an email.
Thank you for the emails...Feel free to keep them coming.