Hope this is okay to post here. Just looking for some advice from anyone who has done something similar in the past.
I’ve been working in marketing since I was 23 (I’m now 28) and over that time have accumulated a lot of good experience and skills and currently hold a decent position if not slightly underpaid for a travel agency in the UK. However, I’m starting to feel like I care less and less about all the sales targets we’re under pressure to meet and finding myself checking out a lot during the day.
I recently moved cities and the company were great in allowing me to stay on working from home, so it’s not that their necessarily bad employers, I just don’t think my priorities align with the business. I want to be working in a role where I can help people and make a real difference to every day folk in their lives.
Growing up poor, issues such as poverty and access to good housing for all are very close to my heart and could definitely see myself in a role where I get to help people with these issues.
However, the reason I moved was so my girlfriend could start a post-graduate course in medicine with the aim of becoming a GP. As such, it’s mostly my salary which is paying for our rent, bills and keeping us afloat with her bursary and student loan helping cover food costs and such. The course is intense and full-time but she is looking at picking up some shifts at the weekends.
So basically I’m worried that switching career will mean having to take a lower salary to get my foot in at a time where we can’t really afford to be earning less.
Anyone got any advice or tips of been in a similar situation in the past. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks.
3 comments
You don’t necessarily have to completely switch careers and industries. Big charities employ people in their main offices including marketing/comms staff. So you could use your experience to help promote a charity or non-for profit organisation etc?
Go down the financial advice route!
Incredibly rewarding, helping people through some really important times in their lives and also fairly lucrative from a personal point of view once you’re up and running
When I were a lad, it was said you could change your career as often as you like until you’re 30. In 2023, I’d reckon that’s 40. I changed career several times, aged 26, 29, 33 and 41. I wasn’t mentally agile enough at aged 41 to win at that one, and I reverted to the old career.
You will probably take a salary drop, and you have to work harder when you’re a rookie. But, there’s nothing more miserable that working in a job you have no passion for, and it won’t get better, so if you’re here now, you have to make a move and find a way to cope.