Careers: Money vs. happiness?

[Crankin]

GLC, you might like working in a role like the people who work for my DH. They are all engineers, most with master's or doctorates. But, they are application engineers, who support and work with the sales staff for a software company. They need to keep up in their field, but they also have to have people skills, something which has not exactly been easy for DH to find. They get paid very well, although they do travel some.
Just a thought.

[NbyNW]

I went back to grad school 8 years ago to make a career change, and even though right now my employment prospects are not great, I'm glad I did. I'm lucky in that DH has been very supportive of me.

My advice, if you are looking to follow your passion to the fitness industry, is to research the business side of the kind of environment you are looking to work in. There's anything big corporate gym to small biz studio. Every dream career has a nuts-and-bolts business side to it. There are people who know how to run a good business, provide good services and treat their employees well, and there are those who only know how to do one or two of those three things.

For example, if you were to become a personal trainer working at a large facility, are you an employee of that facilty or are you a contractor? How is compensation structured? Do you get benefits? Are you responsible for developing your own clientele? Would you be in an environment where you are encouraged to continue to learn and improve your knowledge so as to provide your clients the best possible service? Is the culture of the place collaborative or competitive? Do you have a preference?

On the other hand, if you were to become your own boss and open a yoga studio, what would that look like? What would your overhead costs be and how many classes with how many students would you need to teach per week in order to make it work? What happens as your business grows?

Getting a sense of how these businesses are run might help you figure out if you will be happy working in these environments.

[GLC1968]

Indy - I think the original idea came from the 2-3 years we lived on a 200 year old farm in New England when I was a kid. I feel like it's something that I've always wanted to do. Even as a child, I always felt that I was born in the wrong century, actually. I was fascinated with old stuff and things that worked by hand. I was never much interested in technology (pretty funny considering my field, huh?). Since my husband is pretty much always up for an adventure, when I suggested it, he was game.

The main reason this happened now (instead of waiting for a better finacial position or 'retirement') was kind of a 'perfect storm' of events. 1) We realized that NC was not what we were hoping it would be 2) my husband couldn't find good career-related work and hated his job with a white-hot burning passion 3) we learned about peak oil and 4) we saw the economy tanking and knew if we didn't do it soon, we'd have to wait for years. So we did the research and decided that the PNW was the best location for us in terms of climate and career (I have a specialized field and one of the companies happened to be located here - the other in Greensboro, NC where I was working at the time). When my husband also got a good job here, we moved. We bought our 'farm' and went into it head first. Luckily, we both love the animal husbandry part. I love planting and planning, he loves 'engineering' things to make them work. And it turns out that we both dislike crowds and most aspects of urban life, so the solitude of our tiny plot of land surrounded by acres of farms feels peaceful and 'right' to both of us.

Additionally, a month after I left my old company, the you-know-what hit the fan and I was damn glad to have left when I did. Lucky, I guess.

Honestly, I struggle with the stark contrast between milking a goat by lantern in the morning and problem-solving on high tech electronic equipment by lunchtime. It's even funnier if you consider that I came to these two 'careers' by way of a career that had my foot partly in the door of high fashion (I worked for Polo Ralph Lauren before I quit to move to FL). I used to have a closet full of cashmere and croc. Now I wear Carhart and $hit kickers every morning...

What is life without variety?

[GLC1968]

Crankin - yeah, we have apps engineers here too. I could jump from product engineer to apps or design engineering pretty easily. My problem is that I'm over the whole technical thing altogether. I'm trying to get into program management because then my technical knowledge will come in handy, but it won't be the main thrust of my job. I'm just not having any luck at my current company and with the economy the way it is, I really don't want to risk leaving here. Besides, I really like this place...I just don't like my job.

I'm actually even considering a position in sales, if they'd take me. I'm afraid I won't like that either though, and that would mean a LOT of travel which could be a problem with the farm.


OK - now returning the thead to it's regularly scheduled topic...

[indysteel]

Thanks for sharing that, GLC. I have to admit that I'm total awe of all that you've accomplished on the farm. To think you both have full time professional jobs makes my head spin. You must be one energetic woman! I hope to have a snow day soon to read more of your blog. My DH and I are in love with your baby goats!! So cute.

[smilingcat]

For what its worth (not much) We all want happiness. That's a given. To say otherwise I think would require a shrink.

Depending on your personality, you could be a pauper and be really happy or you need some amount of financial security to be happy. Might be bit presumptuous for me to say that you are the latter; however, for most, we REALLY do need some financial security before we can relax and be happy.

If you think, financially you can be comfortable living on physical trainer's salary, and you love that work, then I suggest go for it. It might be wise to talk to few and find out actual work experience from those in the field. What you think and what it is can be quite different.

I also understand GLC's plight. Engineer's pay can be quite high in wireless product. And you become so accustomed to that life style, it is very hard to give up. Just because you can handle it intellectually, doesn't mean that engineering job is right. You HAVE TO HAVE THE RIGHT PERSONALITY. If you don't, you'll hate it... Well come to think about it, any job, you have to have the right personality.

Getting back.

If you want a career change in mid-life, nothing wrong with it. And in some respect, this will be the new norm. There is lot of good to be said about career change. It gives you new start, new enthusiasm, vibrancy in your life, excitement of new possibilities.

How you go about it though can make this easy or turn it into a nightmare. Plan wisely with your finances before you commit to a career change. Expect not to have income for a year or two. Or can you take a 50% pay cut and still survive. Remember, when you were a starving college student you managed to survive on almost nothing. So it can be done. But are you willing?

My advice has all ways been and will be: If you think the opportunity is greater by changing then go for it. If you are changing because you hate where you are now, then you are running away. Next place may be worse even though the grass looks greener. So think long and hard. Weigh your pros and cons. Research your new field...

As for me, I WAS AN ENGINEER even as a child. I tore apart radios, TVs, anything electronic to bane of my parents. Even dish washer, washing machine, and dryer were not safe with me. Though I did fix all of the above and the garage door opener by age of 16. I like engineering work but I loath most of the engineers I work with. The work is either too easy and I got bored or no good solution existed for the problem given to me... Nothing ever right. The pay was unreal. I wanted to do other things to get away from the engineers but I was soo hooked on the pay and I loved engineering work. I tried to change, went to a cooking school for well over a half a year and I was disillusioned. I also tried pottery work but well the pay... ROFLOL to myself. It is a joke. So I came to terms with my demons and learned to put them away in a box and do what I like to do, Analog Integrated circuit design, mixed signal IC design and program/project mgmt.

Where am I today? Well by Jan '10, general manager of our division, Sr. Vp of engineering for the division, head of marketing and sales, and I was, ahem FIRED! VP of engineering and I was fired last. Division is no more. Finally found a job after 10 month at a very small optoelectronic sensor research house as an engineering manager. Pay is about half, Its not even in six figures. I'm not designing integrated circuits. but it pays my bills for now. I do not think in terms of career at my stage of life. It's just something to do. It's a way for me to rationalize it for now and for me to keep myself sane. Had my engineering pay was quarter of what I made, I may have made a career change. It didn't work out that way for me.

I wish you the best with your decision. Do what feels right in your "gut". Listen to your inner voice.

Smilingcat

[Irulan]

Couple of thoughts:

The fitness industry is about a lot more than being a trainer in a health club. From my experience most health club trainers are not respected or terribly qualified ( weekend certification). Now, degree and nationally certified trainers have a lot of options open to them, from studio work to partnering with physical therapy... but all this requires a significant education investment.

I see no mention of meeting with a career counselor or life coach to have someone objective help you analyse your skill set and experienced. That might be something to consider. There might ideas there that would be a good fit to explore.

[lph]

I spend probably a bit too much of my time at work improving conditions for cycle-commuters and running campaigns to get people to cycle more. This is way more fun than the government I'm paid for Recently I've been thinking a little bit about maybe making this a fulltime job, and looking for a job in city planning especially with bike lanes, or a fulltime position in a large company with ambitions of a greener workforce, that sort of thing. Just an idea, in case this kind of "fitness industry" is more to your liking.

[shootingstar]

Just because you can handle it intellectually, doesn't mean that engineering job is right. You HAVE TO HAVE THE RIGHT PERSONALITY. If you don't, you'll hate it... Well come to think about it, any job, you have to have the right personality.

Well, true. Or if one's natural skills are abit different than chosen career, a person does have make a very conscious effort and allow themselves to fall into a personae on the job. Then off the job, the person is something abit different.

I can appreciate GLC's desire to get out of pure engineering technical aspects. My dearie pulled himself out of it after being in pure engineering work for first 5 years of his career..he moved into analyst, then management and contract negotations. (He loves the latter and is quite skilled at it.) He found technical engineering work too narrow. He liked jobs which dealt more with people and organizational strategy. He spent 7 yrs., yes 7 yrs. of part-time evening courses (in addition to full-time job) to complete his MBA which the degree did serve him so well in the remainder of his career. I couldn't have done evening classes for so long.

And even in cycling related work. Right now, he's negotiating some sponsorship deals for cycling conference. He's led some visioning exercises for some organizations as a volunteer because usually in small non-profit organizations people are highly impassioned by their mandate but may need some sharpening to plan and manage their organizations and staff well.

For myself, all of my jobs always included client interface/service work in addition to planning and technical aspects. I know that my personality is best motivated and rewarded in seeing directly the effort/impact of my service/work....for the clients. Even if clients have similar problems, I don't see it as boring/tedious to hear it once more again. Each person expresses their problems differently.

But it helps to work in an dept./organization where the vibe is not toxic or kept at a minimum.

Local university here has an extensive outdoor sports and fitness program for faculty, students and general public. They have a cadre of permanent staff who led the rides, treks, hikes, etc. with their inventory of rental gear. That type of set-up would be cool to start off as a taste. They seem to have a sophisticated operation with e-commerce registration, evening talks, etc.

OR start up something like with some other people in partnership! Or begin at least by offering /partnering to do a workshop...on cycling for newbies or something.

[bluebug32]

This is a good thread. I'm curious what fitness industry jobs people are interested in working in?

I'm at a similar crossroads in my own career path. My two passions in life are writing and cycling. I was laid off from a very good writing job last year. Ultimately I would love to write part-time and do something cycling/fitness related too. I love to motivate people and work with them, and the thought of another job just sitting and writing full-time is a scary thought, unless it involves fitness too. I've thought about becoming a spinning instructor, but I'm still not sure exactly what the job title for "it" is.

[shootingstar]

This is a good thread. I'm curious what fitness industry jobs people are interested in working in?

I'm at a similar crossroads in my own career path. My two passions in life are writing and cycling. I was laid off from a very good writing job last year. Ultimately I would love to write part-time and do something cycling/fitness related too. I love to motivate people and work with them, and the thought of another job just sitting and writing full-time is a scary thought, unless it involves fitness too. I've thought about becoming a spinning instructor, but I'm still not sure exactly what the job title for "it" is.

Hey, bluebug it's always good to write for local cycling organization or offer to create and manage their blog.

I don't get paid for the 2 blogs below. Nor for articles in this one, but it's just good exposure in general, particularily the large tourism blog.

However I'll be writing for a yet-to-be-released 4th cycling blog. For a cycling conference.

Meanwhile I did get a full-time job in the midst of all this which has absolutely nothing to do with cycling. Guess I'll be doing these things exclusively: working, then cycling and then home to eat and blog.

My Muse will be doing a triathalon. Hey yea, that's what it is, except it's 4 activities listed above, instead of 3.

[GLC1968]

I can appreciate GLC's desire to get out of pure engineering technical aspects. My dearie pulled himself out of it after being in pure engineering work for first 5 years of his career..he moved into analyst, then management and contract negotations. (He loves the latter and is quite skilled at it.) He found technical engineering work too narrow. He liked jobs which dealt more with people and organizational strategy.

Yes! When I got my BS/MS degrees - I knew, without a doubt, that I could not be a design engineer. That was never my plan. I cannot work in such a confined environment (confined to one aspect of one project at one time). I opted for systems engineering first - and then product engineering (where I'm responsible for taking multiple products from the design stage into production). I need big picture. I need human interaction. My talent is in managing multiple personalities, multiple tasks and multiple time schedules at once. I have excellent communication and interpersonal skills (particularly for an engineer!). Maybe I need to look into that MBA again.

I've been thinking about this thread a lot in the past couple of days and kind of smacking myself in the head for even choosing EE in the first place. At least a ton of good has come from the past 10 years' worth of experiences...even if the actual career path was the wrong choice.

[shootingstar]

It helps that dearie has a formal civil engineerinig degree and experience, when he deals with municipalities on cycling matters, both infrastructure design and "softer"/more complex issues of advocacy, program planning.

He can see very clearly sometimes anal thinking of some engineering departments and firms, where in university engineering programs, engineers normally aren't trained, to look after the human factor at all nor psychosocial matters in the cycling experien/mode share.

In his words they're, just taking their "slide rule", prescriptive engineering standards and not being flexible.