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It's crazy how prevalent this is among my peers. Do any other careers have so much pivoting?

WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
> It's crazy how prevalent this is among my peers. Are your peers about the age as the OP? Kids and age (each) can change how we feel about job demands.
Nextgrid 2y ago
I wonder if it’s just self-selection. If you play your cards right, IT can (could?) pay so well that you can afford to take a subsequent pay cut when transitioning to a new career. In a career that doesn’t pay as well this is impossible so people don’t even consider career changes as they can’t afford to take the hit.
spicyusername 2y ago
I think most other careers don't pay you enough to be capable of choosing take a 50-90% pay cut mid-career and still retire on a reasonable nest egg. I also think working for most corporations is pretty lackluster, and after the early career honeymoon phase wears off many people start to feel quite unfulfilled. Working with your hands, or in support of helping other people, is very intrinsically rewarding work. There are reasons society gets away with paying public school teachers so little, and only some of them have to do with the public's distain for taxes, hah. IT professionals are typically the kinds of people who are happy to learn something new, so I'm not too surprised to see the people with the financial means, the disposition, and the mid-life crises search for a new life path.
jvanderbot 2y ago
Most folks change entire careers 3-4 times in their life. It's only in engineering that we somehow decide that "engineering for this team using their tool" is somehow a new "career" when we do "engineering for that team using that tool". To an outsider, you're just a programmer. No career change at all. I think there's just enough variety in our field that we don't leave much.
- sanderjd 2y ago
  > Most folks change entire careers 3-4 times in their life. Is this true? It doesn't seem true to me. Are there data / studies on this?
  - lizknope 2y ago
    I can only think of about 3 people that completely changed profession. I'm 48 and I could list hundreds of people that have been engineers, scientists, doctors, and lawyers since they finished college and are either still doing the same type of job or retired.
    - jvanderbot 2y ago
      Most folks aren't professionals. If you are a farm laborer for a few years, then a hair stylist, then a cook - that's two career changes. My professional white-collar wife has done 3 changes already and we're barely middle-aged. I've done 2 myself (factory worker -> Researcher -> Engineer). My Mom has done about 5-6. My dad 1. My mother in law has done at least 5, and my father in law at least 3. My brother has done 2 (soldier -> sales -> design). My 4 bros-in-law have done at least 3 each (all starting with soldier). Sis in law has done 0. My sisters are 3,2 and are still young. Does my story cancel yours? no, but the story isn't clear either.
      - sanderjd 2y ago
        How many of these things are "careers", though? To me, many of these examples sound like doing a bunch of different jobs, not careers. Was being a factory worker a career, or was that a job you were doing before you started your first career as a researcher? But I do think this thread is making me realize that this is probably a boring dispute over what "career" means.
        jvanderbot 2y ago
        Yep - that is the issue. You can define it however you want so it's fairly arbitrary. To answer your question - given it was a major life direction change, I consider it a career change. I'd say a career change probably involves a similar life change in all cases.

> It's crazy how prevalent this is among my peers. Are your peers about the age as the OP? Kids and age (each) can change how we feel about job demands.

Nextgrid 2y ago

I wonder if it’s just self-selection. If you play your cards right, IT can (could?) pay so well that you can afford to take a subsequent pay cut when transitioning to a new career. In a career that doesn’t pay as well this is impossible so people don’t even consider career changes as they can’t afford to take the hit.

spicyusername 2y ago

I think most other careers don't pay you enough to be capable of choosing take a 50-90% pay cut mid-career and still retire on a reasonable nest egg. I also think working for most corporations is pretty lackluster, and after the early career honeymoon phase wears off many people start to feel quite unfulfilled. Working with your hands, or in support of helping other people, is very intrinsically rewarding work. There are reasons society gets away with paying public school teachers so little, and only some of them have to do with the public's distain for taxes, hah. IT professionals are typically the kinds of people who are happy to learn something new, so I'm not too surprised to see the people with the financial means, the disposition, and the mid-life crises search for a new life path.

jvanderbot 2y ago

Most folks change entire careers 3-4 times in their life. It's only in engineering that we somehow decide that "engineering for this team using their tool" is somehow a new "career" when we do "engineering for that team using that tool". To an outsider, you're just a programmer. No career change at all. I think there's just enough variety in our field that we don't leave much.

sanderjd 2y ago
> Most folks change entire careers 3-4 times in their life. Is this true? It doesn't seem true to me. Are there data / studies on this?
- lizknope 2y ago
  I can only think of about 3 people that completely changed profession. I'm 48 and I could list hundreds of people that have been engineers, scientists, doctors, and lawyers since they finished college and are either still doing the same type of job or retired.
  - jvanderbot 2y ago
    Most folks aren't professionals. If you are a farm laborer for a few years, then a hair stylist, then a cook - that's two career changes. My professional white-collar wife has done 3 changes already and we're barely middle-aged. I've done 2 myself (factory worker -> Researcher -> Engineer). My Mom has done about 5-6. My dad 1. My mother in law has done at least 5, and my father in law at least 3. My brother has done 2 (soldier -> sales -> design). My 4 bros-in-law have done at least 3 each (all starting with soldier). Sis in law has done 0. My sisters are 3,2 and are still young. Does my story cancel yours? no, but the story isn't clear either.
    - sanderjd 2y ago
      How many of these things are "careers", though? To me, many of these examples sound like doing a bunch of different jobs, not careers. Was being a factory worker a career, or was that a job you were doing before you started your first career as a researcher? But I do think this thread is making me realize that this is probably a boring dispute over what "career" means.
      - jvanderbot 2y ago
        Yep - that is the issue. You can define it however you want so it's fairly arbitrary. To answer your question - given it was a major life direction change, I consider it a career change. I'd say a career change probably involves a similar life change in all cases.