Has anyone ever changed careers?
How did you do it?
What were you doing before?
What are you doing now?
What is your degree in (if you have one) and are you using it in your current job?

I did it about 10 years ago. My first job out of college was as sports editor of a weekly newspaper. I wanted to be a sportswriter but I got tired of it pretty quickly. So less than a year later I got into computers. I was able to get an entry level job at Arthur Andersen because my dad was friends with a partner. My degree is in speech communication and I'm not usuing it at all now.

I want to change careers again to something in health care, maybe imaging or something like that. But it's so much harder because I would have to go back to school and we can't afford that right now because I'd have to go full-time. It's a lot different when you have a family than when you're single and don't need much money.

Dennis

Keith did it. He was a jeweler/model maker when we first met and basically worked freelance (and made good money doing it). Over the years, his business changed, our family changed (to include Jack) and his career wasn't cutting it anymore. He decided to go to technical school to become a welder, which is something that he has always been interested in. He got a great job after graduation as a welding inspector (which means he doesn't even have to weld) and will be going back to school to become a certified inspector this fall. That willl almost double his salary and hsi company will be paying for it. He is so happy with his new career and he still does jewelry work on the side.

I did it. :)

I started out as a computer programmer for my first year out of school (BS in Electrical Engineering). I now do business process design and analysis. I do not use my degree in my current job (other than problem solving capabilities). I did it the stupid way. I quit my job then started looking for a Business Analyst position. I got lucky in that I found one in a field that I had done engineering work for in my undergraduate internship. So I used that to get my foot in the door. I already spoke the language and walked the walk so it gave me an in.

Has anyone ever changed careers? I have to answer this one in behalf of DH. He spent almost 10 years in the US Navy as a Russian interpreter and he is now a Network Engineer.

How did you do it? Since the end of the cold war, there wasn't much demand for the Russian language anymore so a year before DH left the Navy, he enrolled in a graduate/professional program to study network engineering- it was a rigorous schedule working 40 hours a week in the Navy and then going to school 25 hours a 4 nights a week and then every other Saturday. He knew nothing about computers! (it was almost kind of scary) but he wanted to follow the market since the Washington DC area was booming with IT opportunities. It actually cost $20,000 for him to go to school. He had to pay the first 10K out of pocket (since the GI bill just wasn't equipped to pay money up front) and then his first company paid the next $10K. It has been soo worth it!

What were you doing before? Russian Interpreter

What are you doing now? DH has worked for 4 government defense contractors in the last 6 years.

What is your degree in (if you have one) and are you using it in your currentjob
Luckily, DH finished his undergrad before getting out of the Navy, granted, it's a management degree from a correspondence/adult education program but hey, a degree is a degree and that's pretty much all that counts-- and really, you don't need a degree in network engineering- a lot of people he works with don't even have degrees!