Do You Regret Your Major Career Change?

• 

  Hybroid on 09/05/2023 - 09:11

  +4

  None of us can really tell you what to do, but Civil Engineering is so broad that it lays the foundations of Engineering to allow you to pivot to different niches and specialities by adapting your knowledge and base skillset.

  I would suggest exploring potential opportunities to build on your current experience and see what works better for you. This can range from council as you mentioned to consultants to construction contractors to client-side etc and industries from buildings to railway to infrastructure planning to airports to bridges etc. All wholly different experiences with similar basics.

  Maybe consider doing a TAFE course for Psychology/medical sciences in parallel spare time and see how that goes. If it ignites a fire in you afterwards then progress that space.

  Also: Consider setting a framework in place to obtain Chartered Engineer status. This may give you something to work towards and look forward to with a sense of accomplishment (plus the promotion and pay increase that comes with it).

• 

  Wiadro on 09/05/2023 - 09:17

  +6

  I’ve never had a career so I can’t tell you

  • 

    deme on 09/05/2023 - 11:25

    https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2494/7800/products/Polish_…

• 

  onetwothreefour on 09/05/2023 - 09:25

  +7

  Never had a career but worked in a few different industries. Meh it's just work, if you're bored do something else.

• 

  Ghost47 on 09/05/2023 - 09:27

  +5

  Do you own your own property? You should deeply consider the time and financial cost it will take to retrain.

  In this day and age the safe thing to do is just stick with your career and move around in different engineering roles. If house prices weren’t so silly then maybe changing careers at your age would be less risky.

  I would suggest studying part time if you really had to do it. If you build up enough assets that give you a $20k cashflow p.a to offset any expenses you’d be in a better position to just quit and go back to uni. $500k of ETFs with a dividend yield of 4% would get you that cashflow, all truly passive as well.

  • 

    DemocracyManifest on 14/05/2023 - 23:35

    +1

    How on earth could a 28yr old have $500k in investments/ETFs

• 

  nubzy on 09/05/2023 - 09:45

  +1

  I'm uni educated but never been interested in having a 'career'. Prefer being self employed and happy to explore different opportunities throughout my lifetime. I'd rather have time on my side than give up my life to a career. Work is work and for the most part it is a slog, but when you can pick and choose your hours, who you work with, rates etc it is a bit easier. AI has already had an impact on my online work so I am probably going to explore some sort of manual work next, always find physical work a lot more rewarding than staring at a screen. There's plenty of things you can do without needing to go back to uni or tafe. Even cleaners and lawn mowing men make great money with almost zero stress.

  • 

    elgrande on 09/05/2023 - 09:54

    AI has already had an impact on my online work

    Do you write other peoples assignments?..

  • 

    brandt on 09/05/2023 - 13:27

    +6

    You clearly don't know any cleaners or landscapers to think those are zero stress jobs.

    The only great money is if you run your own business and that in itself is a nightmare. Managing schedules, rosters, clients always wanting to screw down on rates, demand (hundreds of lawn mowing jobs in summer, none in winter), finding people do the physical labour, nitwits on the road.. its all pretty taxing. This is before you get into business record keeping, invoices, taxes, and general admin work which is all done in your personal time.

• 

  tallkid123 on 09/05/2023 - 09:51

  +2

  I'm in the middle of a career change right now. Trying to get in to IT. I'm in my early 30s. I've got a few degrees already and have been in white collar roles now since 2016.

  To be honest, my current career has been an absolue mess full of redundancies and mostly boredom. Looking back, I greatly regret sticking it out this long and should've done something else earlier. But I didn't have any alternatives at the time and I needed to pay the bills so you gotta do what you gotta do.

  My line of work tends to mostly attract women which is ironic as there is nothing feminine about it. And unfortunately due to personal experience, I will actively avoid working for another female manager ever again. And also avoid putting myself in a situation where I'm the only guy in a group of full of women.

  Also ironic is that recruiters have annoying me every week since I've openly advertised that I won't be doing such roles again in the future.

  Anyway, back to you OP.

  I've worked in a Tier 1 and 2 engineering consulting firm. Your experiences will just come down to your project workload and team. I understand your disillusionment with engineering. A lot of the engineers I dealt with were mostly just doing project management/admin or tendering for new jobs. Engineers will have long careers and you generally get more valuable as you get older but it is a slog from what I've observed.

  In your case, I would go with A because it sounds like you're already at B and you haven't hit that point in your life yet unlike me where C is looking attractive.

  • 

    Donaldhump on 09/05/2023 - 12:51

    +3

    don't expect IT to be any less boring.

    • 

      Phlume on 09/05/2023 - 13:31

      +1

      Having done both IT tradie work and now an office cybersecurity gig, I can confirm the IT industry is full of benign and mundane tasks. On the good days it's fantastic, on the bad/boring days I just wished I did something else.

    • 

      tallkid123 on 09/05/2023 - 16:17

      +1

      I do expect it to be full of men which would be a welcome change.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 09/05/2023 - 16:25

    +1

    My line of work tends to mostly attract women which is ironic as there is nothing feminine about it.

    Is it law, per chance?

    And unfortunately due to personal experience, I will actively avoid working for another female manager ever again. And also avoid putting myself in a situation where I'm the only guy in a group of full of women.

    Would you care to elaborate? Genuinely interested in your experience and reasons for your thinking here (I'm not looking for an argument at all).

    • 

      tallkid123 on 09/05/2023 - 16:58

      +5

      Is it law, per chance?

      No. But I did work in a mid-tier for 2 months. It was absolutely miserable. I actually failed probation because my elderly female manager thought I made a poor admin assistant (which I'm not). The partners I dealt with were all shitty, overworked, divorced, depressed white men whom I empathised with for the most part. And the support staff were all shitty, bitchy, overworked white women.

      Would you care to elaborate? Genuinely interested in your experience and reasons for your thinking here (I'm not looking for an argument at all).

      I'm a large brown straight married man. I don't want to gossip. I'm not gay. I want to do work, get paid and go home. Every female manager I've ever had has been a bitch. Some have been competent. Others were not. But all of them were a bitch. There is no way in hell I'd ever trust any of them with my career development or managing me at this point.

      I just can't see a situation where a white woman is ever going to advocate for a brown guy like myself to get promoted for example or to progress. I say white woman specifically because I'd probably immediately transfer or resign if I was ever under a minority female manager.

      What amuses me the most is that my wife, who is in IT, actually agrees with me. Her career success was forged on strong relations with her male colleagues. Her observations were that many of her fellow female colleagues would rather spend their time tearing each other apart than banding together and pushing each other upwards.

      I mean there are always exceptions to this.

      But never enough, I'm afraid.

      • 

        [Deactivated] on 10/05/2023 - 09:42

        I see. Thank you for taking the time to explain!

• 

  Gunnar on 09/05/2023 - 09:54

  +3

  A couple of brain dump thoughts:
  - With Psych yes, it's currently either 5 year study and one year internship or six years study (that's full time study). Depending on when you start you may just have to do 6 years study
  - Medicine is also not easy to crack; if you want a more normal life your first few years will be tough because you will have to do your rotations in rural areas plus whichever path you want to specialise on

  Medicine is also quite time consuming from the time you start to the time you are fully qualified and can practice freely. Your friends should be able to tell you just how long it will take and the challenges when you are in your training and being a junior doctor. I looked into it doing it part time a few years ago (retraining) and it worked out to roughly 10-12 years for me

  A couple of things with psych:
  - counselling isn't all you do and it's a lot more complex than what popular culture makes it out to be
  - if you want to practice you need to do post grad. Getting into post grad is very competitive; once you have your uni qualifications getting a job isn't too hard (if you can make sacrifices) but a big hurdle is getting to post grad
  - Pay isn't great as a new psych grad

  I've been lucky enough to know what I wanted to do from a young age. When I started it was not what I wanted it to be but I've used my areas of specialty to dabble in and out of client facing work and then into project and qualitative improvement related work to the industry.

  • 

    fossilfuel on 10/05/2023 - 00:50

    +1

    On the one hand, clinical psychology seems the best match on paper, however, its grossly over saturated and difficult to get placement for accreditation, including lots of luck and around 6-8 years to get started.

    Not exactly 6-8 years, it could be 3 years of uni. OP has an undergraduate degree therefore it's possible to do a Graduate Diploma of Psychology, which is a fourth year coursework degree (1 year) then transition into a clinical psychology masters (2 years). Clin psych masters are very competitive to get into but there's a decent amount of government jobs after graduation. There's also the 2 year clin psych registrar training which could be done in government organisations or private clinics.

    I've worked as a psychologist for the last few years and thinking of going back to do a clin psych masters. I once considered medicine but the GAMSAT, med school and hospital/specialty grind really put me off, as well as seeing most of my doctor friends burn out and have no time. Right now I have great work life balance, a satisfying and stimulating job and a decent income.

    Happy to answer questions about what psychologists do.

    • 

      geshc on 08/09/2023 - 02:45

      How much money do psychs make in private practice?
      Whats the difference between a clinical and general psych?

• 

  dtc on 09/05/2023 - 10:07

  +2

  You need to decide

  1. have you picked the wrong profession and you dont like the work and cant face doing it for another 30 years (escaping from the profession - a 'push' situation)

  2. have you picked the wrong job but there are other options out there which you can explore (escaping from the job - a 'push' situation)

  3. you dont mind your current profession but you have a burning desire to do something else because that something else is really calling to you (a 'pull' situation)

  I work in a field (private sector law) where a lot of high achievers get into it because its the thing to do when you get a good mark at school and then they realise its not super exciting, requires long hours and is quite stressful and the pay off is 15 to 20 years away (and the pay off, while financially very good, actually requires longer hours and more stress)

  So I regularly see 4-6 year lawyers thinking 'I've done the wrong thing'. And some of them move to completely different professions (teaching, physiotherapy, sports administration to name a few). However, many of them simply change jobs (public service, in house) and find that the reduced hours/stress/performance anxiety - plus the often more interesting project/policy - is all they needed. And, sure, they perhaps give up their chance to earn multi $100ks, but for most of them they forget that 'loss' very quickly and just enjoy their lives. Honestly, there is little point having $m in the bank account if you have 6 free hours a week to spend it.

  My general advice to these juniors is that, unless they really hate the law, try another job for a few years. Most dont actually hate the law - those that hate the law realised that during university and never finished the degree. If the new job doesnt work, then make the decision to change careers. Very few actually end up changing careers - most realise that the high pressure/high stress private sector job really isnt all its cracked up to be when you look at it from the outside.

  So draw your own conclusions but engineering gives you so many options. Even moving out of 'pure' engineering into a management or project management role will provide you with plenty of psychological counselling opportunities… And, analysing you from a few words only, it sounds like you dont like the job and not that you dont like engineering.

  I've always though a council job would be fantastic. You can live outside a major city, have good pay, a solid interesting job (outside of trades, not something you often find in regional areas), easy to transfer to different councils if you want to move. It may not offer the fast moving high intensity complexity of mining, but I'm sure you can (over time) evolve into enjoying a slightly slower pace of life and what you get outside of work

  • 

    pharkurnell on 09/05/2023 - 10:55

    … always though a council job would be fantastic. You can live outside a major city, have good pay, a solid interesting job
    …. but I'm sure you can (over time) evolve into enjoying a slightly slower pace of life and what you get outside of work

    I agree

• 

  Drakesy on 09/05/2023 - 10:20

  +2

  Engineer here that's jumped a couple of specialisations. Took the best part of 5 years to find out what best suited me (turns out i was average technically, but could communicate.)

  And yes if a workplace isn't working out for you, jump ship. I'm onto my 4th workplace and it actually has a culture.

• 

  pharkurnell on 09/05/2023 - 10:40

  +3

  I was a shit kicker for years in factories… Then worked/ran motorcycle store… then drove trucks for many years local/interstate…. then got into IT as it was the flash thing to do at the time…

  Would love a simple job that you can leave your job at the office at the end of the day. Either the bike shop or truck driving or forklift driver… Doesnt get much simpler than put those 20 pallets on that trailer.

  Grass is not always greener.

• 

  JIMB0 on 09/05/2023 - 10:58

  +1

  Can't you do something in between. Work just a few days a week and study part/full time.

• 

  payless69 on 09/05/2023 - 11:44

  -1

  Whilst the world has become more stupid and needs forever more psyhologists it sounds promising. But to re-think from an engineering background is not the easiest.
  Get a council job, engineering to the book with easy targets. Medicine is not only hard on yourself, there are smarties out there competing and the logic is not the same.
  Now I do a bit of trading. It was a steep learning curve. Still reading between the lines of financial news is much easier than creating a new illness to justify stupidity.
  Such would never be logical for an ex engineer.Numbers can be crunched on your own computer and just drop being stubborn and follow some learnable patterns.

• 

  soan papdi on 09/05/2023 - 11:47

  +1

  Switching careers is a huge risk. What if it doesn't pay out when you're in the mid 30s? If you're just bored at this job, try a different one or a new specialisation. Think of a job as a source of money for your hobbies/interests.

  Anecdotally I seem to always be the go-to guy among various friend groups to disclosure issues and seek personal help from, and I absolutely love hearing people stories and helping them assess and beat their challenges.

  It will get stressful pretty quick if you do it for a living, not to mention the terrible stories (abuse, etc) you might end up hearing which will affect your own health. I know psychiatrists who are burnt out listening to difficult stories, doing the paperwork and living under constant stress of "have I made the right decision in this case?"

• 

  mauricem on 09/05/2023 - 12:51

  See if you can get into med, how you do at the GAMSAT will be a good indication if suited. I did a year of psychology with HDs then realised the career opportunities for the investment were not worth it. One of my professors commented that the amount of work and time is equivalent to medicine with vastly different outcomes.
  Have you considered teaching? With a STEM background you'd have no problems getting into a private school with fewer student problems but still plenty of opportunity to counsel and influence young people for better futures.

  A couple of inlaws are Psychiatrists, they're all crazy!

• 

  Benoffie on 09/05/2023 - 12:56

  I went from IT (internet and systems admin) to teaching. Terrible change. There is no job security in teaching and for the work and qualifications, I would have been better off staying put.

  That being said, IT at the time was highly stressful (especially for women). Very difficult to get promotions, treated like glorified secretaries and pieces of arse for the amusement of colleagues (not all but enough to make it terrible).

  I dont know, what do you say to people? Stick it out in an industry you hate but a field you enjoy or try and pivot to something else?

  Easier said than done in most cases. I think many acknowledge that when you leave a career, you accept losses and uncertainty and work to minimise them.

• 

  nedski on 09/05/2023 - 12:59

  I had qualifications in IT and when I finally got my degree I went "Oh No". Dont get me wrong, I like tech but maybe not as a career. Went back and did Law and have had a very interesting and diverse career since. Few bumps but overall, pretty good.

• 

  Transient on 09/05/2023 - 13:05

  I didn't change career and it's ok - don't hate it, don't love it: has its ups and downs - but it pays the bills. Really busy periods but flexible working hours and WFH 3 out of 5 days.

• 

  bobbified on 09/05/2023 - 13:11

  +2

  At age 28 and no family just yet, you're still relatively young. But it's pretty much now or never if you do decide to start again. The way you things are these days, that five years with little-to-no-income could make or break (most likely break!) any relationships you might have right now too. You might not be able to keep up with the people you currently hang out with and you'll probably be making new friends while you're studying. Your priorities will change.

  So realistically, any decision to change your career isn't just going to be limited to your career. It's likely going to be starting your whole life again - career, relationships, lifestyle, circle of friends, etc. It's a big risk and there's no guarantees that things will work out the way you have in mind. Having said that, you'll most likely be able to (eventually) adapt to whatever this change brings you.

• 

  AustriaBargain on 09/05/2023 - 13:12

  I regret not changing sooner. I always assumed as a kid that public service was for me. I was wrong though.

• 

  JafferMoney on 09/05/2023 - 13:20

  Left the corporate world and started a business, been some ups and downs (especially during COVID) but would not go back to a job. No way Jose!

• 

  donbot on 09/05/2023 - 13:25

  I am about 10 years older than you are, and considering a similar seismic career change, albeit from different industries with 17 years of career progression.

  The part that makes me feel a bit more secure in pursuing it is having financial security - hoping to have family home mortgage paid off in the next 12 months and become debt free before I'm 40 to be able to pursue a part time role doing the parts of my existing career I actually enjoy (which will provide for wife & 2 kids), and then a part time role to do something completely different.

  Can you stick it out for a longer while yet (and co-incide with a job change as some others have spoken of above) to try and get job satisfaction and longer term financial security? Even just contemplating being there is a phenomenal feeling - I'm yet to fully get there, but I'm close.

  I could (profanity) it all up once I step away from this high paying, full time, all encompassing role, but I know my 'lifestyle-break even' for my family in terms of $, and comfortable I'd be able to bring that in the door if shit hit the fan and things didnt work out as one had hoped.

• 

  Phlume on 09/05/2023 - 13:34

  Went from being a tradie in an engineering and IT background to now working in cybersecurity for one of the big four and I can say cybersecurity isn't all it's shaped up to be.

  • 

    plmko on 09/05/2023 - 14:01

    +1

    But are you getting your financial compensation you desire? If a job/field was passionless to begin with then the focus should be money so that you can retire earlier into the life you want. Just make sure lifestyle creep does come along for the ride.

  • 

    Ghost47 on 09/05/2023 - 14:16

    What were you expecting it to be like and how has it turned out?

    A big part of cybersecurity hacks seems to revolve around social engineering.

    • 

      Phlume on 09/05/2023 - 14:20

      I suppose I came in with the idea of being a cheesy 90's hacker doing pentesting and vulnerability assessments. Was rather disappointed being stuck in SOCs doing triaging and menial cloud engineering tasks.

      • 

        Cluster on 09/05/2023 - 15:59

        +2

        Yeah, many people have the image of cyber security based on Hollywood. Sitting at a keyboard deep in a CIA bunker, or hacking the Gibson. In reality it's usually quite a mundane but important job.

        No Hollywood movie ever shows IT staff applying Windows patches and updates, and teaching users for the tenth time that no, you will not click on every tempting link you see in emails.

        • 

          Phlume on 09/05/2023 - 16:13

          @Cluster: There still are opportunities with pentesting but with most exciting careers, it's a highly skilled specialisation and I found most people in the field don't have the technical abilities to be successful. I am still very early in my career and truly do admire the guys and girls who excel at that field.

          • 

            trotsky on 14/05/2023 - 23:31

            +1

            @Phlume: Pentesting is as commoditised as any other role in cybersecurity. I've been in this industry for 15 years now and there isn't a glamorous role to be found. At least now there's some money in it, back in the day you couldn't sell cybersecurity to anyone but the federal govt and even then it was tin cans and string.

            I know a few people who do testing and assurance and they all fancy themselves as hackers, but they're all running nessus/metasploit-like tools (I'm sure there's more specialised stuff than that but don't care enough to learn about them) and while there's some latitude to show your creative side by finding and drilling down into things, I've read a bunch of reports and most of it is "port x is open to the internet, drupal is vulnerable to this CVE, etc" and some risk based ratings

      • 

        Ghost47 on 09/05/2023 - 19:05

        Fair enough lol, real life is very different to how things are portrayed on TV and in movies.

• 

  Ocker on 09/05/2023 - 13:58

  +10

  Retiring was the best career move I ever made

• 

  Wilson Wallace on 09/05/2023 - 15:03

  Been in IT since I was 14 years old- Now 35. Haven't changed. Continue to study and further my career within the IT landscape.

• 

  freefall101 on 09/05/2023 - 17:32

  Disclosure: I work with a mining recruitment team (not a recruiter though) so my bias is towards keeping you in the industry. There are non-fifo roles out there and seriously cannot get enough people. When it comes to careers and career paths it's not a bad idea to look at what fits with your existing skills, there are community relations roles, health and safety roles, something might fit better for you.

  I've always felt unfulfilled in engineering and have had a lifelong passion for psychology. Eg spending endless hours reading and researching. Anecdotally I seem to always be the go-to guy among various friend groups to disclosure issues and seek personal help from, and I absolutely love hearing people stories and helping them assess and beat their challenges.

  I'd be really careful about what you think psychology is vs what it actually is, and have a chat to as many psychologists as you possible can about the work. Is it a push to get as many billable hours as possible, an endless churn of people getting their handful of free psych sessions a year and never achieving anything, a huge number of people pushed into psych sessions due to their mental illness that will be near beyond help, or is it actually fulfilling. It seems the kind of thing you can reach burnout very quickly in. 55 hours a week will be nothing if you're trying to do research and work in this.

  • 

    anonymouscapybara on 01/09/2023 - 12:16

    Hey, I have sent you a PM if you don't mind

• 

  TheMindsetTraveller on 09/05/2023 - 18:17

  +2

  Earned six figures for 20 years - earlier this year, left that to earn $25/hour. Loving it.

• 

  ihbh on 09/05/2023 - 18:19

  Some pointers:

  1. Eventually you will have to decide what is enough - e.g. what is enough to retire early.
  2. People sacrifice health/time for money when they are young and the other way around when they are old, unless you are wise enough to reflect on 1. and/or skilled/lucky enough to earn/invest and make it biggish when younger (even then you still need to know 1.).
• 

  parisienne on 09/05/2023 - 21:19

  +2

  As someone that has just left a decades long career in the medical / nursing field,I am only going to give you one piece of advice…. THINK long and hard about any form of career in the field.It is not a career to be just " looking at it " because you feel unfulfilled in the industry you currently find yourself in….it is a special kind of hell that pays a pittance,is stressful beyond words and will take every ounce of will to live away from you.Your hours ( if you enter a hospital based position) will be unsociable to say the least,and any outside life will have to go to the backburner, you would earn less than some are making stacking shelves in ALDI,and you will be coming across some very, very dark characters in the line of duty ( something not everyone is cut out for).In private practice you may have a slightly more flexible schedule, you may earn more, those darker characters may be less frequent, BUT your financial outlays will be huge,and you will be up for paying those expenses before paying yourself, you won't have someone to debrief with when it gets a bit much ( and it will),plus you may not have a more experienced practitioner around at the beginning of your new career to bounce ideas off or to refer to in cases that may be beyond your experience just yet ( unless you work in a combined practice,or if it is your own practice, someone you have employed).I really hope you sit back and consider these factors before you decide to do anything,and best of luck.

• 

  RandomNinja on 10/05/2023 - 09:30

  +1

  I'm in the midst of career transitioning from a corporate role towards becoming a psychologist and it took me almost a year to weigh up the pros/cons before committing.

  There is a substantial time and financial commitment to tertiary education before you can practice. As you have a degree, you can complete a graduate diploma in psychology in 1.5 years (PT, no FT option) which gives you the equivalent of a 3 yr bachelor. You'll likley need a WAM >75 to be accepted in to an Honours program (1yr FT), closer to 85 at top tier universities. Then you'll need to gain acceptance in to a Masters program (2yrs FT), which are also highly competitive due to limited availability, where you can become provisionally registered. Prov rego allows limited practice under supervision. So, minimum 2.5yrs before being able to derive any income, 4.5yrs for full registration. Even factoring in FEE-HELP, make sure you're financially prepared.

  As @parisienne mentions, there is little external incentive/recognition in the helping profession, so you'll want to be very sure of your internal motivations before making the decision. Before committing to a change towards psychology, perhaps you can get a taste of the helping profession through volunteering in counselling/mentoring roles at organisations that have a mission you're passionate about?

• 

  DomHenry on 10/05/2023 - 11:21

  +2

  This is the best interactive , practical & down to earth comment on a topic that I’ve ever come across on Ozbargain. To everyone that contributed thank you 🙏 so much . I learnt a lot reading through your comments with your varied life experiences. It just goes to show that money isn’t everything . Most of the those jobs that pay the most , come with very long hours , high levels of stress and trying to compromise on social life. Things aren’t always what they seem on the outside . I’m also considering a career change and this topic & the comments that followed, couldn’t come at a much better time . Thank you 🙏 all

• 

  jcsteadman on 10/05/2023 - 11:50

  I would choose option C.

  I've just stepped away from running my own business for 12+ years to go back to university to study architecture. I originally studied economics and commerce and ran a consultancy - big bucks but lots of travel, stress, managing employees and colleagues. I was feeling burnt out and was looking for some kind of sense of purpose beyond just making other people more money.

  Going back to university has been amazing and making new connections within this industry is a million times easier when you're older and are actually interested in the field.

  The reality is you've still got your qualifications regardless of your choice and can always 'switch back' if you find going back to uni or psychology isn't what you thought it would be. The reality of it is it probably ISN'T what you think it'll be, so I'd first of all talk to a lot of people in the role you're looking into. But if you're honestly considering the switch, I say jump into it for a summer semester this year and see what it's like going back to uni and see if you're interested in the field beyond what you're preconceptions of it are.

• 

  2esc on 10/05/2023 - 12:42

  Most council engineers end up not being with councils more than a few years and move on.

  A lot of people here are focused on money but family and friends are pretty important for happiness and mental well being.

  As you are a engineer you should be able to change careers again if council work is not for you.

  I say give it a go.

  Just may need to drastically change your spending patterns.

• 

  Hugh G Rection on 11/05/2023 - 17:41

  +1

  A or C for sure.

  i made tons of money and regret it because it doesn't replace time spent with family. they younger years of your children are the best and critical years to there foundation and upbringing. if they had parents around more often to train them properly they wouldn't be as spoiled as they are now. we make a lot of money, but our kids feel entitled to our money. i would easily take less money, work closer to home, and less hours to be with my family. having all this money really isn't worth it. once you buy all the "rich" people stuff, you get bored quickly. i had all luxury everything, and now find myself enjoying wearing more functional and more affordable clothing that doesn't have a luxury name attached to it. you really pay $100's more for just the logo. sorry, going on a little rant, but family with your young children is the best, and i missed my kids childhood because i was working so much to make so much money and nothing to really spend it on because i pretty much have everything i ever wanted. but it can't buy me lost time.

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  DemocracyManifest on 14/05/2023 - 23:40

  Eh, I’ve had a bunch of jobs - two I thought would have ended up with permanency, - they didn’t, but my current role is the first true permanent job I’ve ever had. And with that is some additional perks. So I’m pretty happy. It’s a demanding role in the NGO space, I’ve had a look into financial and legal jobs as well and government; a lot of entry/initial level jobs in those areas truly suck due to micromanagement and managers trying to prove themselves, so they destroy your life.