Career change: How did it go for you?

Hi Onrail,

I've been in the same boat for a number of years. Working in Civil and Structural consultancies since graduating in 2011 and have been thinking about going back for a career change for about the last 5! The majority of my class don't work in the profession anymore, risk/reward ratio not good enough basically.

I am a bit conflicted at the moment because I'm finally on a half decent wage, and it would take a number of years to get back to it. Are you on site or in the design office?

I've always had an amateur interest in coding so have been leaning towards doing one of the Springboard IT courses and trying to work my way up from there. I know a few people who have done similar (including close family) and they have got work relatively easily and they have working from home perks etc. If there is a significant downturn in the next couple of months I am 100% downing tools and signing up to one of them.

Great for me.

Look if you'll be hungry for the new line go for it, that'll make it work.

If your sick of your current line then a change might help.

I was a Military Mechanical Engineer for 15 years overseas before I did a career change to the world of IT. In the British Army I could have served 22 years and left with a decent pension for life but instead I knew I had more to offer and retrained for IT administration.

I left the army, did my retraining in South Africa and gained a few qualifications for managing Microsoft products. I found a job with a major IT provider (Siemens) and since then its been a whirlwind ride as the world of IT is so fast. It took 4 years to bring my salary up to what I was earning prior and now after another 8 years IT has been very kind to me to a point it has far exceeded all my expectations.

I found I was twice as motivated once I moved into IT. This effectively fast tracked me above everyone else without doing twice the work so the salary jumped and the promotions came quite quickly.

trihead wrote: »

Regarding career change have a look at
Springboard courses - know several people where this has worked out for them.
http://springboardcourses.ie

Yep, I'm one of those people

Was an efl teacher and then worked in school administration. Realised I needed something different and wanted a job that would give me more opportunities outside of Dublin.

Did the ACCA Diploma via Springboard. Signed up for a year and it's part time ...one evening a week and and a couple of Saturdays during each module. It is a commitment but worked full time while completing the 1st year. Plenty of others have full time jobs and kids. Also, all classes are online via zoom (even before covid). Many in the class are based outside of Dublin and logging in for class. You only pay 10% of the course fees so not too big of a financial commitment. Was lucky enough that the course was extended into a 2nd year, again 90% springboard funded.

Left my full time job last September and got an internship in an accountancy practice. Stayed on part time and now work and study part time. Suits me grand as I'm single and live a pretty simple life.

Enjoying the fact that I now have more concrete qualifications (my previous role I just kinda picked up skills on the job), less responsibility and my pay works out better on a per hours basis than my previous job.

While there are busy periods in the accounting year not all roles are so demanding in terms of your time. From what I've hear the Big 4 practices wring you out for the first few years. But the people who take the entry level internships at these companies are young and ambitious and I guess they're rewarded later in their careers. I'm very happy to go in, do the best I can for the small businesses we support and leave at 5!

Was in e commerce. Joined the guards and regret not doing it sooner. Very happy.