Considering a career change

[CardinalFJ60]

Im certified change management guy. If ya wanna get weird and dig in, I’d be down for wheeling and radio/campfire talk.

I’ve also struggled with, “what do I wanna be when grow up” kinda thing. I changed my career about every 7-10 years until I figured out what loved to do. Failed aahhhhh ton!! Then burned myself out in the corporate world.

Here’s the best advice anyone ever gave me, and it changed my life. “Figure out what you lose yourself in, love to do, energizes you. Do that”

It went down just like this on a bus ride commute to Denver sitting next to the CEO(coolest smartest awesomely awesome dude) chatting on the way to work. Somewhat shortened.

BOSS: “hey Shawn, I’m gonna try a new thing at ReadyTalk (super cool startup). “

Me: “ok, lay it on me”

BOSS: “what part of your role do you sometimes lose yourself in? Like, you lose track of time, put off taking g a piss, and energized in those activities? “

Me: “onboarding new customers and training them to the shit, and use it right.“

BOSS: “ok, starting tomorrow that’s your new job. I want everyone doing here doing what energizes and fulfills them. You’re first. Thus could work really well or a give us an opportunity to learn ”.

It started a massive reorganization. The only positive one I’ve been a part of. In the next 7 years we went from 28 employees to 200 and was the best work environment ever.

 

[ScaldedDog]

Lots of good advice in this thread. I'll add my $.02, but with an eye toward what I believe to be the future of work:

This AI thing is real. At minimum, there will be huge structural changes in the economy in the coming years, and that's probably going to translate into a lot of blood on the floors of office buildings around the country. A lot of jobs that have been considered safe are going to disappear. Not completely, but we're just going to need fewer people doing them. Software engineers are living this now, and they will be joined by others. Whether one stays in their current field or moves to a different one, embracing this new reality will be a key competitive advantage.

But how to do that? I have two ideas, the second at least as important as the first:

1) Dive into it, today. Learn what others in your field are doing with the technology. Try using it to automate some of the tasks you do now. Be the guy on your team who elevates his productivity with the available tools before being asked. If you're looking to change fields, how is AI changing the work done in them?

2) Stay as close to the revenue stream as possible. "Back office" types will be first in the soup line of an AI-driven economy, but those who impact revenue - whether in acquisition or retention - will be last. In practice, this means staying close to customers. Technically oriented folks tend to avoid them, but a sharp engineer who can talk to customers in language they understand is gold above ground to most organizations, and they are difficult to replace with an AI agent. The great thing is, this is a learned skill. Matt, you seem to have a good relationship with your management chain, so find out how those conversations go when a customer goes over you to get to them. My guess is they are not talking about the technical details of the project, but more about the timeline impacts of issues and how they are being addressed. Whatever it is, learn those things and anticipate them. Always keep in mind that the higher one is in any organization, the less interest one has in the details. Talk about what does matter to them, though, and you'll have their both their attention and respect.

I was fortunate to learn item #2 by living it. A "self-loathing introvert" (a term coined by Phil Knight, to describe himself) by nature, talking to anyone was a struggle, and talking to groups was way beyond me. Somehow, I ended up as a math teacher for ten years, where my job was to get up in front of 25-30 people five times a day 180 days a year and talk to them about things they cared nothing about. Getting decent at it served me in good stead for the 29 year technology career that followed. It didn't get easier, I just got better at it. For example, I still remember getting great reviews on a presentation I gave to partners my first week at HP, after eight years in other technology firms. I smiled and said "thank you", but left out that I had thrown up at home before driving to work that day. I was 40 years old.

You can do this!!

Mark

 

[KC Masterpiece]

@ScaldedDog is absolutely right about the coming AI shift. Jobs will still exist. I do not think we are moving towards an immediate utopia with robot labor and UBI, but there is going to be a sisemic shift akin to the industrial revolution or inventing of the printing press. People will need to be ready to adapt as new fields are created, and many are eliminated entirely.

Call centers are going to be gone within a few years. My company is testing agentic AI platforms, and, in testing l, consumers prefer them over a live agent. I was very skeptical but after trying it myself I was blown away.

My brother is in copywriting, and I am worried that is going to shortly become a thing of the past.

Great comments in the post above about how to navigate the coming transition. There will be opportunities for those willing to seize them. AI is now doing about 20hrs of busy work for me each week. It does not mean I am working less, but I can focus more of my time on higher level tasks.

As an example I have an AI model that has all of the FSMs for my trucks loaded into it, and is setup to search iH8mud as an extra resource. It is astounding how accurate it is at diagnosing issues. They still need physical work to get fixed, but diagnostic time is dramatically reduced.

The worst part is that the next generation will have no idea how to write a basic email without AI.

 

[ScaldedDog]

As an example I have an AI model that has all of the FSMs for my trucks loaded into it, and is setup to search iH8mud as an extra resource. It is astounding how accurate it is at diagnosing issues. They still need physical work to get fixed, but diagnostic time is dramatically reduced.

Whoa! That's its own thread right there! Assuming you're not doing this professionally and care to share, I'd love to learn more about what you're doing. I bet others would, too.

Mark

 

[Cruisertrash]

Or #3: do something AI can’t do. Not that anybody has a desire to go back to the trades once you’re over 40 with a beat up body, but there are plenty of other things.

 

[MarkEva]

I'm sorry to see you're having a hard time. I never had much of a career and don't have anything but a little sympathy to offer. I admire you for sharing that post.

 

[allen.wrench]

A few recent events in my adventures reminded me of your thread. I hope you've been well since a few months ago. For my case, I decided against an amazing opportunity within a Federal Department (I want to leave it unspecified). It is a deeply personal decision, while amazing the Department did not suit my life goals and other available possibilities. When I was younger I never would have imagined I'd decline the opportunity if it presented, but reality is stranger than fiction and I'm at a point in my life I've worked hard to achieve. I'm working on other projects now.

If it helps you, based on my experience, I caution taking personality results as more than horoscope predictions. Briggs & Stratton, and other test results could be true, and they are worth considering, but I am cautious of the results being able to accurately predict the future. I'll echo Jackson. Your experience and intuition are likely better at educating decisions that are best for you.

Additionally I try to also separate out the emotional response from the logical analysis. I try to do it using a trade study template that lists options, aspects about the options, weights assigned to the aspects, and relative scores for each of the options within the aspect columns. Then the spreadsheet sums the weights times the scores of each option row.

If nothing else, I remember to smile when it gets hard & stressful. Go as slow as possible, and fast as necessary.

How is this project going for you Matt?

Allen

 

[subzali]

A few recent events in my adventures reminded me of your thread. I hope you've been well since a few months ago. For my case, I decided against an amazing opportunity within a Federal Department (I want to leave it unspecified). It is a deeply personal decision, while amazing the Department did not suit my life goals and other available possibilities. When I was younger I never would have imagined I'd decline the opportunity if it presented, but reality is stranger than fiction and I'm at a point in my life I've worked hard to achieve. I'm working on other projects now.

If it helps you, based on my experience, I caution taking personality results as more than horoscope predictions. Briggs & Stratton, and other test results could be true, and they are worth considering, but I am cautious of the results being able to accurately predict the future. I'll echo Jackson. Your experience and intuition are likely better at educating decisions that are best for you.

Additionally I try to also separate out the emotional response from the logical analysis. I try to do it using a trade study template that lists options, aspects about the options, weights assigned to the aspects, and relative scores for each of the options within the aspect columns. Then the spreadsheet sums the weights times the scores of each option row.

If nothing else, I remember to smile when it gets hard & stressful. Go as slow as possible, and fast as necessary.

How is this project going for you Matt?

Allen

Thanks. What is this trade study template you speak of?

Thankfully the project phase wrapped up, and whether or not it continues to the next phase I have asked to be removed from the project. So that’s good. But I am still left wondering what I ultimately do with my future career…probably going to find a career counselor (at my boss’s recommendation) if anybody has any beta/info to share in that area. Thanks all!

 

[allen.wrench]

Apologies Matt for my slow in coming reply, especially after asking you. I owe the same to John, @IoN6, on his thread. It is entirely on me. I am glad things are working out for you in the short term.

I've been working through some other priorities in my life, including a job change of my own. The following screenshot is a version of my subjective attempt to objectively understand my move from Company B to Company D. I have generalized the company names to "protect the innocent". Please note I am sharing my own personal evaluation, so take it with an appropriate grain of salt. Screenshot #1 from excel:



Also full disclosure I am an engineer. Numbers are like catnip to us I do not intend to debate the exact values assigned. However, only in case it helps, do I want to share my method. Way back in 2017 I used this trade study method to decide what vehicle to get as I out grew my college beater. Screenshot #2 from older spreadsheet:



Again please do not judge the details inside the cells. I'm saying this in case of some people choosing to fixate on details outside of the intended purpose. I am addressing the general audience that might read too much into my numbers without real understanding of the point. I fully admit in 2017 I knew not of Land Cruisers nor could I afford them, I just needed/wanted to get a handle on life outside college.

Besides these two screenshots, I attached an excel file that I made into a generic trade template that has the equations setup between the cells and some basic formatting I used more recently. The basic principle of the equations setup in the spreadsheet is that different aspects have different weights, and then different choices/options rank different relative to each other. The relative rank of the options multiplied by the weight of the aspects and summed across an option leads to a final value. The weights and the ranks can be whatever you'd prefer. I set them from 1-10 in my recent spreadsheet. If you'd like, I'm happy to make a generic version of my older spreadsheet from 2017. But the point is you can set it up however makes the most sense to you. In my setup the highest end value means it is the best option given my inputs. The weights and ranks could also be redone depending on the situation to have the lowest end value mean best.

The major benefit I get from these spreadsheets is asking myself what simple values I would assign to the many multiple variables of a personal equation (for like a vehicle, a job, a house, or a whatever), and then seeing how changing values changes the suggested best choice. I believe it's helpful to understand myself when I'm making major life decisions. Playing with numbers like this helps reveal important perspectives that I might not otherwise consider when making decisions. It is a subjective method to objectively choose in a world full of subjective choices. It is an attempt at pulling out emotional perspectives (that are important), other hidden subconscious perspectives, logical perspectives, and choosing based on what/how you want to steer things into the future.

If I had to put this all into a short phrase, and as simple as possible it boils down to: make a list.

I hope this makes sense and helps, Matt. Please feel free to ask me anything about it all, and use my spreadsheets in whatever fashion helps you. If it doesn't help, then just ignore it.

Allen

 

[Hulk]

...probably going to find a career counselor (at my boss’s recommendation) if anybody has any beta/info to share in that area. Thanks all!

@subzali - did you find someone? If not, I have a suggestion you might consider.

 

[subzali]

@subzali - did you find someone? If not, I have a suggestion you might consider.

Not yet - feel free to send my way whichever way you’d like. Thanks!