Change in your life



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              Changing careers is a scary prospect for many people.  I currently find myself dissatisfied with my current position at my job, andI do not see the potential for furthering myself with this position.  In my current position I feel that I am extremely underappreciated and there is no way to move upward in this position.  As an Administrative Assistant, I sometimes feel that when given the chance I can be very creative, but those times seem to be few and far between.  Another dissatisfaction that I have is that there is a huge leap between my position and the next level up from mine.  Even though I am very apprehensive of changing at the moment, mostly because of stability, I find myself going between being very excited and scared about trying to branch out into something totally new to me. 

              I am thinking about going into a career within the medical field, but not nursing.  I would like to feel that at times I will make a difference in how someone feels on a daily basis.  I have seriously been thinking about becoming a sonogram technician, or some kind oftechnician in the medical field.  I have always found science very interesting, and interpreting sonograms does seem to be of interest to me. I have no aspirations to become a doctor and save lives, but I do want to feel good about what I am doing. 

                According to a survey in the third quarter of 2007, 60% of professionals with new jobs stayed within their industry (Career, 2008).  Due to a changing economy more and more people are looking into changing careers altogether.  People are not looking to just “climb the ladder” in their current careers, but changing the industries in which they work.  Some of this stems from unhappiness with the way they see their company going, to having different goals now than when they started working.

                Starting a new career can also be exciting, but monetarily risky (Career, 2008).  After having established yourself in a position at your current career, you have more than likely tried very hard to reach the current pay grade.  To change to a totally different field may mean a pay cut, but you can try to negotiate other things such as an early performance or salary review (Career, 2008).

                Someone who has worked within an industry for a significant amount of time may at first need to rely on outside volunteer or other interests to highlight their adaptability in the workforce (Career, 2008).  Another option for someone that has been in a particular industry for any amount of time would be on the job training or looking at a technical school for training.  Some employers will even help with paying for this type of training if it will benefit them.

 Some of the other reasons that I have for going back to school and changing careers are that I want to be a good role model for my eleven year old daughter.  I want to show her that getting a good education and working hard will pay off in the end.  I hope that I will find a job that will pay a higher salary and provide a better life and more stability for my family.  I also hope that I am also showing her that you can do this at any point within your life if you have the drive to do so.  

Career crossovers.(2008, February); 62(2):18. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance .Retrieved February 4, 2012   from Academic Search Complete database.