How Many Switched Careers on Here??

[FinanceDude]

I don't know if there was a thread on this at anytime. Just wondering who did, what the effect on FIRE was, etc.

[Sarah in SC]

I have a hard time envisioning my checkered work history as a career, but I'll chime in that I've never had a job that was in any way tied to another job. But they are all jobs, not a career. My career? Life! At least that is what it is today.

The list: Tea farm, fancy-pants home & garden shoppe, State forestry commission, nonprofit, sailboat chandlery, vanity publisher, financial planner.

Effect on FIRE? Well, I'll never have a pension. I'll get there by saving, hook and crook, and a motivated spouse!

[Rustic23]

Air Force, Residential Appraiser, Commercial Appraiser, Computer programmer, Manager at different levels doing things related to the preceding. Each one contributed to FIRE.

[VaCollector]

Raised in the family retail (furniture) business and was accorded the dubious distinction of closing it down (age 33)....used my accounting background to work FREE for the business accountant (6 months) and found that I actually liked it....learned the accounting business from him (the "real world" way ~ not the book way)....later opened my own office and here I am....FIRE'd at 53.

[ziggy29]

I'm kicking around the idea of changing careers in a few years. I'm not quite ready to do it financially, but I think there may be X years before I can fully FIRE with my current job and perhaps X-5 years before I could accept a considerably lower paycheck in exchange for an occupation I'd rather be doing. I'd have to like the j*b enough to want to do it for a while, or else no dice. I might also want something I can transition into part-time if I'm ready to take steps toward FIRE but not ready to take the full plunge.

[VaCollector]

hey Ziggy....what happened?....if old phart syndrome hasn't set in, I'm pretty sure that your retirement clock lost at a minute....or am I losing it?

[RunningBum]

Not only have I not switched careers, but I'm doing nearly the same thing I was almost 20 years ago. I moved to a competitor, I've got more responsibility, and I can do it better because I've learned so much more, but many things I learned in 1988 I still use today. For high tech, that's pretty unusual. Once I became FI but not ready to RE it was easier and more fun to just stay on this course rather than pick up something new.

[donheff]

I spent over 30 years with GSA, a federal agency, but I did make a big mid-career switch. I was the director of HR through the early 90s having spent my entire career in various HR positions. But I was getting sick of downsizing and interested in the Internet. I liked Usenet News, Gopher and things like that in the days before the web got going in a big way. When graphical browsers like Mosaic and Cello came out I decided the web would be the big thing in the years to come. I pushed the agency to set up an Internet link and pushed for development of a national network. As the HR guy I got along well with everybody and was able to convince the powers that be to turn over HR to my Deputy and move me over into IT (she was better at HR than me anyway so it was probably a welcome idea). I was put in charge of our national IT infrastructure in late 1995. I spent the last 10 years of my career managing IT. I was a suit, not a techy but I did like the technical stuff and came to understand it better than most of my fellow suits. IT was much more fun than HR.

[AltaRed]

Cannot really say I switched careers, i.e. project development and management as an engineer for 35 years, but did work in 2 different industries - initially nuclear power for a public corporation, then oil and gas. Saw the writing on the wall in '79 regarding nuclear power and joined the then raging O&G industry. No regrets for the switch.

[Sandy]

Mental health, child welfare staff, oncology clinic manager, staff local health and social service coalitions, public heath, state health and social service policy evalution covers most of it. A loose common thread. The actual activities were all totally different from one another.

[Coach]

Computer sales, bookstore owner, computer programmer. I got the first two done by age 30 leaving me with a net worth of a few grand in the hole, so I count my journey to FIRE as starting at 30.

Coach

[toofrugalformycat]

Fisheries Science (really fish aid/tech/field biologist), then computer programmer/analyst first in business, then aerospace, then fisheries for the final 15 years. I switched from biology because I wasn't making a living, much less building savings for ER.
That was before biology was trendy.

[Goonie]

I did demolition until 18, then switched to deadend j*b as a grocery store stocker.....for a month. Switched to municipal job...still at 18, and floated through 3 departments in a year and a half until I landed in wastewater......department.

My gig in the wastewater dept. was my 'career' until I read a quote somewhere that stated, "A career is simply a j*b that lasted too long". So it was just a j*b.

Kept the Muni job until this past April.....FIRE'd @ 50 to become a full-time Connoisseur of Life. I plan on holding my current position until I become worm food under the sod at my 'eternal vacation' plot.

[Gumby]

Navy submariner (5 yrs); engineer at a nuclear power plant (3 yrs); private practice lawyer (15 yrs); assistant attorney general (2 weeks so far).

[mountaintosea]

Cytotechnologist (hospital lab employee) and then public defender and now footloose!

[ziggy29]

Originally Posted by VaCollector

hey Ziggy....what happened?....if old phart syndrome hasn't set in, I'm pretty sure that your retirement clock lost at a minute....or am I losing it?

Yeah -- I had to move it back a minute because the market is tanking.

Think about the old 'Doomsday Clock.' It could move back or forward depending on world geopolitical events. The FIRE clock can too; negative financial events can temporarily push it back farther, although future good returns would likely move it back closer to midnight again.

[kumquat]

Farmer, chemist, computer geek, mega-corp management and now whatever I want to do.

[kcowan]

Process control engineer, sales, sales management, corporate management.

Getting into sales got me on track for highly paid executive positions. Not earlier FIRE but definitely better FI.

[Danny]

paperboy, bike mechanic, dishwasher, cook's helper, cost analyst, financial analyst, programmer, systems analyst, technical analyst, stock analyst, amateur golfer-musician-yogi, shiftless-layabout-idler and advocate for early retirement

[bright eyed]

Originally Posted by Danny

paperboy, bike mechanic, dishwasher, cook's helper, cost analyst, financial analyst, programmer, systems analyst, technical analyst, stock analyst, amateur golfer-musician-yogi, shiftless-layabout-idler and advocate for early retirement

gosh, would have never have guessed you like to analyze things so much now I know you're a professional!