Career change, and which choice is the best?

[AirbusA389]

I am stuck with all with too many choices, and i would like to seek fellow mustachians for advice.

I regard myself as one hardcore mustachian with 60-70% savings rates and 2 jobs, full time IT planner role and freelance tutor for high school children. I work 60 - 80 hours per week since i graduated in 2010.

I have seen enough IT outsourcing, i am in the middle of one major outsourcing project to China and India. Hence i wouldn't want to work in IT industry anymore.

Here's the conundrum:

I am looking for a career change, and this is also part of my migration plan.

Blue Pill 1: Australian Permanent Residency

I qualify for Au PR, hopefully to finalise all my paperwork by November 2017. After which, i have no idea and totally clueless at what i want to work as. I have the entire world of work to choose from, yet i do not know what i should go after.

I don't feel secure without a skill set to enter Australian labour market, and i don't like the idea. Some of my friends say just get a job to survive, but i have bigger goals such as owning a property and achieving Financial Independence early.
 
Min wage in AU is around Au19


Red Pill 2: MSc Radiography

I know i want something hands-on for my second career, I am not sure if i want to wipe out 50% of my savings for one Masters' degree. I am looking at MSc Radiography. This degree costs 32,000 GBP (equvialent) in Australia or the UK.

The reason why i chose radiography, is the constant shortage in supply for qualified radiographers around the world. Pay in the UK NHS isn't fantastic, at 21,000 GBP per year. Once qualified with 2 years experience, Australia offers a much better offer of at lest 60,000 aud per year (after taxes).

Should i take the Blue Pill or Red Pill?

[2Cent]

You should make your own choice of course. But do consider getting a masters costs much more than tuition fees. It costs time. You will have a much smaller or no income at all for the years you spend getting it.

I would propose if you have a 70% savings rate you about 8 years from FI and could just stick it out in your current career. Then you can move to AU and see from there. I don't think you need to worry about not finding a job. If you can do IT stuff well there will always be work. You can only outsource the most simple helpdesk stuff. Anything that requires on site stuff, or communication with the stakeholders will be very hard to outsource. A lot of companies are actually moving that stuff back to local parties as they realize that if the computers don't work, nobody works.

[Izzs]

I may have misunderstood but I'm very surprised a UK masters costs £32000 (except maybe an MBA), have you looked at other locations most masters seem to range from £4000 - £8000.
Otherwise only you can know what the best choice is. If there's any chance of work experience in a radiography department I'd go for that before you make any decisions. Purely anecdotal  but it seems the radiographers are highly knowledgeable and well trained but have to defer all actual diagnosis  to the Dr in the UK, which I imagine would be very frustrating...

[Urchina]

You should also consider the psychological and emotional impact of your work. Radiography in the US entails frequently seeing really bad news (tumors, etc) and needing to pretend that everything's fine to the person right there on the table. It's also an indoor job and you will spend a LOT of time dealing with people who are scared and/or in pain.   

I'm immensely grateful to the skilled radio graphers in our lives, but I don't think it's a good match for everyone.

[StockBeard]

I would propose if you have a 70% savings rate you about 8 years from FI and could just stick it out in your current career.

He graduated in 2010. Assuming 70% since then, he's probably even closer to FI, maybe 5 years away?

Nevertheless, 5 years is a long time if he doesn't like it

[AirbusA389]

Thanks guys for your response, I'm going to try to answer the points raised in the replies.


The outsourcing project that i'm currently doing involves the entire IT hardware dept to the service provider. We didn't outsource Helpdesk. Ironically, the IT hardware dept are the ones who can deliver the results, but their jobs are outsourced. The applications / programmers couldn't deliver the systems but their jobs are retained. There is no savings in this outsourcing, and we probably incur a much higher operating costs immediately.



i'm going to the UK as an international student, hence the full-fee status for the MSc. There's a similar course in AU, subsidized spots are hard to come by. The fees in AU is 50k aud (around 25k GBP).

The 4-8k GBP course fees.. probably includes bursaries etc? British students pay 9000 GBP per year for their undergraduate studies. Those doing healthcare degrees are currently sponsored by NHS, but things are changing and British students will be expected to pay for their healthcare degrees very soon.

I was in Edinburgh in late Nov 2015; i did a job shadow at a x-ray dept at a Scottish hospital. Yes i know some people will be put off by the blood and trauma cases. To be honest i wont know until i get into the job, and how the blood and gore affects me emotionally and psychologically.  Currently i would like to focus on the bright side, and contribute to solve the problems that the patient is facing. I wont have the full solution for my patients though.

For the interpretation of the images, an Interpreting Radiographer can interpret the x-rays of the limbs. A qualified radiologist (specialist doctor) have to do the rest of x-ray images, CT and MRI scans.

Wells, i only had 70% saving rates for around 2 years. i don't see myself working 60-80 hours a week, 7 days a week for too long. I have done this for the past 3 years, and it is starting to take a toll on my health and personal relationships.

That's why i am contemplating if i should
a)  spend 50% of it on something that interests me, or
b) just go to Australia and grab whichever job / apprenticeships that i can land, and work from there.

Either way, i would probably stick to my current lifestyle and expenditures, keeping a tight leash on my expenses. The lost income due to full time studies is something i have to live with...


Yes, this is a question that i have to answer myself. Just canvassing for more ideas from the more financially-savvy mustachians.

[Bearded Man]

Neither option is compelling to me. The degree is good for only one field. An MBA is more flexible, and you can earn moee money.

[Venturing]

If you became an Australian permanent resident you could look at studying in New Zealand. You should only have to pay the New Zealand domestic student fees which are fairly low by international standards.

With a degree like radiography you would need to be clear in advance which countries it would qualify you to work in. Even within the commonwealth people run into issues with degrees not being recognised.

[AirbusA389]

@Venturing:
Thanks for the info! Yeah i totally didn't think of NZ providing domestic fees to AU citizens / PR. Wells, i hope the registration boards in Au recognize the NZ Radiography degrees. I will find out more on this.

Most 4-year degrees in radiography in UK are recognised within the Commonwealth, just that the we have to register with individual radiography / radiotherapy accreditation boards after we have 2 years of clinical experience in a hospital.

[Venturing]

There are a lot of reciprocal agreements between New Zealand and Australia. If you had Australian permanent residency you should be able to stay permanently in New Zealand (a much more fun place than Australia ;) )

[2Cent]

+1 on NZ over UK. From my experience people are a lot more positive there. And the climate is also better.