Careers and Resume Building?

[Cowardly Toaster]

Hi all, just wanted to get some opinions from all of you smart folks, and I thought this thread might grow into a discussion of the modern career.

I'm very early 30s, I have 2 kids & a stay at home wife. I've been thinking a lot about my career, and what my path should be like.

My field is safety&health, and I also have experience doing what essentially amounts to HR in the context of secret government contracts.

At the moment, I know that I could springboard into a great career and be doing pretty well by my 40s. Even given my late start with the ways of the Mustache, I believe I could FIRE before 50, easily.

Here's the thing: I don't particularly care for my career. And in 21st century, it seems that no one is safe from being laid off or outmoded by technology. For instance, I wonder if many human workers will be phased out of hazardous jobs by say 2030, leading to a decreased need for safety personnel.

My expenses are low, and I think I could easily hack it working 20 hours a week. But of course, I'm reluctant to try that out, as "building a resume" is so important, and I have weird resume in the first place (college, military, oilfield, now management).

So what I'm asking is: would I be making a gigantic mistake by abandoning my career? Is a career all important? Do careers even have a future in America?

[ysette9]

You are the sole bread winner for your family and you aren’t FI, so abandoning your career would be a bad move. Someone has to pay to put food on the table and a roof over your heads.

It sounds like you are dissatisfied with what you are doing now. Take some time and explore what your options are. You have diverse experience so you should be able to leverage that into something new. I imagine others can make recommendations on books to read to help you figure out what your strengths and interests are. Maybe you just need some quiet time to reflect with a glass of wine and a pen and paper. Talk to your wife who knows you best and bounce ideas off of her.  If I were a stay at home parent with two kids and a spouse who was talking about walking away from a career I would get very nervous. Include her in your musings so she isn’t blindsided.

[Poeirenta]

Have you considered emergency management as a potential career option? Your stated experience seems like it could cross over well and given the upward trend of natural disasters, could be pretty stable, albeit intense at times.

[ruraljuror]

Thinking through career path options is beneficial, but I've learned that predicting where you will end up is next to impossible. Interests and circumstances change, plus we are all fickle to some degree. I would encourage you to focus on professional development in order to make yourself as valuable as possible. This will open up pathways that you haven't considered and increase your income likely beyond what you've projected. Going all-in in your field of expertise and finding ways that it brings you satisfaction and financial gain has worked for many.