@Metalcat How's it going?? I know you're only 6 months in, but how are you liking it thus far? How does it compare with your previous career?
I'm well over a year into working clinically, but I launched my own practice in September.
I made this career choice extremely carefully. I spent a few years investigating literally just about every single career option that I could physically do with extensive interviewing of people working on various professions.
I know what I like and what I don't like. For example, line you I love writing and people have constantly pushed me to get into it because I have so many published authors in my family who have done quite well with writing, I have avoided that industry like the plague.
My new career and my previous career share the exact same target client population, so that really helps utilize a ton of transferrable skills. But I don't have to commute, I don't have to do a job that is absolutely BRUTAL on my body, I have much more flexibility in my schedule and ability to take time off. I always had autonomy over those things, but the logistics of the work demanded too much structure of my time. If I take a sick day, it doesn't cause a chaotic backlog nightmare.
My new career is simply a much, much more livable one. It's very different though and less acutely exciting, but in a lot of other ways, it's more satisfying.
It also pays similar per hour and retraining only cost me mid 5 figures. I used to pay 5 figures annually for CE because of the niche area I worked in, so that's a pretty spectacular payoff as far as I'm concerned.
I also fit better in this profession. I was at a CE course for my former profession recently because I still have my license, and it really hit me how poorly I fit with that culture. It's not like I'm a natural fit in my current professional culture either, but it's a more comfortable misfit, if that makes sense.
In my former profession I was the one focused on soft skills, the patient experience, aggressively advocating for a way of practicing where maintaining excellence and ethics could be almost as profitable as unethical bullshit and corner cutting. I was in a sea of sharks constantly fighting for the integrity of the work. Lol, now I'm the profit-focused shark compared to my colleagues who are borderline terrified of even admitting that they want to make money.
Having the business background I do though has been a godsend. My career hit a level in the first 4 months that people normally take years to achieve. And that's the thing about a second career, you're never starting from zero, you always bring with you the knowledge and skills from your previous career, so that's where the countless interviews come in. I narrowed down the fields where the skills I already possessed would be an advantage in the
early stages of the profession.
I'm competing with mid 20s new grads who have never made a website, never written a speck of marketing copy, never learned any formal sales pitch skills. Etc, etc.
Being a lawyer, teacher, and author gives you an enormous range of skills to draw from and build upon in a new profession. Don't feel like you need to settle for something good enough. There's something seriously awesome and interesting out there for you.
And like you, I tried something else first, something I thought I would love, and it was a disaster. Which is what pushed me to research much more thoroughly before settling on something new.
You have everything you need to find an amazing career that you love doing. It's just going to take more analysis than you may have realized.
