Can you find satisfaction when you switch careers to mentoring/counselling people when you know you are a person who likes to see concrete results of your work? My current career lets me see results to know I made a difference, most of the time. I have an Assoc degree and 12 years experience in predominately a hardware troubleshooting function. I LOVE the learning involved and am focused on the semiconductor industry in the research area. I also love variety. I get to work with people so that balance keeps me going. I have a natural curiosity and love to know/ponder how things work and why. My dilemma is that though my career is satisfying the problem solving part of my brain, I am VERY drawn to the people problem solving side of things oppossed to instrumentation. My bookshelves at home are all full of "life skills" type of material (self-esteem, communication etc.)and my role model is "telling it like it is" Phil McGraw. Also for any Myerrs Briggs Type Indicator fans, I'm an ENFP. Be it midlife (41) or what, I am contemplating a career change since I expect to work till 55. I want to "make a difference" and I currently get to experience that through my Big Brothers/Big Sisters mentoring volunteer work as well as my "after work" social life. I would like to focus on "at risk youth"(teenagers mainly)before they make poor decisions and end up at a dead end. My concern is the "burn out" that I've heard of when dealing with people problems, and I also don't want to be a traditional social worker. Also I make good money now and with only a 2 yr degree am afraid I will have to go to school forever, after my full time job, to even be in the running for a psychology type background. The overall pay may be much less, which is scarey. Has anyone taken this dramatic of a career switch? Do you ever stay in one career that is satisfactory and enjoy your true passion outside of work?

-- Denise Dombroski (dedombroski@dow.com), November 09, 2000

Answers

I can tell you for sure that I wouldn't personally find satisfaction from moving from a people focused career to a technical career and most other would not, so consider yourself one of the lucky ones who have the potential to move from a technical one to people focused career. The fact that you can do both (and you have demonstrated that willingness by your generosity of your time giving back to the community) makes you are rare bird in technical circles. I keep hearing the biggest dilemma in the IT field is finding people who have technical competency coupled with people competency.

Of course I can see where you might have a concern and there is ageism going on in the tech market. Despite the fact that there is a talent shortage, you are living proof of someone who the tech industry should covet. Instead the tech industry are losing people like you and I think you should at least take a step back and remind yourself just how valuable your skill base really is. That will allow you to properly consider where these people skills can combine with your technical prowess can be best utilized. There may be a career in your current path that you have failed to take time to consider that could be equally fulfilling to you.

My biggest reservation about what you have said (and that comes from the way you posed the question) is this. When you are working with people, you are helping them to find their results not yours. That means you have to let go and stop thinking out of your own pocket. Something I said here could well change your life but its not up to me to change your life, it is up to you and of course equally important, it is up to the person who you want to assist.

If I were to come close to answering your question about satisfaction, I would pout my lips, twist my hips and sing "I can't get no satisfaction" - a Mick Jagger inspired rendition, because Denise, nobody can know what satisfies you other than you intimately knowing what satisfies you. Personally I would never delegate satisfaction out in trade for advice because its up to you to step in those waters. Even when I take a shower, I take a toe poke whether the water is too hot or too cold, career satisfaction amounts to the same thing, you can either rush straight into it, or test the waters before you take the dip.

As for burnout, how do you know that the career change you want right now isn't driven by burnout from your technical career. All you can do regarding burnout is to study its symptoms and learn to recognize if it is happening to you. As far as burnout concerned with dealing with people problems, you don't own anyone so unless you think you have to own someone's pain or carry that pain, kindness in my opinion has never burned anyone out. Look at how doctors and nurses cope with the life and death situations that arise every day in hospitals, they have to come back to work, they adjust their perspectives in order to do so but that doesn't mean they have lowered their caring or humanity by doing so. If you want a role model, study the life of Mother Theresa, she knew how to separate herself from the problems she was tackling.

Making a difference doesn't have to be a public show or an emotional trade, everybody that works, makes a difference, its people who do nothing that don't. However you view life in terms of "making a difference" will affect how you see and participate in life. I for one realize that Myers Briggs indicators have proven to be nonsense, but people believe in the Briggs type fanatically. It's not up to me to tell people what should make a difference in their lives, it is up to them or up to you to wake up to the realities of ones own life.

If you are able to do that, I personally believe that you are closer to meaning and satisfaction, it all boils down to, does one really know one's self and how open and flexible one is to acknowledge one's physical presence. To do good for others is wonderful but not to good for yourself leaves you open to be another person in need of help. I hope that this was helpful dialogue to you and good luck with whatever choices you eventually decide are relevant and good for yourself.

M.

"To be or not to be that is the question" A quote by Willy Shakes. M Profile at: http://www.fastcompany.com/fasttalk/replypost.html? p=9738

Mantra of M:"Life is about Private Relations not Public Relations"

-- Mark Zorro (zorromark@consultant.com), November 09, 2000.

I began university in engineering and finished in psych, then taught high school math till switching to guidance counselling. After a couple of years I got into counselling teachers and working with class size surveys for the teachers' association, aka "uniion". Before long I was elected President and Chief Negotiator and bargained a good class size/anti-layoff collective agreement... a very interesting leadership experience. That led me to look outside teaching for personnel jobs and that has been my career for nearly 20 years, never the same two years in a row, working with people, training, counselling and using my "math" skills in business.

Can you change careers, yes! Avoiding burn out is learning to manage stress and stay healthy. You can burn out being a stay-at-home parent if you don't manage stress well. Or you can go on working till you're 80 if you want and keep interested and stay in good shape mentally and physically.

Having a BA and an MEd degree helped, but people judge mostly by what you can do and have done. The hardest switch for me - out of teaching into business and personnnel - was eased by my experience in union leadership much more than by my degrees. I was hired to negotiate for management against unions, but the skills are the same. They say you need to be a specialist to get a job and a generalist to get promoted in one. I think that's very true. Your people skills are the "generalist" skills that you need. All you need to make the career switch is a credible argument that you have some sort of related experience in some specialist role in the new career area. Do you do training? Many people do. If so, you can usually start as a trainer in any number of other industries. What I usually tell people is, go look for a company that needs help and isn't smugly hidebound in a "we always do things our way" culture. A company that is trying to change and looking for help will take a chance on someone with a unique background... "beggars can't be choosers." Hope that helps.

-- Dave Crisp (dcrisp62@home.com), November 12, 2000.