Would You Switch Careers if You Discovered What You Truly Wanted?

I am not one of those people who were forced by their parents to take a specific course. However, I have somewhat regretted the day I realized I wasn't studying for what I wanted to be once I graduated.

Ever since I got my first animal book, I told myself I wanted to be a veterinarian. But then, things changed. I wanted to do something else. I wanted to be called an engineer. And I became a licensed one. But after working as one, it made me thought that I really didn't enjoy it. Have you ever felt this way?

If so, would you switch careers after realizing that you really wanted to be?

Yep, I sure would. Our interests change sometimes and it'd be unfortunate to be stuck on a lifelong path of something that you hated. I would take the step back and start over if I needed to.

In fact, I have before...

I have known people who have discovered, that after graduating with a specific degree, then find out that they hated what they studied for. They ended that career after a while, they really did not like it. I think one should do what they like, life is very short, go for your dream.

I've known several people like that, too.

It's hard after you've put thousands of dollars into the degree (or have 10 years left on student loans), and then suddenly don't want to use it any more. Some people end up staying for that reason alone.

You are so correct, but it can make you depressed to stay and keep getting up going out, dreading the day. It's hard as you say, spending all that money and then discovering it is not what you want to do. But as I said before, life is so too short. Also in todays society, people are changing careers for many reasons, so they may find themselves in something altogether different anyway.

Oh I agree. Sometimes it's better to eat that cost and chalk it up to experience. You gain a lot of other things from going to college....not just the piece of paper at the end. I do think it's better to switch if you truly hate what you've gotten into.

I have actually been thinking about changing careers lately. I do like the career I have now but it is not what I had intended to do. I think there is another career that I meant to perform at some point in my life. Yes, I would switch careers. Many people do over the course of their lives.

So true, Jessi, college gives you such a breath of wisdom, not only the book studies, but the intermingling, helps you to know people. I loved school, in fact, I plan if I can make it happen to attend again. Will be one of the oldest ones sitting in class, but it will be my choice. Changing careers only makes you have a greater experience level.

Yes, very feel the same thing. I am an electronics engineering graduate, but I think I am not too happy with my course, I supposed to want nursing but my parents told me to take engineering because nursing is an expensive course. But later i realized that I don't love nursing. Until now I still don't know what I really wanted.

Of course I would. I would hope that anyone would.

I was going to school for graphic design for a while, and I enjoyed doing the artwork and taking the classes and everything. I've always been really good at art. I've painted all my life. So people would see that and always tell me I should be some sort of artist. Graphic design was kind of the field that an artist could make money (versus just trying to sell your paintings to galleries or something like that, although that is of course possible as well) so I just figured that is what I should do.

After a while, graphic design just didn't feel right for me. I couldn't see myself in that world. It wasn't a decision exactly, I just became less motivated about signing up for new classes and slowly became less into it. I felt lost for a little while and didn't really have any career plans at all. I was just working at a restaurant and surviving day to day.

Then one day it just happened: I knew what I was supposed to do. It was kind of amazing how it happened, literally in one moment, I went from being completely lost to knowing what I wanted for my life. I wanted to be a writer.

Just like with art, I'd always been good at writing. I won a writing contest for the entire school district as a 6-year-old for this silly fantasy story I wrote, which I didn't even think was all that amazing but the teachers just praised me. As a kid I never even thought about it as a career, I just loved to write. It was an escape for me to make up characters and spend hours at the typewriter (Im old, we didn't have computers yet then haha) lost in their stories. I wrote a number of "books" and more stories that got a lot of praise from my teachers, but somewhere along the way in my late teens I stopped writing. I don't even know why. It just faded out of my life.

Then in that moment, it all came flying back to me in a flash. I'll never forget it. I was sitting in the bathtub, listening to my then-boyfriend and his son talking and watching tv in the living room, and this beautiful story just appeared in my mind. I knew that I was supposed to write a novel. It was one of the deepest and most special moments in my life, that flash.

That flash became a story, which became many years of hard work, writing for hours into the night, many, many, MANY cups of coffee, cigarettes, and other substances I will not name. (lol). And it is now a near-complete manuscript, sitting on the table across the room from me right now. A few more edits and it will be ready to begin submitting. I'm already halfway through my second novel as well.

Will they ever become published? Time will tell. Either way, I really feel like I've accomplished something beautiful. At one point I took a year off to work full time on this novel. I was very, very poor! But it was so worth it because during that year was when most of the story came together.

If you aren't doing something you love and feel you are meant to be doing, change something! Life is too short.

I think it is okay, you can think about getting a second course, this is one problem why people don't become happy, it's because they don't easily become contented of what they have obtained and search for more

Well, I'm the kind of girl who knows exactly what I wanted and have the freedom to choose the career I'm destined to embark on. I think it's always right to switch careers, get back to what you really love and continue your life with no regrets. It's never too late to change. It's never too late to follow your heart, rebel against the authority and be the person who you want to be. The road towards another career maybe bumpy and rugged, but at least you are doing something that you've been longing to do and what could be better than that?

If I was not doing what I truly wanted then I would switch and I recommend that everyone does the same.

I definitely would. Especially if I know deep inside that it's what I really want, and I know it's where I could find a higher sense of fulfillment and happiness. If I would be switching careers, however, I would ensure that I'd be committed to that field that I chose, and not be in a vicious cycle of switching to other careers if I find myself bored or disinterested after some time again. So before I'd kick start on a new profession, I would really think about it and consider some things that I may need to sacrifice for a while. If everything seems to be positive then I'd give myself a go!

I wouldn't hesitate to change careers if something came my way that I always wanted to do. Why because when you do what you love to do it doesn't seem like work. That is the key to true success doing what you love to do. Of course, I always knew to some degree what I wanted to do. I have always had a great imagination and I loved to write, so I wanted to be a writer since grade school. With any luck I am finally on the path to achieving my goal of being able to earn a living doing what I have always loved to do and that is write.

I felt I had to be in networking and online marketing and study personal development and the reason is that I wanted to evolve and build relationships online and offline at the same time while monetizing it and being able to have flexibility in my life with time with people and time to learn. I just didn't see that with a 9-5

I definitely understand what you're talking about digitalbrew! I actually went to school to be an engineer and got an engineering job after I graduated. But after a couple years, I decided I wanted to work more with people than with things. So rather than settle for where I was, I went back to school to get an MBA so I could get a management position. And now I have been a manager for almost two years after having received my MBA. I like this a lot better, but it's still not quite right. Now I'm honing in on what I really want to do even more and it's helping people engineer their lives to make them better. So now I'm trying to transition into doing that full-time by creating a blog and a business based on it. It's called ExcellenceForEveryone.com and my goal is to help as many people as possible improve their lives quickly and efficiently when they first start, and then to keep improving themselves thereafter.

When I switched from being and engineer to being a manager, I started to enjoy what I did and my life in general more. And I can only imagine that when I'm finally able to switch to being a personal development expert from being a manager, it'll be even better. So I think it's totally worth it, and if there's something you really want to do that isn't what you're doing right now - GO FOR IT! Do it intelligently of course (don't just quit your job and hope for the best), but definitely get the transition started as soon as possible. Your future self will thank you for it! =)

Thank you. I've worked as an Electronics Engineer for roughly a year too. I passed the board exam and worked immediately. Then I switched to IT for another 2 years. Being an IT was fun. I still do it now. But then, when someone asks me what I love doing the answer is simple, I love dog and helping owners make the best out of their relationship with their dogs.

I doubt I will be going to vet school anytime soon. But I do plan to have my own business and I want it to cater to animals lovers. Hopefully, it'll come true.

Good luck on your endeavor. It's nice when you know what you love and you're dead set to do it.