(no subject)
I have decided that my current job will be my last full time IT job.
It's a scary prospect, given that I've had no real training on any other career in my entire life. But I've come to the realization that I really want to work with animals, specifically in veterinary treatment. This is something that gives me a satisfaction that working on IT systems can never do.
I've been doing IT pretty much my entire life in some form or another, and while it's financially rewarding, I feel it's not where I want to be. It's something I always liked as a hobby, and turning it into a full time career has been good for my bank account, but that's about it. At the end of the day, I can scarcely ever point to a time when I've felt like I've done good for the world.
I had a realization while I was helping a telemarketing firm work on their phone system. I sort of thought to myself "what am I doing?" while working late into the night on my 13th hour of the day. I realized that this has to come to a stop.
I had some plans that involved buying a house that have been largely derailed this year, and I think that may be for the best. My thoughts are more about how I can afford to go to school and be relatively close to my current standard of living. I think I can do this if I just keep myself open for the occasional consulting gig, or a reliable part time job while focusing primarily on schoolwork.
It's a daunting prospect. My whole adult life has been characterized as working with splashes of life spread about. To change that one constant is scarier than I care to consider.
I don't know if I can do it for the spring semester-but I think I have to before summer. It's 8 years of school at the very least-but this is what I want to do. This is what I feel would be fulfilling to me.
While I truly love tech, I feel it's been so soiled by my previous career movements that I just don't get much joy from it. Hopefully a change in careers might even bring back some of the things I like about the industry that proved to be the financial backing for the first half of my life. In fact, I still expect to do contract work to get me through college.
It's weird hitting this point of my life. I hadn't thought I'd ever grow tired of this industry-but as of a couple years ago, it started to drive itself home that this was the inevitable ending of this career.