Can I change to having a job that's fun?

April 12, 2010 6:00 PM

Is it possible this late in life (mid 30s) to transition my career path to something I would actually find fun, or am I in too deep with my paycheck and I just have to look forward to retirement? (Warning: lots of detailed, somewhat rambling, personal viewpoint inside)

I'm 35 years old, and a computer programmer. I'm pretty good at my job, if I may say so without coming off as pompous. But computers have always been my "fall back" career, and having been a programmer for 5 years I find myself growing weary of the tedium.

My goal in life has always been to work in some form of entertainment, to bring entertainment to people in some form. In college I focused on television and radio production, graduating with a Communications degree with a Creative Writing minor. But having graduated I couldn't find any work in TV and ended up taking a job at an internet company to pay the bills.

I worked in computers for 5 years and got really into gaming. I had always been a gamer and thought I'd really like to be a game designer. I decided to go back and get my masters in computer programming with the hope of designing computer games and working my way up to game writing and development. I always said "Games are what I want to do, but if it doesn't work out then I can be a computer programmer, which is a good fallback position".

I got out of grad school, graduating with a 3.9, and even wrote 3 independent games during that time, but it just wasn't quite enough. The economy sucked at that time (02) and there were lots of experienced game developers looking for jobs...I was flown to LA for an interview but didn't get the gig.

Needing to pay bills I ended up working for a large national bank as a programmer. I rose through the ranks quickly, was made an AVP, and then got a job offer from another business that paid considerably more. I took it.

I have gotten married, bought a house, we bought 2 cars, got 2 dogs... We live well off the income I earn.

During the past five years I've been a programmer, I also have been feeding my desire to entertain people by podcasting. I now run 5 podcasts, 3 of which are weekly. It's an incredible time commitment and I'm making contacts but no money, but it's a labor of love. I love the editing, I love the creativity of it. I've also done several videos.

I had dreamed of turning podcasting into the career somehow (I was hired to do a high profile corporate podcast for a while, until the company went under), but after five years I'm not so sure that it will happen...or at least I'm at a loss as to how to turn the hobby into a career.

Today I was in a meeting discussing putting videos on the web and I met the man in my company who does the video and audio production, and I couldn't focus in the meeting because I kept thinking how much more fun I'd find a creative job like the A/V guy had rather than the job I have. It's not that I want to work in Hollywood, but I want to do the type of A/V stuff I've found I really enjoy doing with the podcasting and vidcasting.

But I also realized that I have a master's degree, and a sizable salary that allows my wife and I a lifestyle of comfort and travel that we greatly enjoy. So I can't see taking a step backwards in salary...but I cannot imagine that I'll get paid what I do to be the "entry level" A/V guy or podcaster.

So...I'm kind of depressed thinking that doing some creative job is out the window and I have 30 years ahead of me before retirement and I just need to endure the boredom of my day to day.

But I just wonder if there might be a way I can take these computer skills and podcasting/video production experience and turn it into some type of career.

So...should I face the music of what my life is, or is there a way I can transition to a career producing audio or video content?

posted by arniec to Work & Money (15 answers total)

I can't speak to your specific situation, but I definitely know 35 is not too old to start a new career. My dad switched careers at age 39, with two children under 4, a move that necessitated some time spent doing unpaid internships. It paid off and he's had a great career. He gave up a lot of security with his old job but it definitely paid off.

Have you talked to your spouse about this? What does s/he think?
posted by lunasol at 6:10 PM on April 12, 2010

I changed careers (teacher to entrepreneurial role in government) at 33. It worked out well until last November, when I lost my job because of the recession and job cutbacks due to deficit. I'm not sure if there is really a safe career.
posted by KokuRyu at 6:22 PM on April 12, 2010

You're not too old. I've never been as well off as you are, actually I've always been poor, but still a slave to the paycheck. Anyway, I've started over from admin assistant to finishing college and will (hopefully) be teaching - my dream job - soon. I'm 43. I'm pretty sure that you're going to have to take a step back in order to move forward... You just have to ask yourself if it's worth it.
posted by patheral at 6:26 PM on April 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Practically speaking, you aren't going to find an entry-level job in a new field to that will pay you as well as a large company pays a programmer with a Master's degree. Do you love traveling and living luxuriously more than you would love being an A/V producer? There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. You don't need to have your dream job if the job you have lets you do what you love with the people you love. If that's what you decide, you can be at peace with your decision and start saving like hell for your early retirement.

On the other hand, you could save up a bunch of money, and supplement your income with that for a while while you experiment with your career. You'd have to cut back on expenses, but if you haven't talked to your wife, don't assume she would rather have comfort and travel than see you do something you love. If you can handle the money stress, go for it.
posted by pocams at 6:31 PM on April 12, 2010 [3 favorites]

You've been working for what, 15 years? And you're worried about the next 30? Dude, your working life has just begun!

I can guarantee you that all that time you spent up until the 4th grade, though well-spent, wasn't much when compared the the remaining 2/3 of your pre-college education.

I mean, look at how far you've come in just 5 years in your career! 30 years is time for like 5 more careers! You totally have time for it!

I've answered this way partly because I still think that I can move on to do whatever creative career I choose, despite having sunk about 5 years into my current career, and at my age which is also in the mid-30s.

There is a way to transition to a new career at your stage in life. I don't know what it is, but I'm positive that it can be done.
posted by jabberjaw at 6:32 PM on April 12, 2010

Some people manage to do podcasting in technology and make a living, eg the folks at Channel 9. I am sure there are other high tech companies out there with "evangelism" gigs that you can turn into a profitable career. Get creative, reach out to the folks on the web that are putting out material and see how they got started and if it is a viable venture.
posted by crazycanuck at 6:56 PM on April 12, 2010

pocams said exactly what I would have said. Have you thought of cutting back your hours as a programmer while getting a part-time internship? It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing.
And don't forget two important things: a) income only correlates to happiness up to 60K, and b) there are probably lots of boring-ish things in the A/V guy's job you don't see from the outside.
posted by blazingunicorn at 7:12 PM on April 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

because I kept thinking how much more fun I'd find a creative job like the A/V guy had rather than the job I have

1. A word of warning: The people that you work with will have much more impact on your fun than the job title. A/V guy might have no creativity at all - he might be forced to do his stuff a certain way, a certain time, a certain cost etc.

Typically in media production, you have those that think it, and those that make it. The makers are not the the thinkers - they get a script, get told to film it/direct it/write it/ to a brief. The brief can be quite strict. The people writing the brief, or the producers (hands-off producers, not hands-on) are the ones with circa 60-70% of the creativity. So I think you might consider readjusting your expectations a little - unless you want to become a journo, but believe me that will destroy your salary.

2. Ancillary to this, I think you will have better luck trying to do something like the following:

- work in a large org or multinational that will allow you to move into the areas you are more interested in, without a giant pay cut. For example, I currently work for IBM, people transfer between internal roles a lot, and whilst some experience is necessary, your transfer won't "reset the clock" per se on your salary etc. Also, big organisations typically have lots of external/internal comms positions, and work very heavily with production and media agencies.

- work for a small organisation (especially NGO) that does not have the capacity to have one person just for producing media, etc. You will take a pay cut, but it won't be as drastic as becoming a freelancer or some such.

Best of luck. It's not too late, you just need to do some planning, and prioritising. If you've waited 10 years already, moving steadily towards your goal over 5 as opposed to rushing into it could put you in a much better position.
posted by smoke at 7:34 PM on April 12, 2010

Maybe you think you're too old because you are married and have kids. In which case it's not about being too old it's about thinking you have too many responsibilities so you can't risk a change of career.

When I was younger, my dad didn't make that much money but seemed happy doing what he was doing. We never thought we were poor even though we probably were. When college came around, my parents didn't make very much money, so my sister and I both got great financial aid packages including student loans. We both went to highly rated (and expensive) schools. Everything turned out fine.

My point is that sometimes I think people get stuck doing something they don't enjoy because they worry it will impact their kids and families negatively if they decide be happy at the expense of money. Unfortunately their unhappiness probably affects their family more than a lack of funds would. Keeping this in mind, I do suggest exploring your options to decide whether a certain new career would be truly be enjoyable to you or if you're just enamored by the idea of that career.
posted by thorny at 8:22 PM on April 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

You are definitely not too old. I think there are three issues here.

1. At the end of life, I suspect most people don't say, "I really wish I had stayed in that soul-sucking job and not explored my dreams."

2. But you really have to be able to scale back your lifestyle and lower your expenses. Dreams cost money. Are you actually willing to do that and take a chance? This is for you and your spouse to decide together.

3. You are over-romanticizing these other jobs. But you probably need to figure that out for yourself.

I hope you've had this conversation with your spouse.
posted by bluedaisy at 8:38 PM on April 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

I think having a background in programming is EXCELLENT preparation for a large number of careers, especially those involving entertaining people. The whole entertainment industry is becoming intertwined with the Internet.

I think the easiest way to switch would be to do a combination of getting projects related to new areas that will pay you to learn (Can you get someone hire you to write an iPhone game or a Facebook game?) and doing something entrepreneurial on your own (can you start your own podcasting series?) In this day and age, especially in anything related to computers, working for yourself is a real possibility and a good path to doing something new, much more so than in times past.

You can also take a "day job" doing freelance consulting on less interesting projects. As a computer programmer, this type of work is plentiful and can be done anywhere. This will give you more flexibility to pursue the other areas in your remaining time while keeping up an income. It'll probably take at least a year to go from being full-time employed to having ongoing freelance work.

The main constraint on what you can do with your time is how much money you need to support your lifestyle. Is there any way you can cut back? Sell a car? Move somewhere cheaper? The more money you can avoid spending the less you'll have to work at a job, or freelance projects, that you dislike.

Remember this is a choice you have. If you decide not to change anything and instead "face the music" about your career, it's not because of fate or destiny, it's because you're *deciding* to have a comfortable lifestyle and travel and strongly prefer it over the chance of a better career entertaining people You have to give up something to get something. You almost certainly have to take a step backward in salary at least in the short term. Think of it as an investment.
posted by lsemel at 8:38 PM on April 12, 2010

Could you try making some iPod games in your spare time? Seems like there could be a market for that, and with your built in podcast audience, you may even have an easy way to get it in front of a lot of people who could generate some good word of mouth for you.
posted by willnot at 8:53 PM on April 12, 2010

Check out The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. The book's main goal is to help you get your money and time issues under control, freeing up enough time and money so you can do what is most enjoyable and meaningful to you.
posted by Ryogen at 12:34 AM on April 13, 2010

Aside from reading the 4 hour workweek I suggest you read the book called "Leap" it is a very exciting book about how people pursued their dreams on a part-time basis. I am inclined to think that if you are not making money part time you will never make it a career out of something full time. Second I am pretty sure that that "A/V" job you like its nothing like doing podcasts and it is nowhere as creative.....however as someone who works as a business analyst full time and as server/bartender part time I see the extreme contrast between working with my hands and utilizing my brain to do the job and I while i would prefer to be a full time bartender it doesnt pay nowhere as near as my daytime job does so they come out to be equal...
posted by The1andonly at 7:02 AM on April 13, 2010

As a thirty-something career changer (lobbying, to law and back to lobbying) the only advice I can give is to point out that the current thinking is that people will change their careers between 5 and 7 times in the course of their lives. Of course you can do this; it will however involve some sacrifice and you need to start talking to your other half about this sooner rather than later.
posted by dmt at 10:41 AM on April 13, 2010