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Making a career change from programming to...?

Asked by goose756 (655points) June 21st, 2013

I apologize for the long details, but I think it is all necessary to explain my situation. Thanks for taking the time to read!

I am 25 years old and have been a software developer for about 4 years. I’ve worked for two companies. The first company I worked at for about 2.5 years – I loved everyone I worked with, it was pretty easy working there, not much stress. I didn’t agree with a lot of the high-level business decisions that were made, and I also felt that I would become stagnant if I stayed there – so I made the move to another company. Now, long story short, I have been working somewhere incredibly boring, and not really doing much .NET development (my core language strength). They pay me well and I have job security, but it’s just not that enjoyable anymore.

I considered the fact that maybe I just need to find a new job, but my time here has also made me think that I’m not entirely sure this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I use to enjoy development at home in my free time, but I haven’t been motivated to do much of that either. I think I may just be burned out with what I’m doing (happens to me a lot in many aspects of life – I get bored quickly). Then I thought that – I still enjoy development, but I think I would enjoy it more if I didn’t do it for a living everyday.

The one job I’ve always been interested in doing besides development, is teaching. Sitting in a cubicle all day (which I thought I would like), has made me realize how much I really do miss interacting with people. I have always enjoyed showing others how to do things, and I get satisfaction knowing that I was able to help them learn something.

There are some concerns that come up when I consider this.

1). I would be going from a very well-paid job, to probably one of the worst paid jobs. While I can easily say that happiness is more important than money to me, it is still hard to think that I would need to make adjustments in my lifestyle if I were to take that much of a paycut.

2). I don’t even know where to begin to get into teaching. Would I need to go back to school? or would I need to just go through some sort of certification? What would I teach? I really enjoy math and have always thought about teaching it. I think I would be more comfortable teaching middle/high school age than elementary or college.

3). Is this even a reasonable career change? Are there other professions you think I could enjoy?

Thank you again for taking the time to read, I appreciate any help!

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