What would (or did) it take to make you abandon your career path?

If it was negatively affecting my personal relationship with my husband and that relationship was more important than my career goals or (and of greater importance) if it was affecting my children at an age when I was responsible for them.

I should stress though, if my partner was being unreasonable (i.e. the pressure was about their insecurity) then I would think very carefully before giving up on my career goals. My first marriage ended because my former husband was very insecure and felt intimidated by me studying. I had in the past given up on study and career plans and goals (three times) but there came a point when I realised I was giving into passive aggressive behaviour and it wasn’t in my (or my children’s) best interest to give in again. I let the marriage go at that point and I have never, ever regretted it.

My second husband has been 100% supportive of my goals. He actively encourages me to reach for the stars.

If this is a real situation (I realise you may be talking hypothetically), think very carefully before you give up on your career goals and if you can speak to anyone who has been through a similar situation, do so. I know you have just started a big and sometimes challenging study program. I also know you are in a fairly young relationship. The level of study you are working at (and even lower levels!) can be very hard on relationships and I found I really had to make sure I planned my weeks so I could balance my time between my work and my family.

I was pre-med in college and did a masters in public health just so that I can become a doctor. At some point, towards the end of my masters, I realized this field wasn’t going to make me happy and I could do better elsewhere, even if I didn’t know just yet what that elsewhere was. What made me step off this path was the truth I learned about how medicine and healthcare are handled in this country and how I’d have to kiss ass for years in order to be in any position of power to change how things are done. I decided life was too short. I have no regrets.

Yes. I broke my butt getting a degree in education. After graduation I subbed thinking that would be my best bet for getting my own class room. I ended up subbing for three years. There is no sub work during the summer, so I’d find other outlets to support my kids and myself during the summer.
One summer I landed a temp position at Rubbermaid, as a secretary. Two weeks later they offered me a permanent position as the Special Markets Administrator….it was really a no brainer. Steady paycheck, benefits…wasn’t starting out with as high as a beginning teaching salary, but it beat the hell out of subbing! So..I accepted. When I called the sub office to take my name off the list, I cried.
Nine months later they moved my department to Wooster Ohio. Sigh.
I went a few different directions from there but…now, 15 years later, I’m back into teaching, and the sweat and effort I put into my education and teaching experience is finally paying off.

I got really sick and could no longer bear to be in school and work and ugh. By the the time I got better it seemed too late, or maybe I was over it. Sometimes I wonder about what could have been, but that is an absurd thing to do, so I don’t do it too often.

It is absurd @tinyfaery, but oh so hard not to do!
What would have happened if I’d answered that ad in the college newspaper asking for stewardesses on a cruise ship for the summer? I was ready to answer it but my mother talked me out of it because she and dad had important things going on, like a divorce and I should be getting ready to move to Seattle with her (after being raised in Kansas.) I didn’t move to Seattle, and looking back, I should have taken the job.
What if I had continued with my degree in journalism after my father had talked me out of it, and out of college altogether (until 10 years later) because he and Mom were getting a divorce.\
What if…what if….SLAP ME @tinyfaery!

New dreams.

I married a rich man.

I fell in love with the classroom, the students, and teaching. I preferred it to working in a hospital with psychiatric patients.

@Sunny2 I had to giggle…sometimes it seems like the same diff!!

Every 5 years I totally, deliberately and happily have changed careers.(30 years). Prevents boredom and creates new ideas. Surprisingly, each one enhanced the previous. I could never work for anyone except myself.

Getting fired.

Although, technically this question doesn’t apply to me since I’ve never had a career, nor a career path. I just float on through. Hasn’t really seemed to cause a problem. I do all right. Maybe not as well as I could or as my classmates have done, but I am not unhappy any more.

@Bellatrix, somewhat hypothetical. I’m ABD now (4 years in) but I’ve fallen into a pretty deep hole with my research and it could really suck getting out of it. I don’t want to feel like I’m slogging through right now just to keep running into worse problems for the rest of my life and hating it. And I don’t want to realize that I am only showing up to the lab every day because I haven’t thought of anything else to do, or that I just want the letters after my name. I used to find grad school easy to justify to myself because I loved it so much; I haven’t felt that way in a couple months now.

@Dutchess_III Seriously, the kids could understand reason. The patients were some place else.

@nikipedia I can understand the way you are feeling. I went through quite a period when I was working towards my doctorate where I really wondered if I could stand to keep going with my research. I was so over it. The thing is, for me anyway, it was a means to an end. I had gone so far it would have been ridiculous to back out. So I kept going and now I actually really love my FOS now and I got the job I was aiming for.

I think it is really normal to become jaded and it is never a bad thing to evaluate why you are doing it. Where those letters will take you. If you need anyone to vent to, happy to listen.