Career move: Advice?

[FSUNurse2b]

i know this site is full of threads about career changes, so i hope this post is not redundant....

i am actually "considering" a career change. i am 32 years old and have been working in the corporate world now for 6 years. i have a bba in finance and an mba in finance. i work in the banking industry as a portfolio manager. in other words, i manage assets for both personal and institutional clients. i will not lie, the money is very good, but not necessarily rewarding. in my profession, i constantly feel like i am trying to be somebody i am not. i do not have any sense of satisfaction, i.e., helping people. i have a base salary with a yearly bonus, so i do not get commissions, but there is always that "sales" aspect of my job. in the banking industry it is all about how much money you can manage for clients. it is extremely cut throat and there is a lot of needless small talk about issues that frankly do not matter. both of my sisters are rns and my wife is currently studying to become an rn. i have been in the hospital setting on numerous occassions and have heard countless stories from my sisters and wife. of course being an rn or np has its negatives, as does any profession, but at the end of the day, one needs to ask his/herself, "how much satisfaction did i get from my day at the job". i can honestly say that i have a hard time answering that question in my current profession, despite making decent money. it is certainly going to be a stretch to work toward my bsn and sacrifices will need to be made, i.e., my wife and i will be without my salary for at least a year. but i always try and remember that money is not everything. we will continue to have problems with it and without it. for these very reasons, i am considering starting an accelerated bsn program and work towards becoming an np. anyone out there reading this, please let me know if i'm crazy for considering this. as my wife said this morning, i've been "faking it to make it"....

and for those who have never worked in the corporate world, it is difficult to explain it's "shallowness".

thanks!

[llg, PhD, RN]

You are not crazy for considering it ... but I encourage you to think it through carefully. As you suspect, your story is not unique. There are a lot of people in "shallow" jobs who are unhappy in their work. They look at nursing as a possible career that would be more personally fulfilling. They know that the career transition will be difficult and that it will mean a decrease in pay. The distressed caused by their current job seems so bad right now that they can't imagine nursing could be any worse -- and must be better since it involves helping people.

We regulars on allnurses see such posts all the time.

Some of those people go on to make great nurses. Others back out once they realize that nursing can be just as stressful and painful as their current job -- and after quitting their old job, their pain eases and suddenly the distress of nursing doesn't seem so attractive any more. They needed to get out of their old job more than they truly wanted to be a nurse.

Am I making sense? When you are miserable in your current situation, almost any change seems like a step in the right direction. Anything that moves you away from the source of your pain feels good. But your perspective changes once you have left your old job and your source of pain is no longer there. As time goes by, your focus starts to shift towards where you are heading. As your old pain eases, the new stresses now start to seem more important than they did back when you were trying to get away from something. People make bad decisions when they make such choices in the throes of pain and seeking escape.

I recommend you ease your pain first ... clear your head ... THEN choose a long term direction. Find a job that uses your current education/skills and get away from what is causing you so much distress. Perhaps you could find a job at a non-profit, community service type of organization that would enable you to feel good about helping people. After you have given yourself a little time to recover from being so unhappy, then you will be in a better position to evaluate whether or not nursing would be a good career for you.

[FSUNurse2b]

Thank you for your advice, though I never said that I was "unhappy" or "miserable". In fact, far from it. The only negative aspect concerning my job that I mentioned was that there is absolutely no feeling of satisfication at the end of the day (every day). You are absolutely correct, I do need to take a "long-term" perspective. Most people tend to think in the short term and trust me, I know how dangerous that can be here in the investment world! My problem has been and continues to be one of "identification". I have yet to identify myself with my profession or what I do for a living. This was true during my finance BBA, current position as an investment advisor and during my MBA. I've always been the type of person to make the most of what I have, but this time is different. It has gotten every increasingly difficult to ignore these feelings of lack of identification. I'm probably not as nervous as some individuals to embark on this career move, mainly because I have a BBA, MBA and 6 years with a major private bank as an investment advisor.

Perhaps I'm beginning to answer my own question...

Does a website exist out there for the "corporate/business" world containing threads about how people are so miserable working in the healthcare industry, wanting to leave that industry because they were "called" to the corporate world???

[llg, PhD, RN]

I wouldn't know the answer to the question about the people in business being happy ... but if you hang around here, you'll find plenty of unhappy career changers who regret switching into nursing.

Of course, you'll find other people who are happy they did make the change. You should read both types of posts and decide for yourself.

But I do recommend that seek a more fulfilling job using the skills you already have before taking the financial risk of completely starting over in a new field. Non-profits hire lots of people with a business background. The children's hospital I work for has several financial experts, raising money, managing the foundation's finances and investments, etc. They work right here in the hospital and are active members of our hospital work-place community. They use their business/financial skills to enable the direct patient care givers to do their jobs. They have nice hours, make big bucks, AND help the sick little kids all at the same time. They get the personal fulfillment without have to take that risk and make the big sacrifices with starting completely over in a new field. That might not work for everybody ... but it does work for some people ... and I don't see enough people trying that type of approach.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[FSUNurse2b]

Thank you. I do meet with an academic advisor next week, so I will definitely have more insight. I think I may need to detach myself from anything finance or investment related. I have come to the humble conclusion that some good adjectives associated with anything investment related are, arrogant, priviledged and brazen. Let's just put it this way; if I were actually honest with my clients, I would be fired reasonably fast. I've gotten really good at "faking it to make it".

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Jason - how did your meeting with the academic advisor go? Have you made up your mind yet?

I agree (as usual) with llg and want to point out that there are a lot of ways to bring 'meaning' to one's life other than work. Once my career moved beyond the bedside arena, I became involved in volunteer activities to fill the 'gaps'.

[nohika]

I have to say, I think one flaw in your thinking is that you assume you'll be satisfied with "helping people" as an RN. Unfortunately, with the way nursing is moving, that is less and less possible. The ratios are higher, people are sicker and more dangerous, and more often than not people are having trouble giving the care they want to give. You can go 12 hours without a lunch, pee, or any type of break. There's lateral violence in some places. Pts won't always appreciate you - some will cuss at you and blame all their problems on you if you don't give them their dialudid.

Nursing isn't just "helping people". It's dealing with the ******** of a corporation while trying to do one's job which gets more and more difficult. Albeit, it isn't the same everywhere, but from what one can read here and what I've experienced, it's more prevalent than not.

[FSUNurse2b]

HouTx,

My meeting with the academic advisor went well. I should be able to finish my pre-reqs over the next year and submit my app next January. It may take another 2 years before I'm accepted to the program. This will give my wife and I more time to save as much money as we can. She'll start working as an RN this fall, so we'll have two really good salaries for awhile. So I'll have the next 3 years to ponder the issue. In the meantime, I will go forward with my pre-reqs. I think when the time comes that I'm accepted, I will go for it. If I'm feeling this way now, I most certainly will a couple years from now. Both my sisters, who are RNs and my wife are encouraging me to go for it.

Yes, it all depends where you work. Grand Rapids, MI is turning out to be a healthcare hotspot.....aka, Medical Mile.