Career switch - from 6 figure salary

Nurses General Nursing

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Just wanted to share my situation for those of you who are thinking of changing careers -- you are not alone!

I currently work in the IT field and make 108k a year (in NJ). I have a 5 month old baby girl, who I only see for 1.5-2 hrs at night during the week, then on Sat and Sunday. That just isn't enough for me. I have decided to switch careers and become a nurse. I am going back to school in Fall. It should take me 2 1/2 years. If all goes according to plan I will take the boards Dec '06.

I have been mulling over being a nurse for some time. The IT job just doesn't satisfy me. Though the $$ is great, I feel that if I have to be away from my daughter I should be doing something more rewarding and fulfilling. I must admit, the flexible hours are a huge draw as well. As a nurse I would work 2-3 nights a week, and be able to spend my days with my daughter -- no daycare necessary! :p Plus, NJ has lots of opportunities for nurses.

I would like another child, but want to make sure I am at least done with my final class before giving birth. They would end up 3 yrs apart, but I don't want to risk not being able to finish school - especially with the investment we will be making (savings runs out after a year - so we are in for loans and any part time work I can get at night to try to make up some of the difference).

We have a lot to work out, but I am taking it one semester at a time. I think going back to school to be a nurse takes 100% committment - but the good news is at least in the beginning I'll see more of my daughter going to school (taking Chem and Bio first semester) than I do right now working fulltime and commuting 1.5 hours each way!.

Anyone who is in the same boat and would like support or has any questions, feel free to contact me!

Melly06

as well as job security

JOB SECURITY?

Did I miss something?

I've never had any job security. Everyplace I've ever worked plainly states on their app they can fire you without notice.

I am in an "at-will" state.

There is no job security. If there is I haven't seen it.

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Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.

If nursing is the calling of your heart, then go for it. I haven't seen people happy who go into nursing for the money (obviously not your motivation) or better hours or anything but nursing being what they want in their heart.

It seems your will have more time for your family but you might need to realize that the time will be defined by the hospital or floor for which you work. I have seen too many new nurses crying when the holiday schedule comes out and they realize that no one can go out of town for holidays because they are expected to work either the eve or the day of Christmas, New Year's and Thanksgiving. Adjusting to never doing things with their extented families because their weekend schedule never seems to line up just right. And here's one to think about. . . Nurses on my unit that are in their family-making stage actually plan out how to get pregnant in a way to make their due date right before the end of year holidays so they can get off for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

You can make it work for your family to give you more time with your family. I do however see much grief from others I work with as they struggle to spend time with their families. Some nurses only work one night in a row at a time because they figure they can go without sleep for one day anyway so they can continue to provide care for their young children at home.

As some others have said, working per diem or agency will give you much more flexibility but one can't often start out in such a position and hours are not guaranteed. I worked per diem for a couple of years and really loved it.

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Specializes in CTSICU, SICU, MICU, CCU, Trauma.

Congratulations on your decision! I was surprised to see such a mix of replies but I know that everyone's situations are different.

My suggestion to you........if your husband has good benefits just do perdiem and get experience. You'll maximize the dollars paid to you and slowly gain experience without missing out on your children. Once you have experience, just do agency work (again.....if your husband can carry the benefits) If you're flexible in working a few hospitals (easy to do in NJ) you'll never be short of work and you'll also continue to gain valuable experience. You'll never be faced with having to miss holidays, school functions, etc. because you'll be in total control of your schedule.

I've done it for 4 years now and this year I'll do over $100,000 without really killing myself.

Good luck! And welcome to the boards.......you'll find good info here!:)

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Congratulations on your decision! I was surprised to see such a mix of replies but I know that everyone's situations are different.

My suggestion to you........if your husband has good benefits just do perdiem and get experience. You'll maximize the dollars paid to you and slowly gain experience without missing out on your children. Once you have experience, just do agency work (again.....if your husband can carry the benefits) If you're flexible in working a few hospitals (easy to do in NJ) you'll never be short of work and you'll also continue to gain valuable experience. You'll never be faced with having to miss holidays, school functions, etc. because you'll be in total control of your schedule.

I've done it for 4 years now and this year I'll do over $100,000 without really killing myself.

Good luck! And welcome to the boards.......you'll find good info here!:)

So a new grad can work per diem? I think this would be ideal for me once I graduate...

TIA-J

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JOB SECURITY?

Did I miss something?

I've never had any job security. Everyplace I've ever worked plainly states on their app they can fire you without notice.

I am in an "at-will" state.

There is no job security. If there is I haven't seen it.

But DID you get fired?? And even if you did (I hope for patients sake that you've only quit jobs...getting fired is SEVERE), you were able to secure another position with relative ease??

I know I've never wanted for a job, whether registry or staff.

The facility I currently work in is unionized, but I have worked other places which were non-union and I didn't have a problem.

as for the sentiments of the OP: I indeed like Nursing's flexibility. I type this as I sit at home, painting my fingernails. Well, they're dry now, but still...

I will work tomorrow through Friday, but I've had yesterday and today off. If you think about the things "normal 9-5'ers" have to cram into a weekend, and we who work unconventional schedules can get it done whenever, esp during the week, the flexibility is there. I don't have to cram everything into one Saturday (because nothing business-like is open on Sunday). I don't necessarily have to take time off of work to schedule doctor/dentist, etc, appts.

Yes the holiday/weekend thing sucks. But there are drawbacks to every job. And the wonderful thing is that I DON'T have to stay in the hospital, at the bedside for the rest of my life. I love the acuity, but if/when there comes the point where patient care gets "old", I'll leave, but still be able to be a nurse, from another angle.

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So a new grad can work per diem? I think this would be ideal for me once I graduate...

TIA-J

Just wanted to comment on per diem option for a new grad. A lot of people are suggesting it, but to a new grad????? First of all it is extremely unlikely that you can be hired as per diem right out of nursing school because all jobs will require you to have at least 1 year experience. Second of all if the nursing shortage at your hospital is so bad that you are hired as per diem you only get 2 days of training!!!! Then you are on your own! I am not joking here. So to get your desired 12 wk training you will have to take a full time job and probably will not get a choice to pick your hours because you will be following your preceptor's hours. In a lot of cases I see that would be dayshift 8 hrs-5 days a week. Good luck! :rolleyes:
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Specializes in Burn/Trauma ED.

A lot of the above posts made me fuming mad! Melly, a lot of these people are angry at life, not nursing. :angryfire

The most laughable comment has to be about nursing not having any job security because we are usually employed "at will" meaning we can be fired any time. Newsflash: 99% of the people in this country are employed "at will." You clearly have no idea what it means to have no job security.

I used to work in IT. To give you an idea, imagine that you've just spent 20 years becoming a kickbutt ER nurse. And then imagine that all the hospitals on the planet just stopped doing emergency medicine. That's what IT is like. (Just substitute ERP Software for ED Nursing.) In nursing, even if your ER closes, you can always go across town and get a new job.

When was the last time someone posted on this board about not being able to find a job?

Oh, and the people who complain about not having enough flexibility. Hello?! Do you know what it's like to work 6 12's? With no overtime compensation? For weeks on end? That's what many of my IT jobs were like.

And then of course people complain about the money. Well, a lot of them are probably not willing to work OT. What do you expect for 36 hours a week? No one is going to pay you 6 figures working 3 days a week with a bachelor's or less. No one.

People have these fantasies in their heads about what a working day is like for people with "normal" jobs. They have this infuriating notion that there are people out there who put in 40-hour work weeks in stressfree jobs and pull down 6 figure salaries. And even better, they think these people can take time off anytime they desire. And the best part: They think they have job security.

And a final piece of advice: Don't take advice from anyone over the internet.

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here is the down side of it for you nurses that don't understand:

no overtime

no union. no regular hours. the it profession is totally unregulated. this means workers have no protections from management abuse at all. we are regularly on call seven days a week 24 four hours a day. even mds can not be worked this hard! when managers plan badly it is standard practice to put the it staff on 60 hour work weeks till they catch up.

no future

smart, educated it workers are available in india for about 10k per year. anyone in the it industry that does not do management or sales will be out of work soon.

pay

nursing pay is going up-up-up. don't know about jersey but rn pay here is easily $30 to $40 per hour. the east coast is sure to follow. it workers are taking 40k salaries cause we're so desperate.

desk job

i am kind of intimidated by the idea of working on my feet for 12 hour shifts but desk jobs take their toll as well. ever spent 12 hours at a computer terminal. try doing this every day for ever. anyone that does not get regular exercise on their own time really suffers.

summary

i know its hard when people jump into your profession because its "hot". this happened to it during the dot com boom. anyone that could spell html was a web designer for a while. at least nurses need a license. hope i can milk enough money from it to pay for nursing school.

thanks for listening

my advice is :stay in it profession! nursing as not as flexible as you think. the job is extremely hard and does not pay near as much as it jobs. as a nurse and a mother of a 1 yr old daughter i have tried to work weekday nights, so i could stay home with my daughter. i did not feel safe sending my child to daycare before she turned at least 1 yr old. after working a 12 hr night, i came home so tired that i just was not able to care for my child! my solution was to work a weekend program. my husband stayed home with our daughter, so that i could work weekend nights and sleep during the day. this was beneficial for our daughter. but not for our family. i feel that i have missed out on having a time with my husband and daughter as a family. by working weekends and holidays i have missed all the special events and all the family functions. now that my daughter is 1 yr old i am looking for a day care for her and a new job for myself. if i were you, i would stay in it profession. my husband is an it professonal and i envy his normal hours and weekends he has off. my husband's employer allows him to work from home when necessary. talk to your employer and maybe you could balance out your work and family time.

p.s. i find it very hard to believe that you would trade 6 figure salary job in air-conditioned office, sitting on your fanny all day long and having a 1 hour lunch breaks for working 12 hr nights running on your feet with minimum or no breaks and a 60% salary cut on top of all! good luck!

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here is the down side of it for you nurses that don't understand:

no overtime

no union. no regular hours. the it profession is totally unregulated. this means workers have no protections from management abuse at all. we are regularly on call seven days a week 24 four hours a day. even mds can not be worked this hard! when managers plan badly it is standard practice to put the it staff on 60 hour work weeks till they catch up.

no future

smart, educated it workers are available in india for about 10k per year. anyone in the it industry that does not do management or sales will be out of work soon.

pay

nursing pay is going up-up-up. don't know about jersey but rn pay here is easily $30 to $40 per hour. the east coast is sure to follow. it workers are taking 40k salaries cause we're so desperate.

desk job

i am kind of intimidated by the idea of working on my feet for 12 hour shifts but desk jobs take their toll as well. ever spent 12 hours at a computer terminal. try doing this every day for ever. anyone that does not get regular exercise on their own time really suffers.

summary

i know its hard when people jump into your profession because its "hot". this happened to it during the dot com boom. anyone that could spell html was a web designer for a while. at least nurses need a license. hope i can milk enough money from it to pay for nursing school.

thanks for listening

well, if bush et al have their way, nurses may be denied overtime pay "at will" by employers. there have been many discussions over this nice little law that is slated to pass. employers will be under no obligation to pay time and a half. as it is, many nurses do not receive any overtime pay at all for missed breaks and staying over to finish charting. the hospital says, "you had more than enough time to do your charting," and "it's up to you to schedule your breaks."

as far as outsourcing, foreign nurses are being insourced in. hospitals and others are clamoring for relaxing immigration to allow them in. that's the way to fix the nursing shortage, not by improving working conditions. and unlicensed personnel are being trained to perform nursing duties, like giving meds and catherizing patients. nursing is being deskilled. it is far cheaper to bump up the skills of a cna, use lpns/lvns, than hire on rns.

so don't be so smug about nursing's rosy future. there are many issues going on right now, none of them particularly optimistic.

as i stated in an earlier post, one should not enter nursing merely because it seems like a "good opportunity," or think that they can have convenient hours, or for any other reason than that they truly wish to work as a nurse. otherwise, it will be sheer misery.

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They are usually pretty nice about volunteering to work Christmas. Then make sure they get their holdiays off. Moslems could help too :)

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If nursing is in your heart, then GO FOR IT!!!

I was making $80K a year telecommuting in IT (and that's in the Midwest where $80K goes a loooonnnnggg way). That's right..."sitting on my fanny" in a tee-shirt and boxer shorts at my living room PC. I was miserable. I hated my job.

I did an accelerated BSN program in 11 1/2 months (check into them if you already have a bachelors degree). One year of hard work and studying and now I am a nurse. :) I love it. I love my job. I come home and...yes, my feet hurt and I'm tired...but I am HAPPY! I make less than half the money I did before but it doesn't matter. That money wasn't buying me happiness. Now I come home and know I did work that actually mattered.

I did this with four kids (who love it that mom is home and happy more often). I work nights - 12 hour shifts. Meaning that 2-3 days a week, I have to sleep and need child care for the little ones. That's still better than 5 days a week of child care...and definitely worth it for those four days off every week. Yes, I work holidays but so what? I can celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve or Mother's Day on the Saturday before. Kids don't care! They just want mommy to be happy.

If you go into nursing for good money or weekends/holidays off - you will be disappointed. But if you go into it because your heart is tugged in that direction -- you'll be happy. PM me if you want more info...

PJ

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Specializes in CTSICU, SICU, MICU, CCU, Trauma.

I honestly don't know what they'll hire new grads on as.........but at the very worst, you could do a full three month orientation program that most hospitals (at least in NJ) offer new grads and then when you finish that just shop around the hospital and see what's out there as far as per diem work. Usually, if you are willing to work nights they'll take you for whatever you'll give them for time. If you're real flexible, just offer to be a per diem float..........it's great expereience.

In order to work agency you need 1 to 2 years of experience. But that is a way to maximize your earnings and keep your time commitment low.

Just some thoughts based on my own experiences.

Good luck!

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