What do you do?

[Frogsker30]

I'm an architecture/engineering person. Getting burnt out. The only things I would switch to at 36 is CAD tech or surveyor. You can get an associates degree at a community college and make decent money pretty quick. Less stressful than being an engineer. GIS is another quick skill that pays decently.

I was a surveyor for 3 years while completing my masters/finding a job in my field. I worked for a busy firm in omaha and got burnt out toward then end due to the lack of crews we had.

didnt study anything with engineering/gis/suverying but made almost 5 dollars more than my crew chief because I had a BS,

 

[Huskerbuck85]

I’m a lawyer - don’t do it unless you can go to law school for free or nearly free, and even then it may not be worth it - salaries have a bimodal distribution so the averages are very skewed

No offense but what the hell do you guys do with your $375/hr when you own your firm?

 

[KidsSeeGhosts]

No offense but what the hell do you guys do with your $375/hr when you own your firm?

$375/hr? GL getting that discount

 

[Faux Sean Callahan]

Considering changing career paths at the ripe young age of 36.

What do you do and can I do it? Full disclosure, I'm greedy and like money. Does your career path have anything to do with your degree (if you have one)? I'm just mostly curious about what everyone does.

I worked in telecom/IT for 13 years and made a change about 3 years ago. Considering going back or making another change.

Sorry if this has been done, didn't feel like searching for it.

Going to be a UPS driver too?

 

[Faux Sean Callahan]

View attachment 25936

 

[MtnHusker]

Out of college I went to work for Merrill Lynch as a Financial Advisor. Did that for a few years and hated it so moved to Vail, CO to be a Ski Bum for a winter. Loved it there. Ended up buying the Live Music Venue I worked at for 7 years. Best but also most stressful 5 years of my life as Sept 11th kicked us in the nuts for a few years and then our asshole Billionaire Landlord decided to tear the building down so he could build a $550 million monstrosity that did not include plans for a Live Music Venue. I bounced around a little doing business consulting and helping run businesses while also doing some Real Estate along with Live Music. Had a crazy baby mama that I was following around so ended up in Illinois, which is a state nobody should have to live in. Ran restaurants there until the day after my daughter left for college. Moved to the Lake of the Ozarks to full time to concentrate on Real Estate. Love it. Long hours sometimes but I get to boat 150-200 hrs a year and even show homes sometimes by boat. Figured I was going to retire down here so why not move here to work instead of some big city. Love the Lake Life!!!

 

[redzoner]

Co-Owner of a smaller software company. Hoping to build value so I can retire early and mostly golf and travel.

 

[doublewing]

Cyber security and compliance for the last 17 years. Initially 10 at enterprise companies and the last 7 at 2 different cyber security startups. Startup life is definitely challenging, but prefer it to the corporate grind of sitting in way too many meetings and office politics. Hopefully my startup equity pays off and it gets me closer to retirement.

I didn't study technology in college. Thought I may go to law school but my internship was a turn-off for me. Started in tech project and then product management, got into cyber, and built technical skills on top of that. I like high-energy jobs and the combination of a start-up plus security engineering has been a great outlet for me.

 

[KidsSeeGhosts]

Cyber security and compliance for the last 17 years. Initially 10 at enterprise companies and the last 7 at 2 different cyber security startups. Startup life is definitely challenging, but prefer it to the corporate grind of sitting in way too many meetings and office politics. Hopefully my startup equity pays off and it gets me closer to retirement.

I didn't study technology in college. Thought I may go to law school but my internship was a turn-off for me. Started in tech project and then product management, got into cyber, and built technical skills on top of that. I like high-energy jobs and the combination of a start-up plus security engineering has been a great outlet for me.

Cybersecurity is a great place to be, and that's not changing any time soon.

 

[betsch]

Really? Good money, though...seems like a sweet gig..

Don't get me wrong, I know there are worse jobs out there. If you can find a nice locally owned on, then it is ok. If you get stuck at a Walgreens or CVS, forget about it. The money is decent, although salaries seemed to have topped out about 10 years ago and aren't really going up.

Dealing with people and insurances are by far the worst things. EVERYTHING is your fault. The doctor hasn't called the rx yet? Your fault. My copay is too high. Your fault. A drug isn't covered by the insurance. Your fault. A person calls in their cholesterol medicine at 7pm on a friday night that they haven't filled in 8 months and now its out of refills. Your fault.

Insurance reimbursements and discount cards (fuck off GoodRX) kill any money you can make anymore. That in turn leads to no raises or bonuses. The stupid shit that insurances ding you for are ridiculous. If your Medicare people don't refill their prescriptions no time...cut in reimbursement. If doctors don't write for certain drugs for people with diabetes....cut in reimbursement. And on and on.

I guess what's most frustrating is there is so much out of your control that you can't do anything about, but you are still responsible for.

Again, it beats working construction in 100 degree heat and manual labor, but the mental side of it sucks.

 

[Bootleg11]

For sure. I applied for a GIS job at a utility company a while back with very minimal experience got asked to do a second interview but I turned it down, just wasn't for me. Small amount of people that know GIS compared to other softwares and a ton of municipalities and state governments have a need for it.

Really hard to find a good GIS mapper in the O&G/Renewable world. They are rare and they demand a lot of money.

 

[Huskersballz]

Finance, asset management specifically for me. Pretty hard to break in without a Finance degree and then the expectation after is MBA or CFA.

If you're good at networking and a peoples person going the Financial Advisor route could work. If you have a good story to tell I bet a smaller firm would be willing to bring you in and train/support you. It will be an absolute grind at first, you might get a salary in exchange for doing some bitch operations work but dont expect much starting off. Lots of Advisors out there working 20-30hrs a week and golfing half the time while making well into 6 figures after they build their book up. Takes a grind to get there. Just stay away from the Edward Jones/Northwest Mutual type places.

 

[Baron Winnebago]

Don't get me wrong, I know there are worse jobs out there. If you can find a nice locally owned on, then it is ok. If you get stuck at a Walgreens or CVS, forget about it. The money is decent, although salaries seemed to have topped out about 10 years ago and aren't really going up.

Dealing with people and insurances are by far the worst things. EVERYTHING is your fault. The doctor hasn't called the rx yet? Your fault. My copay is too high. Your fault. A drug isn't covered by the insurance. Your fault. A person calls in their cholesterol medicine at 7pm on a friday night that they haven't filled in 8 months and now its out of refills. Your fault.

Insurance reimbursements and discount cards (fuck off GoodRX) kill any money you can make anymore. That in turn leads to no raises or bonuses. The stupid shit that insurances ding you for are ridiculous. If your Medicare people don't refill their prescriptions no time...cut in reimbursement. If doctors don't write for certain drugs for people with diabetes....cut in reimbursement. And on and on.

I guess what's most frustrating is there is so much out of your control that you can't do anything about, but you are still responsible for.

Again, it beats working construction in 100 degree heat and manual labor, but the mental side of it sucks.

My friend wants to know about selling oxy on the side

 

[HughJanus]

Really hard to find a good GIS mapper in the O&G/Renewable world. They are rare and they demand a lot of money.

I should get into that

 

[betsch]

My friend wants to know about selling oxy on the side

Not THAT'S how you make money.....

 

[Lionsfan93]

I have a better job than @Tyneb23

 

[Samkellers_69]

IT...network engineer...don't know if I like being a full blown networking guy though...been trying to research where else I can turn to in IT

 

[Chi7397]

No offense but what the hell do you guys do with your $375/hr when you own your firm?

Can’t speak for solos or people who own their own firms - I work at a big firm with a much higher rate than that - I don’t mind what I do, but it has its trade offs.

 

[Husker_in_OK]

Telecom Engineering, 26 years. My job is pretty cush. I don't work incredibly that hard and get paid decent, but if I ever needed a new career, I'd be fucked at my age.

 

[ChocaEgg]

IT...network engineer...don't know if I like being a full blown networking guy though...been trying to research where else I can turn to in IT

Cyber or Cloud.