Would appreciate any and all advices, about to switch careers.

Hey all,

I have about 4.5 years in my professional career in my current field. It is a a scientific role. I started a new job 6 months ago, working for a global player in the biotech arena. I work with incredibly gifted engineers from top schools around the country. The problem is that I do not particularly love my job, and actually loathe it. I never understood how someone can quit their job without having something lined up before until now, hehe. Everything is so structured, down to how you can sign documents, that it doesn't allow for any thinking of creativity. I was able to do this job at my last employer because my coworkers were as goofy as I was and made work somewhat enjoyable.

I majored in this sector because one of the selling points was good paying job off the bat. I had messed around a bit already my first 1-2 years in undergrad, and didn't want to delay my progress. It's not something I loved. Yes, I was conditioned to major in something that made good money going into college :foo:

I want to switch into marketing or something that is more creative, and willing to take a pay cut as well, At this point, the worst thing that can happen is I pick up exactly where I left off in this field in a couple of years. The biggest issue is that I cannot break into the field since I have absolutely no hands on experience. I do 'free lance' marketing for my friends on the side as a hobby for their businesses and put that on the resume. This is solely based on the concepts I learned in my MBA program, stuff I learned on the fly, and from books I read leisurely.

I cannot even transition into a marketing position at my current employer, even though I'm willing to relocate. The reason being the business has several lines, and they are forming their own identities and internal applicants cannot jump from one line to the next. I do try to network with friends and others in the field, but so far nothing yet. If it helps, I am 29 years old with no debt and no baggage so I feel like I can make this move now for myself.

Thanks for the time, and advice in advance.

I'm a Marketing Director for a tech company with ~30 employees. Marketing is extremely broad and not all of the spectrum is that creative, whatever that word means anyway. I can tell you that the highest paying marketing jobs typically are not sexy jobs. Over my career I do a lot of work that I could argue is creative, but I crunch a lot of numbers, have a lot of excel spreadsheets open on my computer at any given time, and I'd say a lot of the work I do could be compared to science.

I wanted to be a marketer because it genuinely interests me. I go home from work and read about marketing. It's also easy for me. I never wanted to do challenging things in life. The work I do is fun and I look at my career and I'm happy to be where I'm at. So many marketing graduates simply don't go anywhere. That said, I'm not very happy because the work environment is a shark tank, and the structure of the business is ridged. I stay at the office late more often than not. I have maybe 1 friend in the company. I think of work too often, even to the point where I can't enjoy my weekends as much as I should.

I enjoy marketing as a career more than most marketers, but I'm not happy because of my work environment. If you make the switch to marketing, you could find yourself in a position like mine and not enjoy it. You liked your last workplace because of your coworkers. Maybe that's what you need to be happy?

If you do want to get a job in marketing, your resume probably will not land you a job. I think your only option is to talk to people. You can join the American Marketing Association and network there, or simply call up businesses and talk to their marketing director/manager and ask for a job and advice. You should also learn some skills that are valuable and will open doors for you. I think you should do more freelance work, and do it with internet marketing since there will be no end of work to do. Google will give you free money if you do AdWords for an NPO. Learn AdWords, it's useful and very fun. Get into affiliate marketing. You can invest however much time you can afford and you will learn a lot while still maintaining a day job. If you have some kind of marketing specialization, you can use that as a talking point when you network with you, and even if your resume does not have a lot of marketing content, if you can simply present yourself as someone who has these skills, this interest, and as a person who a potential employer likes and would enjoy spending 8 hrs of a day with you, then you will land a job in marketing.

Unless you have a family... you really should not stay at a place you loathe working for unless you have another job lined up. You bring that **** home with you. I've worked in a bunch of fields, and the ****** people outnumber the decent folks by a lot. I think most jobs are mostly about social skills. Actual technical skills are overrated.

It's nice to think that you will be so much happier if you just found the right job. The truth is you will still have to work with people. You would probably be happier being a cobbler, and resoling Iron Rangers for the rest of your life. You never know. Go for it now while you still don't have a family that depends on you. Goodluck, dude.

I've worked with marketing departments (as a consultant) and the work does not seem very creative to me. Maybe that's because these are your stereotypical big companies with thousands of employees. I imagine a smaller firm (with younger employees) could have some creative marketing though.

But maybe a startup that has more freedom might be something to look into? You tend to get all sorts of experience which might help you transition to another line of work afterwards.

Also, from everyone I've ever talked to that has switched a job, they've generally all said 2 things: 'don't just quit because you hate working there. The grass always seems greener. Quit because your next job is something you really want as opposed to because it's not your current job.' and 'talk to as many other people as possible to get their advice on quitting/a new job'. Most people who get a new job (especially in another field), seem to always wish they did more of the 2 above tasks.