cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/58416724
I’m a German nurse unhappy with nursing and I’m in my 40s.
I wrote I need because my current job as a nurse is physically extremely demanding and I know I don’t want to do this till I retire. My life cannot be to hope to advance in this field by moving up to a position within the hospital where I don’t actually have to work bedside. In Germany nurses don’t need a bachelor to practice, they only need an apprenticeship (Ausbildung).
Something I always liked as a child is music, either the classical guitar or the piano, so I talked to 2 professors, one for piano, the other one for classical and electric guitar. There is no question that east Asians dominate the piano market, they are insanely good and securing a spot in a piano bachelor would be very difficult, but a bachelor of classical and electric guitar is not as looked after like the piano, which could be my way to do something I enjoy, earn more than now with regular, predictable working hours, small groups of students when I finish the bachelor and stop doing something that’s physically destroying me.
About job options after I finish the bachelor, the professor I talked to, a classical guitarist with several prizes I’m not naming said that nowadays all kinds of music teachers are retiring and he constantly gets calls asking for new guitar teachers, that all his students who finish the bachelor have contracts even before finishing the bachelor and the figures he offered regarding salaries are higher than what I earn now, because I’d have a bachelor.
Now I don’t know if this professor is overselling his program, but this is a renowned music school in a city next to mine, which means its close, I wouldn’t have to move and the bachelor would cost me nothing but 100 Euros per semester, provided I prepare for a year for the admission exam, checking my progress every 3 months with this professor, something this musical school offers free of charge and actually passing the exam.
I don’t believe this professor was lying: salary figures I checked match what he said and he proposed I prepare for the exam, check with him my progress and if I get admitted, study for a year to see if I like it, because I can always use my apprenticeship as a nurse to work nursing, radiology instead of bedside nursing or work for a healthcare insurance company. If I do this I’d work part time during the bachelor.
I’ve been playing the classical guitar for the last 8 years if that helps and I learned musical theory and piano as a child.
The other option would be to study a bachelor of science and become a physician assistant, but to do this on a respectable public university and not with a private, online diploma mill that only wants my money I’d have to relocate, which is something very risky (new city, new hospital, no social contacts), or pay for a second flat for 4 years, which would be expensive. The medical side of nursing has always interested me and I enjoy explaining organs to patients, and I’m not ready to simply ignore the last 7 years of my life, the time I’ve been working as a nurse, but bedside, as said, is killing me, but relocating 3 hours away for 4 years...
I’m split. Both paths offer a way out of my current situation. I wouldn’t mind working as a guitar teacher for the rest of my life, nor would I mind working as a physician assistant.
ETA: thanks to all of you for your input, including those post I didn't comment on.
Not in my 40s, but at the age of 37 I changed career completely (again) and returned to an industry I had left "for good" ten years prior.*
Some might argue that [certain age] is too late to change career, but I counter with [certain age] being too late to still work a dead-end job you strongly dislike.
If you're anything like me, handing in that three month notice, or whatever you have will immediately feel like a mistake. Heart racing, second thoughts, and every other version of doubt. But if you line up something new beforehand you'll be alright.
As for wasting time, no. Stop comparing yourself against those psychopaths who knew what they wanted to do from the age of 16. I didn't know what I wanted to be until 40 because that's when my career actually started to feel "right" in that I like what I do, and I don't see myself doing anything else.** You're not wasting time, you're learning valuable lessons. And having a skillset and a career you can return to if th8ngs don't go way is only a positive.
*: The last thing I heard when calling it a night during crew change after way too many beers was a coworker telling me "Oh you'll be back. I simply can't imagine you as anything else than a doodlebugger". If you're reading this, Eric, you were right.
**: On the few bad days I have at work I still half-jokingly state "fuckit, I'm leaving for the closest big construction project. Imma be a crane driver from now on.". It seems pretty chill to sit alone in that tower all day, just lifting stuff from A to B. I've driven a lot of huge offshore cranes, and those huge tower cranes seem comparatovely easy when you don't have to account for lists, swells, shock loading, and roll/pitch.