The Times They Are A-Changin'

In the wake of the 25th birthday, I got it into my head that maybe right now would be a good time to shift careers. They say the average person changes careers 4 or 5 times in their life, so shouldn't I get a move on?

The background (feel free to skip ahead if you already know the story)....

I decided at this time last year that I wanted to make a change. The change I wanted to see? Definitely a different location. Possibly a different industry. Hopefully a different job function. But even with all those changes, I still would have been an engineer. 344 days ago I walked out of that tech center in suburban Minneapolis for the last time. None of those changes I wanted have panned out. I still don't regret my decision.

Career Change Exhibit A: Far and away, the biggest benefit of leaving was the 3-month road trip vacation I took. I probably let the possibility of paid time off to take such a vacation factor a little too heavily in my decision-making process. But it reminds me that that experience was valuable enough to me that I chose to follow through with it instead of trying to find another job right away, no matter how tempting the possibility of a couple months of double pay was.

Career Change Exhibit B: Every declaration I've made of what my dream job would be has been related to the travel industry. The Carribbean resort bartender. The bed-and-breakfast owner. The tour operator.

So, since I'm not currently committed to anything at all (except my car payment), and tossing in the fact that I'm not really dying to keep up this engineer thing, doesn't it make perfect sense that now is the time to branch into the travel industry? I've been mulling this over for a couple weeks, and I really think I should check it out.

There are several ways I could go about it. I'm not sure which would be best. I'm not giving up on the engineer job search. If a suitable opportunity turns up, I'll take it. But I'm kind of excited about the prospect of trying something new and different. I tend to be oddly selective about the risks I take, and I can't tell yet where this falls in my risk comfort zone. I'm researching my options and crossing my fingers.