[Benjamin]

Has anybody ever had a career change to something completely different? How did you go about it and what from/to? Or are you planning a change of career?

[Gstar]

I'm starting to want a career change but I don't want to throw all my hard work away, maybe I can switch to part-time but it'll still be bitter sweet

[lily.]

I knew a guy who was a gardener. He had done the same job since leaving school, and after 16 years, he changed paths, and became a care worker for adults with learning difficulties.

He loved it and said he wished he had done it earlier. He did that job for 10 years or so and I believe he now works as a health coach, so he has changed again. I know he did take time out to do college for a year before he changed to this recent one though.

[RichardG]

My dad spent 15 years as an accountant working for the same boss who was always really horrible to him, in the same tiny office with no windows, and he completely hated everything about it. He ended up quitting and did a postgrad degree organised through a surveying firm which took him on, and he now works as a land surveyor, spending every day in the outdoors measuring up land and seeing if it's stable enough to be built on and creating maps of the area. There's still paperwork involved but he says most of his time is spent outside, and he loves it.

[lily.]

If you hate what you do, you can always retrain and do something different. I couldn't spend decades of my life doing something I didn't want to do.