Ask HN: If you had to make a career change | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: If you had to make a career change

2 pointsbloomingkales6 comments

How would you do it? This is somewhat of a writing prompt, I seek detailed plans.

- Doctor (lets say you are 48, how can this be done?)

- Lawyer

- Judge

- Senator

- Diplomat

- Professor

- Actor

- Director

- Writer

...

(impactful role)

...

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I’m currently in the midst of a career change. I currently work as an anaesthetic assistant. But in 2022 after doing an MBA out of sheer boredom, I decided I was more interested in humans, and what drives their behaviour/choices etc at a fundamental level. I was also interested in how human behaviour and choices can be manipulated by external influences.

I decided I wanted to become a psychologist, and now more recently, I’ve refined that further and decided I’d like to become an organisational psychologist/behaviour analyst, though I’ve kept my options open, and dabbled in clinical psych as well. However, my goal is to be able to influence human behaviour en masse (in pro-social ways).

How the path to change has looked for me: I already had a health science degree from before I did my anaesthetic assisting training. In my health science degree, I had done all the 100-level and some of the 200-level psych courses so I chose to go back to the university for ease of transferring, and getting some prior recognition. This saved me 2 years of study. I then completed a graduate diploma in psych, and I’m now in the midst of a 2 part masters which is made up of 8 post-graduate courses and one 12-18 month research project/thesis. Where I live, that’s not enough to be a psychologist. After the masters, you have to then do further study, since I’ve decided I don’t want to be a clinical psychologist, I’ve decided to do a Master of Organisational psychology after my general psychology masters. Then, in addition to that, I’ve also found a Master of behaviour analysis that I’m looking in to doing if I think it will actually add value. Part of me suspects not, I think if you already hold two Masters degree’s in psychology, then at a certain point extra formal study becomes a waste of both time and money - but I keep an open mind, as I’ve seen a really interesting job once advertised by my countries tax department, they were looking for a behaviour analyst to work on a project that was aimed to encourage business people to be more honest and reliable in paying their taxes.

Changing career is tedious. The number of years of dedication and consistency it requires is definitely off putting. If I did not love my chosen subject and chosen career change I’d not do it. As I already have a career where I earn 6 figures and have a fair amount of job certainty. I’d even go as far as to say for the most part, I actually like my current career, it’s just boring and under stimulating on a day to day basis. Sometimes I wish my anaesthetic assisting could extend to other animals. I’d love to help anaesthetise a bird or a lizard. Something that isn’t a mammal.

I imagine it would depend a bit on the proportion and intensity of the reasons for the change. Ex: Financial pressures, worries about long-term career viability, or psychological/burnout.

  > Doctor

Realistically you can't do that at 48. Sure, you can go to university, nothing stops you. That's 4 years, if you ace it (starting in 2026. You missed 2025). You can even do your residency, if you are really serious, which is another 4 years (if not 6).

At this point even though you are a doctor, you are also over 60.

I knew a guy who did it. Went and became a doctor in his late 40’s. I’ve got mad respect for that.

Is that not a screenplay worth writing?

Yes. I also wrote that technically you can be a doctor with starting in your late 40s.

But personally I would hardly call it a career though, starting as a complete junior at the age of 60-62. Rather a "hobby", if one at least enjoys doing it. Otherwise just a waste of time, money and med-school place...

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