So many good points and observations, Anna. If I may, I’ll share my story.
At age 38, single and childless, I decided to change careers from being a journalist and editor, to graphic design. I sold my condo, quit my job, and went back to college. I was fortunate the design program I entered had other “non-traditional” students I made friends with. The switch was a huge financial hit (took a loss selling the condo in the late 90s recession), and if my Dad hadn’t passed away I would have been paying off student loans well into my 50s, if not longer. My salary dropped by more than half, but I was able to realize my initial goal of the career change, to work in a design studio, and I eventually moved up salary wise by changing jobs. Fast forward: I was involuntarily pushed out of the design studio milieu and I transitioned myself into web design, and now user experience design.
I recently took a job at a nationally known non-profit, and it’s been culture shock, as I have always worked in small teams/organizations. I thought I was going to have only my second professional mentor ever, the hiring manager, but she left the weekend before I started. It’s like being recruited by a coach and showing up for the fall semester and the coach has left. Dealing with learning the ropes while being assigned to 4 different teams across organizational silos while also figuring out my own department’s work processes, file organization, etc. has been very stressful. It’s great to have coworkers indicate they’re there to answer questions, but when you start out you don’t know what you don’t know! I used to bemoan being a design department of one at a small start-up, but now I see the benefit: I could create the work processes, and I didn’t have to juggle different meeting schedules, competing timelines, and different project management tools.
I have almost never gotten anything I’d call true onboarding or training in the 9+ jobs I’ve had in different fields. “Onboarding” seems to have become equated with HR telling you about benefits, giving you the employee handbook, and sending you on your way.
End of my meandering sharing of my own career change journey. I’m not sure I would do it again knowing what I know now. It turns out, most graphic designers eventually start their own studio. That’s never been my sort of thing. My advice to anyone contemplating this: do more homework than I did. Find out not only if the nature of the work in the new field appeals to you—find out what the typical career path in that field is like, and whether your work personality meshes with that path.
