# What's the Biggest Career Change You've Ever Made?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-career-change-youve-ever-made/463362>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 12, 2008, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-career-change-youve-ever-made/463362 "2008-09-12T23:31:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2008, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-career-change-youve-ever-made/463362/21 "2008-09-14T00:57:38Z")

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**What’s the biggest career change you’ve ever made?**

I went from an office monkey at a huge (and now in trouble with the law) mortgage company in the burbs of Chicago to an elementary school in rural Bulgaria.

**How long had you been thinking of pursuing the new career?**

A couple years. I hated my job but it took me a few years to figure out what I really wanted to do (international development).

\*\*How hard was it to get started? \*\*

Well, I moved from Chicago to a village of 900 people, none of whom spoke English, with no internet access. What do you think?

So…it was hard. Very hard.  
**Were other people supportive?**  
Yes. My parents and friends were really happy for me.

I just started a masters degree program a couple weeks ago and I am feeling great about my decision to change careers. Yeah, I’m going into debt to do it, but it’s going to be worth it. I couldn’t stand the thought of staying in my old line of work for the rest of my life.

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**Author:** ![lucky\_henry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lucky\_henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucky_henry)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-biggest-career-change-youve-ever-made/463362/22 "2008-09-15T01:04:57Z")

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I went from 20+ years in the military to a medical profession.

I’ve killed people, and contributed to the deaths of many others. I guess you could say the after my military retirement I felt a strong need to balance my karma.

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