Why I Switched My Career

You know what’s one of the weirdest things in the world?

The fact that we force 18-year-olds to decide on the career path that they want for the rest of their lives; yet, the human brain doesn’t even fully develop until age 25.

So how can we realistically expect those underdeveloped brains to make such a consequential life decision? Well, that’s the dilemma I found myself in over the last couple of years.

Coming into college, I always knew that I wanted to work in a creative field. That’s the type of career I wanted to pursue, but I wasn’t sure what field would satisfy those requirements.

Enter: marketing.

My dad first mentioned marketing (since that was pretty much what he did for over two decades) as a potential career for me. Unsure of what else I should do, I followed in my dad’s footsteps.

Five years later, I graduated with a triple major in marketing, management, and international business and a minor in computer science (yeah I don’t know what’s wrong with me either). Unfortunately for me, I graduated in May 2020 when the economy was taking a nosedive thanks to COVID. It took me two months of applying for jobs every day until I landed my first ever big boy position doing branding work.

I started working there for a few months and slowly realized that I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I wanted. I don’t know if it was because my position was riddled with administrative tasks or because I didn’t like marketing anymore. All I knew was that there was no way I could do this as a career.

With the pandemic erasing any semblance of social life I had, I found my isolation defined by YouTube rabbit holes in photography and filmmaking tutorials. Since I had a bit of income while still living with my parents, my curiosity forced me to buy my first camera as a tear slowly rolled down my cheek after seeing the toll it took on my bank account.

Jumping into this field with no prior experience was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done. Little by little, as I began learning my camera and the arts of photography and filmmaking, it simply clicked in my mind:

I found my new career.

I immediately fell in love with this new world I discovered and felt invincible with the unlimited creative opportunities it provided me.

Now, this was one of the most difficult decisions I ever had to make. I was essentially preparing to toss out most of what I’ve learned in college over the last five years and replacing it with something completely foreign to me. That’s when a quote my brother once told me came to mind:

“Growth and comfort cannot coexist.”

I knew that I had to get comfortable with being uncomfortable if I had any chance of succeeding in my new venture.

Since making that decision almost a year and a half ago, I have taken a few courses in photography and filmmaking and even had a video production internship this past summer. I did all that to answer one major question: is this what I want to do for a career?

Well, the answer was a resounding YES!

I found myself waking up everyday excited to go to work.

I found myself excited to create something new.

I found myself excited to tell a new story through my photos and videos.

I found myself excited to practice my creativity and improve at my craft every day

I found myself excited to just be me and do something that I love.

Working in a field you love is absolutely intoxicating and I’m incredibly grateful that I got the chance the do something that I enjoy and gain hands on experience with it. While it’s amazing to be in this position, it also begs another question: do I want to do this for the rest of my life?

The honest answer to that is … I don’t know.

I wish I could say without a shred of doubt that I will spend the rest of my life taking photos and making videos, but the fact is that I don’t what’s going to happen 5 minutes from now - let alone years down the line.

I could decide to switch my career yet again. I could decide that I’m no longer passionate about photography and video production. Or something entirely different can happen that throws my plans completely off the rails.

What I do know, however, is that I don’t want to live with the guilt of not taking a chance on something when the opportunity presents itself. I want to experience as much as I can and take life one day at a time. Only years of experience and constant experimentation will determine if I want to stick with this path as a career option.

And that’s the scariest, yet most exciting part about it.

The only thing that keeps me grounded through it all is the literal title of this newsletter - the journey. Making sure to enjoy the journey is the only thing that can help make the switch as painless as possible and foster your growth in whatever career you decide to switch to.

If you’ve been pondering switching your career and haven’t been able to take the leap yet, consider this a sign to at least give it a try. Do as much research as you can about your target career, start practicing a little every day, and then jump into it once you have enough confidence and resources to do so. That way, even if you fail, you’ll be able to say “at least I tried” rather than “I wish I would’ve.”

I’d love to hear your stories about your career switch (if you had one) and how you went about it. Feel free to respond and let me know!