I am considering switching careers. The last thirty years as the head of chemical engineering have been great. At least good- great might be a bit of an exaggeration. It has been hectic, and less and less actual engineering work, and more and more management and office politics. Not that I mind being a boss, especially the salary part is highly appreciated. But I feel like it is time to do something new. Additionally, I fear that if I do not change paths soon, I will most likely get stuck in this position until retirement as a fifty-three-yield old man.
Luckily, I have had several job proposals during the last week. The vast majority have other management roles that require an engineering background. I haven’t thought twice about them. I figure that if I’m going to do the same things, I might as well do it at the company I have been loyal to for the last two decades and eventually collect that gold clock.
But there have also been a few odd job proposals linked to my hobby. I have written for a newspaper turned blog called ”Science made easy” for over ten years. My column is usually about chemistry or scientific misunderstandings from the media. Trying to explain complicated concepts and theories in an essay and intriguing way has been me
favorite endower, and receiving grateful mails and follow-up questions from readers is very fun, and to be honest, a bit ego-boosting. Anyhow, I have gotten job proposals related to these positions, mainly concerning becoming a scientific reporter full-time. I have previously shot all of them due to the significant decrease in my paycheck it would lead to. Today though, I am in an entirely different economic situation. All kids are out of the house and put through college; I no longer need the same cash flow. My wife tells me that the money does no good in the bank when I am miserable at work at the same time. In light of this, I have actually considered taking a less-paid job at a slightly more well-known science paper.
I am really nervous. The doubts are many. Am I old enough? What if I don’t like it? What if I totally suck at it? I went on a ”shadow
session” with a senior reporter at a machine learning proton planning company. It went surprisingly well. My knowledge of chemistry and physics definitely surpassed the other reports, but on the other hand, it was hard for me to follow the conversations about the medical aspects of the technology that the business was developing. For example, I know how the oncology information system work but very little about contouring oar which is a form of planning system.