You can also transition inside a university or college environment, as I did in changing from a Data Systems Programmers Analyst in Healthcare Providers to a Bioinformatician with expertise in Protein Structures and Medical Genetics. Expect to attend a lot of seminars in your spare time and do some catch up work to bring your medical/biochemical/biology skills up to date if you do this, of course.

But it's a lot of fun!

I'm now a Data Manager working on Alzheimers, Parkinsons, and various lipids and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders clinical studies, and my prior work as a Research Consultant resulted in our lab finding a viable drug target (first in a long time) for malaria. Saving the world is kind of fun, if tiring ...

Great answer, Bob. That is exactly how to change careers. But, being the big mouth that I am, I would like to add just a little more.

It would be best to expect to start a lot lower on the totem pole (the mail room?). And possibly at a lot lower salary. I took a hit when I started in IT so many years ago in the Data Control Dept. of the company I was working for. I was balancing reports produced on the mainframe, decolating reports, and distributing them. About the lowest position in IT (it was known as DP then) one could get. But then I took on the duties of lunch time relief for the computer operators. When one of them left, guess who became a full time computer operator? Well, you get the idea. Don't expect to change career paths without some sacrifice.

I really would not recommend that you take more formal education in the area you want to go into before you get a job there. A person in the hiring position might get unconfortable with your assumption that you will get a job in that career just because you studied in it. After you start working in new department? Absolutly!

Good Luck

My suggestion is this. Don't look at change as an event. Look at it as a transition over time. I started my career as a programmer. My degree is in Computer Science. However, over 24 years I have done many things. I’ve been a programmer, technical lead, deputy program manager, program manager, president of my own company (twice), director of professional services, consultant, IT manager, enterprise architect, business process specialist, CTO, and IT SOX coordinator.

Everything was part of a progression. It wasn’t necessarily planned. It followed some sense of logic that at least made sense at the time. It required never being satisfied with status quo, a willingness to learn, initiative to push the envelope and a desire to explore new things.

Don’t expect someone to hand you a golden opportunity. It might happen, but then again you might win the lottery.

Starting out in IT shouldn’t hold you back. Employers, at least the good ones, are always looking for star performers. People who are competent, will take initiative, will work and think independently, and who won’t wait until someone gives them the next thing to do. It doesn’t matter where those people started. It is only a matter of where those people want to go.

Thanks for sharing that, Will. Your success story gives hope to people like us. I for one am not willing to go on standby duty again by +- 35...

Very entertaining issue. I haven't heard of this one. It will be necessary to visit you on a thicket!

This is a great article. I am new to your blog and i like what I see. I look forward to your future work.
Thanks Bob!