{"id":326,"date":"2011-08-27T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2011-08-27T11:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squage.com\/site\/?p=326"},"modified":"2011-08-26T13:29:06","modified_gmt":"2011-08-26T12:29:06","slug":"30-days-why-i%e2%80%99m-quitting-work-and-going-back-to-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.squage.com\/site\/2011\/08\/27\/30-days-why-i%e2%80%99m-quitting-work-and-going-back-to-education\/","title":{"rendered":"30 Days: Why I\u2019m Quitting Work and Going Back to Education"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>\u201cWhat?  In his thirties?  With this economic outlook?  Quitting a career and going into education?  He\u2019s a fool.\u201d <\/i><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s something I\u2019m sure people have thought when I\u2019ve told them my intentions.  In fact, I\u2019ve had people say similar directly to me.<\/p>\n<p>Often, it\u2019s hard for me to articulate a response clearly on the spot. <\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, with a blog post, I have a little more time to explain things.  I\u2019m not really sure it\u2019ll make much difference.  Here goes anyway!<\/p>\n<p><b>What\u2019s the Reason for Uni?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>My current situation:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I\u2019m not happy where I am<\/li>\n<li>I want a creative career, but not entirely sure what<\/li>\n<li>I have a talent and passion for art<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t have experience in it<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Therefore right now, I don\u2019t feel confident to go for a creative role, and frankly I don\u2019t have the experience or knowledge of exactly what floats my boat.<\/p>\n<p>Uni should give:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Opportunity to explore many creative roles<\/li>\n<li>Plenty of experience (it\u2019s a vocational course with work for real-life clients)<\/li>\n<li>Inspiration (like-minded people, freedom to explore ideas, interesting part of the world)<\/li>\n<li>Vast improvement on my skills<\/li>\n<li>A big boost to my confidence<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By the end of Uni, I should be in a much better place in terms of skills, experience, confidence and (one hopes) employability!<\/p>\n<p><b>Why Now?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no time like the present.   It\u2019s a clich\u00e9, but it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, you <i>could<\/i> argue that it\u2019s too late in life to be doing something like this.  That by now I should be:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Married<\/li>\n<li>Soon to be a parent<\/li>\n<li>Working my way up the career ladder<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Well, that&#8217;s all lovely.  But I&#8217;m not.  Oh and it&#8217;s not too late, dufus.<\/p>\n<p>You don&#8217;t just suddenly decide to settle down.  You need to be ready, and guess what?  I&#8217;m not.  I never have been.  Why?  Because I want to be happy in my work first, doing something creative and ace.<\/p>\n<p>Until then, \u201csettling down\u201d is a pseudonym for \u201cjust settling\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Previously I&#8217;ve let <b>The Fear Of Risk&trade;<\/b> stop me from taking a leap of faith towards what I really want.  You could argue I wasted much of my 20s due to this *.<\/p>\n<p>Well, enough is enough.  Yes, I\u2019m not a yoof anymore, but I\u2019m also never going to be as young as I am right now (which both rad <i>and<\/i> skill).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have I got ties?  <i>Nope.<\/i><\/li>\n<li>Can I afford to do this?  <i>Yep.<\/i><\/li>\n<li>When the hell will I get a better chance than now?  <i>Good point.<\/i> You knows it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>But Quitting Your Job in <i>this<\/i> Economy?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Yes, I\u2019m afraid so.  To be honest, my reasoning here is similar to that above.<\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t predict the future, but I can make a positive change to my life.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, it\u2019s risky, but then I consider the following things:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You&#8217;ve already worked out this is the best change you can make right now.<\/li>\n<li>The worst case scenario is: you try to get back into IT, with 9 years\u2019 experience under your belt, various references and both an IT degree and digital creative FdA to accompany them.<\/li>\n<li>When you\u2019re 50, even if it all goes to pot, you\u2019ll be happy that you at least tried.<\/li>\n<li>If it all goes well, who knows what you\u2019ll be doing in your mid 30s!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>My conclusion is always this: bring on the return to education at 31. :-)<\/p>\n<p>Pat<\/p>\n<p><small>* Aside from the trip to Nz\/Oz.  That\u2026 that was frickin\u2019 amazing.<\/p>\n<p>P.S. Special kudos to my mate Jimbo who rightly suggested the best response to anyone questioning my motives is this: \u201cI\u2019m doing it because it\u2019ll make me happy.  So f**k off.\u201d :-)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWhat? In his thirties? With this economic outlook? Quitting a career and going into education? He\u2019s a fool.\u201d It\u2019s something I\u2019m sure people have thought when I\u2019ve told them my intentions. In fact, I\u2019ve had people say similar directly to me. Often, it\u2019s hard for me to articulate a response clearly on the spot. Fortunately, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-countdown","category-pats-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squage.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squage.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squage.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squage.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squage.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.squage.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332,"href":"https:\/\/www.squage.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions\/332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squage.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squage.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squage.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}