33 y/o Male. I just had a question regarding where I should be career-wise and where all of you are in your 30s. I feel like I am stuck in a dead-end job with a relatively low salary and my career life is a joke.
Quick summary: I was 25 years old, had a great job. Would have been a long-term career, but I did something stupid when I was 27/28 and ended up losing my job. This was back in 2020/2021. I was extremely depressed and demoralized and ready to give up for a while, but decided to take back control of my life and went back to school for cybersecurity. Graduated in 2024, this past year. So far, I have had 0 luck with getting a job or getting my foot in the door. I do currently hold, and have held, a security job with a hospital (decent employer) for the past 3 years, except the pay isn’t high enough to pay all my bills and I have to pick up a lot of overtime. Anyway, my career life is a joke and it’s incredibly demoralizing. I can’t help but feel like I should be settled into a long-term career by now and have all my stuff together. Have a decent retirement saved up. I honestly don’t even really know what I truly want to do. I just feel lost.
So back to my question. Where are all of you in your career lives? Are you happy and settled in for the long ride? Are you lost and confused? At what stage should I be in my career? Management? Top of the pay scale? Etc.
Additional question: is it too late for another career change in your 30s? When does age really start to become a factor?
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Everyone is in a different place. I suppose I can provide an idea of what happens with a completely linear and consistent path – sticking to the same career and field. I am 32 years old with 10 years in IT and I am a system administrator making 90k CAD per year. It is basically where I’d expect to be right now.
Have you tried sales? If you know cybersecurity, you might be a good candidate for selling some cybersecurity SaaS. It could be a good route into the industry and high paying.
Comparison is the thief of joy. It doesn’t matter where anyone else is, the question you should be asking is to yourself – “am I where I want to be?”. The answer to that is obvious, it’s the reason you posted this.
The follow up question should be “what do I need to get me there” and then “what habits do I need or who do I need to be to get those things”.
Don’t be afraid of new things or risk. Have some faith in yourself and things will start to shift.
Turning 33 tomorrow. Early 20s made money in tech theater making about 50k. Late 20s made 70k as a server. Back to school during covid. After covid made 25k as a costumed character actor. After graduating made 60k as a software developer. Was unhappy so went back to performing making 40k.
Life is short and the path winding. I’ve stressed about where I should be but at the end of the day I choose to do what makes me happy.
If you have nothing to lose, you have everything to gain.
30s are a good time to pivot and start over if you want to
If you are not happy it’s never too late for a career change. As others have pointed out don’t compare yourself to others. Maybe they are also not happy and maybe had a huge helping hand to get where they are. I know some people with great paying jobs and I can tell you they are not happy.
In reality we need nowhere near as much money as we think we do, unless you want to live in central London going out every evening…
Myself. I went to uni at 23, graduated with a business degree. Worked in marketing for 4 years, whilst self training in graphic design, hated the 2nd job so much and decided on a career change. Did a bit of freelance graphic design whilst looking for work (still do a bit here and there). Next job was in media management (luckily some transferable skills), got a promotion, got made redundant a few months later. Immediately started doing the exact same job but freelance for double the pay. I did that for 2 years. Saved a bit of money and now I’ve moved abroad and can no longer do that job. Having a bit of time out whilst I learn a new language and self train again in something else. I’m also working on an app with a friend, may make money may not but the point is to keep trying things. I can say I was the most miserable when I had the job that paid the most because I hated it.
It depends on sort of the path you sort of envisioned that you take, since regret is defined by the delta between an imagined reality and actual reality. the key to happiness is actually to formulate goals which you are actually capable of hitting or just having a psychology which is naturally resistant towards setbacks (natural happiness etc..).
My personal theory is that some people just better at simulating the actual world around them and those people are generally happiest since their expectations largely match reality.
I studied math, I didn’t think that much about what exactly I would be doing post graduation, I just stuck close to the smartest people, around me took the most intellectually challenging courseload I could and hoped that my environment would induce me to do the correct thing. This worked pretty well for me even though I was more or less a blank slate early on. I sort of believed that when you are young, you are just meant to develop your ‘horsepower’, as you mature into an adult you find the direction to apply that, when you enter your final form (or hwatever you wanna call it), you learn to nurture that same thing.
Oh boy do I understand the way you feel. I initially graduated with electrical engineering degree in 2014, had an internship as software engineer and an offer. At that point (23 yo) | declined the offer and went back to school for petroleum engineering to chase the $$. Graduated with PE degree at 26 and made really good money for 4 years but hated the job. At 31 l pivoted back to software as data engineer and felt the same way as you, also had 1 kid and 1 on the way. Felt too old starting as a jr DE, my managers were all younger and I took a substantial pay cut. Fast forward 4 years and this year at 35 I should make the lead.
I was scared to change my career for the third time but it was well worth it. If you feel like you need a change and still be able to achieve VPs and higher by 50-55 now is the time to do it. I think you still have one more opportunity to pivot without impacting your long term growth. Just make sure it’s the career and not just your current job. It’s scary but being unhappy with your career does impact your overall well being. I can truly relate to your situation and from personal experience, making that change was absolutely worth it.
I manage but it’s part time freelance, still not enough money.
Nothing is certain about any part of this economy, and the two career paths are the same, even if they’re in the same line of work. I know someone that makes a half million dollars a year and it’s basically shut in and I know someone who should be making half million dollars a year, but has been nothing but baited and strung along by his company and they were to go anywhere else, would not have the same benefits or the pay.
Things are fucked right now and will remained fucked. This idea of a standard that everyone being on the same page at a certain age is a fantasy.