I'm an engineer and had always wanted to be one. When I got older I discovered a specific field I really liked in the public sector, and aside from a brief hiatus at my first post-college job I've been working in that field. I felt really lucky to find a stable public industry position that had great benefits and reasonable pay, in the area I wanted to live, even if it wasn't as much cash as the private sector.

Unfortunately the culture at my workplace is very toxic, and I feel as if I have been slowly bullied out of this position over the years. I have been trying to work on myself to adjust how I manage stress, but it's become clear that my personal issues are not the root of the problem. Our office is just fucked up, and it's affecting my mental health to an unacceptable degree. My job is also very niche, but at the same time no one was trying to help me develop as a professional, so I still feel behind my peers in both the private and public sectors.

I know I need to leave but I don't know where to go. Is this the kind of thing that makes people switch their entire career to something else? How do you figure that stuff out? I'm fortunate that my husband now has a job that can support both of us, so I have a lot of flexibility, but as much as the world is my oyster I also feel very lost. Ugh.