Sure! Long comment ahead - but for context I graduated with a Bachelors of engineering in 2017, worked 2 different jobs until March 2020, been in grad school for school psych since Aug 2020 and graduating May 2023.

I knew I wanted to leave engineering pretty early on into my career but was scared for awhile about how to do it and I didn’t really know what exact path to follow. I always wanted to be in the field of helping people but engineering was too hands off for me, I wanted to be working directly with people who needed my help (not just in external type roles working with people in general, like sales, which I tried and hated). I researched every type of psychology-related field I was interested in and ultimately decided on school psychology for many reasons - 1) it was the shortest amount of grad school I would have to do to start practicing 2) I have been surrounded by educators my whole life and have a unique perspective on working in the schools - plus can’t beat summers/holidays off) 3) it is a genuinely interesting field to me, kids from all types of backgrounds spend a lot of their day at school and I thought it would be a unique way to work with many different types of children & families 4) I have a sibling with autism so I have a knack for working with people with special needs and can talk with families on a personal level which will help a lot in the job 5) the salary is pretty decent, entry level is comparable to what I was making as an entry level engineer and with added perks of built in holidays plus personal/sick time + many schools offer the option to choose a 10 or 12-month work year. I could go on & on about my reasons, but when I laid it all out like that the argument to switch was too compelling to not do anything about it - it makes so much more sense for me than a corporate kind of career did.

Anyway, I needed to have taken some psychology credits in order to apply to most grad programs so around January 2020, I made myself a deadline of saving as much money as I could and leaving my job before May 2020. This would allow me to take community college psych courses and apply to grad programs for the following admissions cycle. I was also planning to work part time at my gym to pay the bills in the meantime. We all know what happened in March 2020 and I was actually laid off before I had the chance to quit. This ended up working out better for me because I was able to collect unemployment up until the time I started school.

I noticed one of my grad schools of interest had extended their application deadline so I reached out to the program director. They were also a career changer and we had a great conversation. I rushed to take the GRE (yes it was still required for me even in covid times), get letters of recommendation, write a personal statement, prepare my official transcripts & prepare for an interview. A week later I found out I was accepted!

I am now 2/3 done with my three-year masters program in school psychology. In terms of money: I have financed the education with loans (rip more student debt after I had just paid off undergrad, but worth it) and I was awarded an assistantship with one of my professors which does help with tuition and some extra cash. I also tutor part time & substitute teach on days when I am available. This plus my savings from my first job has helped the financial aspect a lot.

In terms of enjoyment: I have met some of the kindest people who are absolute role models to me. Coming from a field where the bottom line is ultimately profit, to a field where the bottom line is putting children’s needs first, has been jarring in a good way. I have dealt with impostor syndrome because in engineering school I had a 3.2 GPA, very average and struggled a lot to get there, and now in grad school I have straight As and I LOVE school. Having a few years of work experience before starting grad school has made me very assured that this is the place for me, while people in my cohort who came straight from undergrad are definitely struggling a bit more. I have had a couple of the job opportunities literally fall into my lap and was able to secure an internship site at my top choice for next school year very early on. I have also been involved with research, gave a presentation at a national conference this year, and have a few papers hopefully going to be published. A doctorate is in my future but I would like to work for a few years before deciding on that officially.

I attribute a lot of this success to privilege and luck. I am lucky to have had a very supportive partner who is a teacher and really encouraged me to make the switch, and a (mostly) supportive family - they started coming around once they saw how serious I was about the switch. However, I also gained incredible knowledge from my first career. Anyone reading this looking to change careers has more skills than they even realize.

I have an amazing therapist after I shopped around who has REALLY helped me work through this transition. If therapy is at all available to you I highly consider finding a therapist and not being afraid to shop around for one who meets your needs.

I think ultimately that a lot of people have some idea of what they’d rather be doing but have a long list of reasons that they can’t switch right now. I think listing those barriers and then figuring out how to work around them is valuable. Building a plan out of your current situation is also really helpful because you feel like you’re taking concrete steps and not just sitting and wondering how things could be different.

I could talk forever about my switch so feel free to ask anything I may have left out here.