Hi,


At the age of 33 I was working in a senior engineering role in the professional audio industry. I took a "leap of faith" and moved to the rail industry taking a 20% pay cut. Worked out really well, yes it did take me a few years to get up to the same salary level - but once I was there I was able to keep going up which would have been tough in my previous industry.


HOWEVER, it was very difficult to find a company outside the audio industry that were prepared to even give me an interview. The way I managed it was to move to a part of the country where engineers were (and are) thin on the ground so companies were more willing to take people from other industries. Ironically, the factor that made that team such a success was exactly that they brought in expertise from a wide range of industries!


The laws of physics don't change from one industry to another. The industry specific factors can generally be learned pretty easily. Ok, when you change industry you're not quite as immediately valuable as you were to your previous industry, but you're very unlikely to be back at a recent graduate level of value. Have faith in your engineering abilities, and if the first few applications don't go anywhere - because of the lack of imagination of potential employers - just keep going until you do find one who is open minded enough to recognise that you might even bring new and additional expertise to their team.


Cheers,


Andy 


P.S. I also endorse all the points made in the above posts!

Hi,


At the age of 33 I was working in a senior engineering role in the professional audio industry. I took a "leap of faith" and moved to the rail industry taking a 20% pay cut. Worked out really well, yes it did take me a few years to get up to the same salary level - but once I was there I was able to keep going up which would have been tough in my previous industry.


HOWEVER, it was very difficult to find a company outside the audio industry that were prepared to even give me an interview. The way I managed it was to move to a part of the country where engineers were (and are) thin on the ground so companies were more willing to take people from other industries. Ironically, the factor that made that team such a success was exactly that they brought in expertise from a wide range of industries!


The laws of physics don't change from one industry to another. The industry specific factors can generally be learned pretty easily. Ok, when you change industry you're not quite as immediately valuable as you were to your previous industry, but you're very unlikely to be back at a recent graduate level of value. Have faith in your engineering abilities, and if the first few applications don't go anywhere - because of the lack of imagination of potential employers - just keep going until you do find one who is open minded enough to recognise that you might even bring new and additional expertise to their team.


Cheers,


Andy 


P.S. I also endorse all the points made in the above posts!