Anyone broken free from professional life? Warning: rant

A book is a book and you should be very proud. Well done. >>>>>
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/130984/

had seen off three editors in my time there

Frankly, all the ones with a modus operandi get found out eventually, the police patiently gather data on you over years that they never understand until a brilliant new detective comes along who works it all out.

Wait, that's not the plot of your book, is it?

Actually it is just a book, not a book about fucking.

Out

In

Etc

Taking a pay cut is just about unavoidable if trying to change your metier completely. But it should be only temporary. I've a pal went to Italy with 400 euro in 2010 and almost no language (a bad idea IMO), he'd graduated from Law school two years earlier and hated practicing.

His only plan in going to Italy was to get some kind of job so he could stay for at least a year. In his first week he was offered a job in a local baker's shop, just clearing up basically. A month later he was out cycling and spotted a movie being shot in a small town. He was lucky to talk to a Camera assist who was from Dublin, and two days later started work as a driver/runner on the movie himself.

He's now an Assistant Producer for film and TV productions based in Milan, and says he would never consider coming back to the UK, or practising law. These things are out there! You just need the cahones to take the risk...

I kind of did this a year ago. I was working as a designer in a large publishing company (kids books). It should have been my absolute dream job, but the office politics, general chaos, bad office mojo and various other factors made it a ruddy grind. My wife and I had a little girl and I struggled on because regular income etc, eventually going down to 4 days a week as I was hating not being able to spend as much time with the little person.
Eventually I bit the bullet and quit to go freelance (which i realise is possibly easier as a designer than many professions) and built a studio in my garden.

Since the end of her maternity leave, my wife had been freelance so it seemed pretty scary and a bit reckless for us both to have a non-dependable income, but actually we've made it work. We started out pretty hand-to-mouth and there were some squeaky moments here and there but now we're actually in a better financial situation that we have been for a while, we both get to spend time with Leila (now a bolshy 2yo) and we kind of feel vindicated and comfortable that we made the right decision. Considering neither of us work full time now, we're happy to not exactly be rolling in cash if it means more time together as a family. I'm gradually able to do more illustration bits and bobs, which is what I most enjoy doing (and couldn't do while full time), but want to retain a balance between that and design, which i see as my bread and butter. I like being able to strike a balance there - i don't think i'd want to risk 'ruining' illustration for myself by only doing that.

An added bonus is that in building a studio from scratch (designed and slung it up pretty much single-handed), I'm now a lot more capable and confident as a DIYer and have found that more tactile side of things a nice foil to my work which is pretty much all pixels that don't really exist in real life.

In summary: do it

A lot of the stories on this thread are motivating. It makes the possibility of busting out of employee life and doing something creative more real and less pie in the sky.

I've become quite good with CAD over the years, mainly mechanical/engineering part and assembly design, but also things like my fiancée's ring.

My major frustration with being a doctor is that with my particular personality type (OCD/meticulous/think of every single possibility etc), I'm running on adrenaline all day as I rapidly make high stakes decisions, which I notice wrecks my creativity. I finish work and crash every day, and it takes at least two weeks away from work to properly wind down and feel alive again.

My strategy for escape has to include total switch, rather than part timing as my current line of work is too draining for me to give anything else a proper go. I'd like to do some freelance CAD to get me in the creative mindset, and then develop a hands on craft from there.

Do it! My experience is, the longer you leave it the more excuses you'll find not to try. Even if it doesn't work out, what have you lost, 12 months of your life and a bit of savings?

12 months that could change everything..

have you considered pop up food stall at market, or turning your flat/room into a diner once a week?

Yep, even looked into food stalls/markets fees and logistics for a bit.

I've been considering "eat with" for a while, but due to traveling plans now everything is on hold. I've also interviewed for Cookapp a few years back when they were considering expanding in the UK

You could also trial it with Airbnb 'Experiences', I know someone recently started a restaurant in Seville this way. Low lost, low investment and if you make top quality scran...

I've done food stalls at food festivals, they're good fun if you take it for what they are. You get a lot of moany stall holders who cant adapt and all want perfect pitches. If you can adapt you can do alright. You can also make a killing. Or just cover your costs when it rains, if youre lucky. Worth a shot though. I saw a bloke selling good quality cheddar on big lumps of toast for a small fortune. People were queuing for it all day long. I think it was something he did on the side. So it wasn't like he gave anything up for it. But it would have afforded him less days at the 9-5 for sure.

.

I watched this gourmet burger stand in Shoreditch selling burgers for £7 a pop. They had 3 cooks and must have been handing out a burger every 15 seconds. I was in awe. £28 a minute, even between 3 people is pretty good going!

If it makes you feel better, going abroad to become a (presumably freelance) foreign correspondent is hard and often doesn't work out.

The better way would have been working on a trade mag for two or three years then applying to the trainee scheme of a news agency to train you up and give you the skills then getting paid to see the world with them. But that's a short way of describing a lot of effort.

We had 394 applications for three or four trainee places last year and there's no guarantee of a job at the end of it.

For anyone looking to escape a job/career I couldn't really recommend journalism.

I kind of feel like I want to branch out at the moment.

On the one hand, I have a notionally "creative" job as a writer in a marketing agency. On the other hand, the level of creativity in that job is fairly low.

We've just had our first child, and we're trying to work out what we'll do once my wife goes back to work. I'm thinking of going freelance and splitting childcare between me, my wife, and a childminder. I can also get work as a translator, which I have professional experience in.

But most importantly, it'll allow me to spend time with my son and devote more time to extra writing projects that may, hopefully, enable me to expand what I do professionally.

Initially I'd not need to bring in that much per month, and I'm fortunate enough to have savings, so I'm pretty set on this idea. If it goes wrong I've lost nothing except a bit of money and gained time with my child that you never get back if you miss.

Sorry, that's just a ramble triggered/inspired by @AlexD 's post above

https://youtu.be/r2aBOTNGWMY

So exhausted right now. But don't have a dream/hobby or any desire to go off and do something else. Suppose I've never been ambitious or with direction. But feel like this is getting worse every year and I might need to jump ship... (Also just rambling).

You seem to like cycling presumably?

Ha. Only in small doses.
Other hobbies similarly only in small doses. I like my job, more or less. I think I often get to this stage in the year and find the job a bit overwhelming but it's hard to see how serious a problem it is. They seem to be doing their best to make doing the job more and more joyless. I'm in HE and there are new metrics coming in that will affect funding, ranking, the "marketisation" of education, and management seem overly keen to use it as another vehicle for more corporate bullshit. OTOH I have two siblings who are doctors and I'm very glad my bad days at work don't involve people dying or having to give bad news to relatives.

I hope some of the stuff above inspires you to think about making a change, otherwise you'll be stuck with it for a long time.
It's easy for me to say, harder for you to do.
Having a career changing opportunity thrust on me was an amazing and completely unexpected thing, but if you ever get half a chance to change go for it!