Looking to make a career change, need help in getting started!

Posted in:Favors Health & Wellness Job Board Personal Growth Resources Career Growth

Hi there! My name is Carly, and I'm a 28-year-old living in Los Angeles, CA. I recently quit my job, working in a highly toxic environment. I am not one to ever quit, but this was too much for me to deal with emotionally and psychologically. Aside from the toxic work environment, I also learned that the industry I was working in wasn't the right one for me.

To give you all some information on my background, I went to school for early childhood education and spent 5 years of my professional career as a teacher. Once COVID happened, I quickly became burnt out and left teaching to enter the event industry. For the past two years, I have been working in events and, unfortunately feel it is not for me. I'm a very empathetic person, and at times it's helpful, and other times it is a curse. But I know that I need to take advantage of my empathy and help people. As an empath, I am very in tune with psychology and have always been passionate about the way the human mind works. With that being said, I'd love to enter the mental health industry but have no experience and am not sure where to start to make my way into the field.

Would the best route be to work as an office manager within a mental health facility? I'm open to any and all suggestions on how I can enter the field!

Thank you all so much, and I look forward to hearing your feedback!! :)

juliedsz·Sep 14

Hi Carly! I am really sorry you've had to live through an experience such as a toxic work environment, it's a horrible thing to have to go through! And I hope you are in a better place today already. I'd love to help you with pivoting careers. I'm in my early 30s and have been in the tech industry for the last 8 years working in different roles (business development, talent acquisition management, and today, I am a Head of Growth for a tech scale-up). I've gone through several pivots and I can say that I've loved all of them and today I literally live my best life! Working remotely from Spain & Portugal for a US-based company. In the last few years, I've designed a process that I use whenever I feel like changing roles, industries, or careers entirely. Happy to share it if it can help !

Iynna·Sep 17

We have a ton of elphas that are thinking about pivoting careers so to the extent you're willing to share widely to the community, I am sure this would be super appreciated! Only if you want/can though!

juliedsz·Sep 17

More than happy to share more info about my process, but it would be helpful to know exactly what part of the Career Pivoting journey other members need help with :)

Iynna·Sep 17

I think you should write a post to share about your journey / your framework and then people can take what makes sense to them? just my 0.02 :)

Aparnagopal·Sep 15

Hi Carly, Though I am a tech professional with over 24 years of experience, psychology is something that I am fascinated about. I did a CBT Level 1 course offered by Feeling Good Institute, California and am part of that community now. I happen to discuss and also read email chains on the topic of how to enter the mental health field. Few things that people have suggested is to become a Cerified Life Coach which has the potential to open up other avenues like becoming a CBT practitioner; a diploma or degree in psychology which I think can be done part-time also.

Iynna·Sep 17

Thanks so much for sharing your journey and coming to us for help! it takes a lot of courage and effort. I am super excited for this new path of yours and glad you had some time to do some reflecting to find out what you want to do. There's a ton of companies in the mental health space now (notably tech startups) that I'd suggest you take a look into especially those that take the form of a platform, they often times would need someone in the community management which it sounds like you might be a good fit for!