what advice would you guys give to someone who has been wanting to start fresh in their early 30s. not just a pivot, but wanting to start from scratch in a new unrelated field
p.s. the question is not for any specific fields in mind, just wanted to understand people's experiences and perspectives. the good and bad experiences.
I've already reached out to the graphic design subreddits for advice, but I wanted to reach out to other subreddits to see if anyone else has advice.
I graduated with a 2-year Graphic Design Diploma in Spring 2025, and managed to find a full-time position a month later. The role consists of pre-press file setup, invoicing, social media management, and basic reception work.
Over the past year I've learned a lot, which is great, but this position isn't for me. I've been applying to graphic design jobs for about 4 months now, but no luck. I've revised my resume and portfolio, and have even started applying for part-time because I'm at the point where I'll take anything, but still no luck. There aren't many design positions in my area, and when there are they want senior designers or marketing backgrounds.
I've messaged multiple people that I graduated with to ask for their insight and experience over the past year and almost all of them feel similarly and are struggling to find work. Some are working the same retail jobs they had while in school, and some have decided to switch careers entirely.
I'm starting to lose hope after hearing that no one else has had any luck, and just from doing research online it seems graphic design wasn't a good career choice for me as it's dying out…
I’m planning on looking into career counselling in my city to help me decide where to go from here. I don’t have many things I’m passionate about and I don’t want to choose the wrong path, again.
I’ve created an additional “regular” resume in case I need to apply for non-design jobs but other than that I’m just applying with no luck and am feeling unfulfilled and plateaued at my current position.
What should I do? Any general advice for someone who feels stuck in their current role/industry, but also feels stuck trying to make a change? Should I just start over?
Sorry its a lengthy one.
I wanna quit my job in this company because even though I'm growing as a manager but in reality it's not really an automotive company or related to designing using my engineering software.
It's technically " automotive" related as we work on creating animation for cars, and I'm the project manager and subject matter expert.
It's a good company to learn about cars as I get to do research and quality check to make sure that the animation is accurate or not but the management part i don't like much but i know my career direction as an engineer should be a project manager.
Plus I'm also very comfortable here as it's close by and not much work pressure but it's increasing slowly and to be honest i wanna try going abroad even though I'm here.
A friend told me that when you're trying to develop your career comfort is a curse.
Now here they are giving me more responsibilities and they are planning to create a team with me and develop the company further, and they say the company will be new and so on but no salary increment until they see me perform.
I'm not a huge salary guy but i know I'm already working more than I'm getting and i was promoted to manager last July but the increment want that good this year Jan so idk if i can trust then with giving me any good salary for now.
But now I'm feeling guilty that I might betray them since they are giving me responsibility and planning around me and my notice period is 90 days.
I don't have a different job lined up for me that I can go after this and since I'm comfortable, I'm not being very serious about applying for a job and even if i get a call i don't get to interview part because they ask for immediate joiner.
And that's where the thought of I'll just quit and that way I'll be more serious and can also be an immediate joiner, plus I don't have any major commitments like loans or anyone depending on me but the drawback is i have no backup, like keeping my CTC as base and demand higher salary and pretty sure if i don't get job still for long time i might start getting desperate again and join any company.
But then again right now I'm contemplating quitting because I feel guilty and no backup in one side and on the other hand I don't wanna get more responsibilities with no increment or at least I don't wanna get more comfortable and get trapped in this company
As I'm already here for the last 4.5 years and have been searching for a job in a not so serious way for the last 2 to 3 years years.
Right now I'm just feeling lost
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