Leaving corporate/doing a masters to switch career

Hey everyone. Wanted to see if anyone had gone through the same experience and had any advice.

A bit about me. I am 34 years old, originally from the UK, and relocated to the US in 2017 to work in the Marcom dept. at a large American corporate in San Francisco. I worked at advertising/digital agencies in London beforehand, and my background is primarily in digital experiences. I've been very successful and am in a management role at my company. I also have a 2.1 degree in English Language & Literature from the University of Liverpool.

I completed a mammoth project a few months ago and it quite clearly signaled the end of this chapter for me. I've also been slowly pivoting toward sustainability over the past year or so. I've taken a few courses to that end (climate change in general, circularity, corporate innovation etc) and a couple of people at my company (and others) have advised that I should really pursue a masters. I've also noticed that more senior roles in the field ask for a masters degree.

I have personal reasons for doing so as well, but in all likelihood I will come back to the UK even if it's just for a year to do a masters. Postgraduate education in the US is SO expensive (even with international fees/currency conversion, the UK is still cheaper). Looking at Edinburgh, maybe Oxford. Perhaps I'll stay afterwards, or I'll come back to the US (I have a green card).

I wondered if anyone else had taken the leap from a successful career that they felt was basically done into a different field, starting with a masters? Going from earning to not earning is going to be a shock, though I'm building savings ahead of time.

Any thoughts/advice would be very much appreciated!

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 1

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by djrbrown0

Hey everyone. Wanted to see if anyone had gone through the same experience and had any advice.
A bit about me. I am 34 years old, originally from the UK, and relocated to the US in 2017 to work in the Marcom dept. at a large American corporate in San Francisco. I worked at advertising/digital agencies in London beforehand, and my background is primarily in digital experiences. I've been very successful and am in a management role at my company. I also have a 2.1 degree in English Language & Literature from the University of Liverpool.
I completed a mammoth project a few months ago and it quite clearly signaled the end of this chapter for me. I've also been slowly pivoting toward sustainability over the past year or so. I've taken a few courses to that end (climate change in general, circularity, corporate innovation etc) and a couple of people at my company (and others) have advised that I should really pursue a masters. I've also noticed that more senior roles in the field ask for a masters degree.
I have personal reasons for doing so as well, but in all likelihood I will come back to the UK even if it's just for a year to do a masters. Postgraduate education in the US is SO expensive (even with international fees/currency conversion, the UK is still cheaper). Looking at Edinburgh, maybe Oxford. Perhaps I'll stay afterwards, or I'll come back to the US (I have a green card).
I wondered if anyone else had taken the leap from a successful career that they felt was basically done into a different field, starting with a masters? Going from earning to not earning is going to be a shock, though I'm building savings ahead of time.
Any thoughts/advice would be very much appreciated!

I think the main lesson is not to imagine you are going to do any 'conversion' and leap into something radically different immediately, so if you have been working in advertising/digital and get a Masters in Sustainability, you aren't going to leap straight into management of a Water Source Heat Pump installation business. So wherever you want to go in your second career, the first step is best planned to be a mixture of your previous career with the new qualification on top. And so you should start networking that already.

What is the intersection between advertising/digital media and sustainability? Work that out, make connections, while you are a professional with a job title etc. Work out what that first step can reasonably be, be very aware how you can leverage your existing professional skills PLUS the new ones. Otherwise, you are effectively starting at intern/new entrant level again - which I guess financially you don't want to do. So the destination you have in mind vis a vis sustainability, might not be achievable until 5+ years after the degree.

The money thing isn't really an issue, it's a life skill managing a tighter budget, and you know why you are doing it and what the reward will be. Student discounts are your friend!