
Career Change
Curious, I assume if your here you are a safety Professional. do you know anyone who has switched careers? or have you considered that yourself? What is a good alternative to the Safety Profession?
Comments (11)

It easily transitions to anything in code enforcement. What industry are you in now or are you well versed in?

This comment has been removed...

I have often thought about a career change.
I would love to just do Enviornmental Inspections for companies and leave the safety side of things.
Depending on your interests. If I were to switch I would consider HR, Project Manager, or a Shop Manager. This is just based on previous positions, jobs and familiarity working close with them.

All of the answers I am sure would be fairly different, Depends on the level of responsibility you want to take on, past experiences, future goals and what you like to do. What industry do you want to work in.
This is my second career after the world of Public Safety, was a challenge to make the switch but fairly simple to not over simplify it.
I am working on starting my own business and finding more challenges to become my own boss than working for someone else.
All in what you wanna be when you Grow up. I am still trying to figure that out, but I really wanna be a NINJA.

My only thoughts on switching careers have been for something unrelated to safety. I like it as a career and the only reason I'd leave is to do something way different.
I've thought about becoming a Scrum Master or maybe going into consulting.

My career spans 51 years, I went to a huge university out of high school in order to get out of the small town I grew up in and not to spend my life working in a factory. Both my parents were auto workers so I had a good idea what that was like. That was confirmed when I worked my first two summers in an auto plant alongside my mom. My goal was to get a good practical education and get it over in 4 years. So I got a Personnel/Managment degree from Michigan State. I hated all the Business courses and Stats but did well enough to get almost a 3.0.
When I graduated I wanted to be a Personnel Manager. But all I heard in interviews was that I had no Personnel experience. After three months I finally accepted the next best thing as job as a Auto Foundry Supervisor. It was dangerous, high-paced, challenging, pressure packed, exciting, sometimes beautiful, and even fun! The time flew by because I was always busy doing things. I loved and hated it at the same time! With all the OT I made more money than I dreamed. However, I had ended up the two places I went to college to avoid, a factory and I was on second shift! Four years later I found myself in Personnel and on the second day also made the "Safety Guy", something I would always have whenever in Personnel/HR.
I was shocked to discover compared to the foundry the office was often boring! Ops had ruined me for working in and office! For the next 25 years I would bounce between Ops and HR. Finally at 50 I decided that my energy level for running around a plant 8-12 hours a day was harder to get, even as a Mfg Manager. I hated being a Plant Manager (to far from the floor). So I spent the next 15 years in HR/H&S.
Looking back I wish I would have listened more to my heart and not just been practical just my head. If I would listened more to my heart I would have been a History Teacher and Basketball Coach at some level. Those are my passions! I forgot what my Aunt who also went to MSU in the 1940s