It’s Never Too Late to Change Your Career

I’ve decided to take a little break from schoolwork. I just finished my third straight class at Colorado State University Global, and I’m exhausted! Sure, the break is only five weeks, but right now it feels like school’s out for the summer and I am 12 years old.

Of course, I’m not 12 (well, unless you ask my wife…), I’m 54-years-old and I am working on my second bachelor’s degree online. My first degree is from Colorado State University, Ft. Collins campus, but that was a long time ago. I graduated in 1986, which was almost thirty years ago!

In 1986, we had no concept of online education (or the internet, social media, web 2.0, or anything digital – unless we’re talking fingers and toes).

My first degree is in fine art, with an emphasis in graphic design, and a minor in political science. However, I never really wanted to be a graphic designer. I just thought that was the closest thing to what I actually wanted to pursue: editorial cartooning.

Luckily, I did get to do editorial cartooning. For the past 30 years, I’ve been a freelance editorial cartoonist. I’ve drawn thousands of editorial cartoons in dozens of newspapers-mostly in Colorado, but a few national publications too.

But here’s the crazy thing, and something you may have dealt with in your own industry: unless you’re in the big leagues, like Charles Schulz, cartooning doesn’t pay the bills. Sure, I had jobs, but if we’re comparing my role as a cartoonist to the major leagues, I was consistently playing Triple A baseball. For a while I had my editorial cartoons running a few times a week in daily newspapers, in medium-sized Colorado cities. I thought I was doing pretty well, but alas, there was that whole “pay” thing.

So, for the past 30 years, I have also had a day job. I’ve been working for a large telecommunications company, pretty much concurrently, my entire time as a cartoonist. Telecommunications has as much in common with cartooning (or anything creative) as salmon fishing has to do with being a toll booth attendant. But…it pays the bills, so there is that.

Adapting with a Midlife Career Change

In strange parallel ways, however, both cartooning (that is, print journalism), and telecommunications are both in the midst of seismic shifts. These shifts are wrought almost entirely by technological and societal changes which are deeply intertwined. Both lines of work bear only the slightest resemblance now to the jobs I initially took in the mid-1980s.

When I started in telecom, it was still, “The Phone Company:” a monolithic monopoly, regulated by the government. Consumer choice meant you could have a beige telephone, or a white telephone, but the phone itself did not belong to you. It was hardwired into your house and owned by the phone company. Now we are a data services, cloud-hosting, data storage, digital communications, fiber optics-based, internet providing, worldwide-connected company, without a hint of the past anywhere to be found.

In the mid-1980s, cartooning was still all about print media. The mission was to get a newspaper to run your cartoons. I remember what a big deal it was when I bought a photocopier (in the early ’90s) to mail paper copies of my work to newspapers. It was absolutely amazing when I bought a fax machine, and downright fantastical when I first scanned and emailed a cartoon. It all seemed like science fiction back then.

The old methodologies are transforming and changing. After 30 years, I could feel myself winding down, changing, and transforming. It was scary. The world was turning beneath my feet, whether I wanted it to or not.

Now, it’s a new day. The old methodologies are transforming and changing. After 30 years, I could feel myself winding down, changing, and transforming. It was scary. The world was turning beneath my feet, whether I wanted it to or not. I had to change with it. I’m not old enough to retire to a world of jumpsuits and deck shoes, zipping around the retirement community in my golf cart. I still have more to say and more to offer the world.

That’s what led me to CSU Global and a bachelor’s degree in communications. Communications seems the most likely to marry the two professional paths I’ve been traveling. It’s a combination of what I think journalism and telecommunications looks like today.

Thus, here I am. At age 54, a CSU Global student, still hoping that I can change my career at this (hopefully, not too) late stage.

Actually, not just hoping…working to change my career. I’ve been on a one-way road for a long time, so trust me, this is not easy. It’s like trying to turn an aircraft carrier; it doesn’t just turn on a dime.

Second Bachelor’s Degree Online

Unlike high school, or my first degree, this isn’t just about getting good grades. This isn’t about pulling an all-nighter for some big exam, then partying afterwards. This is about working my butt off to learn new skills and recreate myself professionally. I want to be a modern, nimble, desirable, knowledgeable, marketable, employable person, who can offer something valuable (even if it’s at the telecom where I currently work). This is about where we are in 2016. The world is turning and so am I.

But it is hard, no question about it. Change is hard. Re-engaging your brain, re-firing synapses that may have grown dormant, realigning your priorities, defining your goals, squeezing in time for school, amid all the other life obligations: work, home, family, and friends, which don’t stop just because you want to re-direct your life. Sure, it can be exhausting.

But, so what.

It’s an opportunity to change my life and that’s no small thing. In fact, it’s a great thing!

So I’ll enjoy a few weeks off, catch my breath, and jump right back in at CSU Global. Because, in the words of former Buffalo Bills head coach, Marv Levy, “Where else would you rather be!?”

If you’re interested in learning how CSU Global can help with your midlife career change, or wish to become savvier in your current field, complete our Request Info form to receive more information.