Carole D

Age at time of shift

28

Gender

Female

Education level

Graduate

Universities attended

Northeastern University, College of Integrated Chinese Medicine

Shifted from

Senior Analyst for an Investment Fund

Location

New York and then London

Salary

undisclosed

Years in old career

I worked for hedge funds and investment banks for 7 years.

Shifted to

Acupuncturist

Location

London

Salary

undisclosed

Years in new career

I have been practising for five years now.

Year of shift

2003

What was your role in your old job?

Developing trading systems and doing portfolio analysis and then I moved on to developing systems for risk management and reporting.

What is/are your new role(s)?

Acupuncturist

Why did you change?

I had a job that paid me very well, good friends, paid back my student loan, wasn't working long hours, had pretty nice colleagues, but I got to the point where I never wanted to get up to go to work, so I thought something needed to change, and work seemed to be the obvious thing to change.

Are you happy with the change?

Definitely. It has been a huge change to work for myself and have to create a business but I wouldn't change it for the world.

What do you miss and what don't you miss?

I did miss the security of a monthly income and the money to start with but I am now making a good living and I love being my own boss. I don't miss the routine, the pressure, sitting at a desk, the politics of a big company.

How did you go about making the change?

Acupuncture was an interest of mine so I looked into acupuncture schools online, and retrained as an acupuncturist.

What was the most difficult thing about changing?

Getting through the first stages of setting up a practice from scratch, and trusting that everything would go well.

What help did you get?

Very supportive friends, and the rest just fell into place. If you are doing the right thing chances are you will find the passion and persistence to make things work.

What have you learnt in the process?

Discovered the meaning of the quote "If you love what you do, you'll never work another day in your life". It definitely applies in my case.

What do you wish you'd done differently?

Maybe moved from one career to the other more gradually to be more secure financially, but equally I really needed a break from what I was doing so the complete break was probably necessary.

What would you advise others to do in the same situation?

Follow your heart, life is too short to spend most of it doing something you don't enjoy.