I'm 42. Nearly every 5 years for the past 20 years I've had a career change. From working in Theatre to TV/Film, to Startup, to Google Sheets wizard.
Each progress hasn't been a full on "career change" but rather, a sort of side project I was interested in took over my entire world.
Doing theatre, I'd work with video guys.
While in Video department, I did graphics to turn to Digital Content.
While doing digital content, I automated a lot. learned to code Excel VBA,
while trying to survive in a PA job, I automated Google Sheets
While doing google sheets in a company, I side gigged doing online growth.
While doing online growth, I learned to code.
I coded my own site, I did more and more google sheets and created Better Sheets 5 years ago.
Now I play board games because I want to get off screen with friends/family.
I am considering creating a physical gaming center/board game cafe. which might be a new career that I didn't go to school for and didn't have to even think about transitioning. If some side project becomes a full time work... great!
Formatting Google Sheets. I work all day every day in google sheets. I make video tutorials, and templates, and tools. Sometimes I work with clients/for clients. Sometimes I just make something on my own. Been thinking more and more about coding up a formatting engine in apps script. As that's what I've done many times before. But really would perhaps a SaaS or a Chrome add-on (not a sheets Add-on) be able to handle this better? But I don't really know how it would handle looking at a sheet and knowing what to format it like. Or would some kind of template actions be able to account for data out of place. This is where I fall apart in my thinking and wonder if someone else could really take a crack at a good UI for this. Instead of me who I am too in the weeds.
College in general is pretty worthless in the long run. I'm 41 years old and I only speak of my college "experience" fondly. I don't speak to anyone about their college classes or what not.
I, actually, care more about what I did around college, which was make fun events and organize stuff. I ended up doing a few crazy things that I look back on and deem them to be my "internship" in entertainment or working in film. I created a late night comedy show. My friends were the head writer and the host. I just put it all together.
I also created a 24 hour short film competition. Did it 3 years in a row. Which not only was a great thing to do once but I had the grit to continue to do it and grow it year to year.
BUT>>>
Right out of college I ended up literally using my degree to get a job. I interviewed for a job in video on cruise ships, got turned down but got a job in theatre automatically because I had a degree in theatre. Done and dusted. Ended up working there 5 years, earning my way into video, then IT. Started coding and ultimately now two decades later, I'm putting it all together... coding on youtube in videos. crazy right?
Make a list of the 100 companies you want to work in. Then do nothing but search for people to talk to at those companies. Find them, talk to them. Listen to them. Ask them to tell you their story of how they got to work there. Do nothing but talk about those companies to every friend, family member, relative, anyone who will listen. ex-lovers. Reach out to anyone and everyone who might know someone there at any single one of those companies. Go to their meetups. Go to their open houses. Go to any events they hold. Any events they sponsor, talk at. Do nothing but focus on those companies and the people who work there. Create something. Make something that could work really well in those companies.
If you're a designer, redesign all 100 company landing pages.
If you're a product manager, interview users and create a new product that those companies should make.
If you're in sales, become an affiliate and start selling what they sell.
If you're a developer, find a bug and tell them how to fix it.
If you're a writer, find spelling mistakes and tell them about it.
When I was in a new city, and wanted a very specific job... which I didn't have at the time, I went online and found the people who had been doing that job. I reached out to any of them, asked them if I could buy them a coffee and they tell me how they got the job they are doing now. That's it. I asked a bunch of people. They were happy to meet me. I asked them their favorite local coffee shop and I went to it. Because I was new to the city, it was a great way to force myself to get out and discover neighborhoods. I also got to meet amazing people who really did give me the greatest advice ever. One of them gave me advice that actually got me promoted in the next job I got. One of them gave me totally unobvious advice that ended up becoming a side career for many years.
BTW , I don't give this advice nonchalantly. Just recently I started a new business myself in my local city after being remote for many years. I reached out to friends who owned local businesses and I met them for coffee.
So this same thing I did in 2013, also worked in 2025. And if I have a new business idea or something in 5 years, I'll do it again.
There are a couple of things to do:
1. Listen.
It's not a job interview. You're not there to pitch yourself. Listen. Actively listen. Ask questions. "why did you do that?" "how did that work out?"
2. Always follow up.
Every single person I met with, I very quickly in the next day emailed them or messaged them. I thanked them very personally. not just "thanks for meeting". I recollected some piece of advice, or story point. I also had the chance to ask if there was anyone they could think of that I should talk to. Here, not everyone did this. If it's a stranger, they might not be ready to recommend you, or recommend you talk to someone. But if something came up naturally in the conversation. then by all means ask "oh you mentioned this person did something interesting, can you introduce me to hear their story?"
I've used a Google Sheet exactly like this. Highlighted weekends and laid out with all days of the year. Export as PDF can fit on a single sheet of paper. But I also print it out on a huge paper and hang it up for my family. [https://bettersheets.co/bigyear]
Wife and I started a 3d printing business. We just started a couple of months ago and have put our items in a few retail stores. Our goal is not to do this super fast but more like supplemental income. Also its fun to print stuff for ourselves. I already designed a finger mini golf game and may start to build my own board games out of 3d printed parts.
So I want to build up 3d modeling skills.
I am not surprised but its much much slower to get a physical product business going than just writing some code and launching.
This sounds very cool! Can you share a link to your company website, or are you only selling on eBay or Etsy? I think 3D printed stuff can make great creative gifts.
Each progress hasn't been a full on "career change" but rather, a sort of side project I was interested in took over my entire world.
Doing theatre, I'd work with video guys. While in Video department, I did graphics to turn to Digital Content. While doing digital content, I automated a lot. learned to code Excel VBA, while trying to survive in a PA job, I automated Google Sheets While doing google sheets in a company, I side gigged doing online growth. While doing online growth, I learned to code. I coded my own site, I did more and more google sheets and created Better Sheets 5 years ago.
Now I play board games because I want to get off screen with friends/family. I am considering creating a physical gaming center/board game cafe. which might be a new career that I didn't go to school for and didn't have to even think about transitioning. If some side project becomes a full time work... great!
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