Career Changers and Decision Making

[DPTWannabe]

So here I am and this is my first post!. I am very happy to have found the SDN! I am a middle aged guy who has been very financially sucessful as a CPA/CFO type for a number of years. I have had a few good years of real job satisfaction and I've also had quite a few years of stress and unhappiness. What I do know is I have been burnt out on accounting and finance for some time and now I find myself laid off as well. I am ready for the re-invention! After spending much time contemplating this I have zeroed in on the Physical Therapy profession. I have given months of thought and research into other options but I just keep coming back to the PT field. I am thinking hard now about making the plunge in the next year or so and proceeding with preparing myself for a DPT program. I have a masters degree in accounting so I would have to start with the undergrad pre-req's and then go from there. So I'm wondering who out there has had a similiar experience with making such a radical change in careers and what was your tipping point for making that decision?! Any advice? I am 48 years old with a working wife and a daughter in her third year of college. This is a big decision for me and at my age I'm about out of do-overs!

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[ChairmanMao]

So here I am and this is my first post!. I am very happy to have found the SDN! I am a middle aged guy who has been very financially sucessful as a CPA/CFO type for a number of years. I have had a few good years of real job satisfaction and I've also had quite a few years of stress and unhappiness. What I do know is I have been burnt out on accounting and finance for some time and now I find myself laid off as well. I am ready for the re-invention! After spending much time contemplating this I have zeroed in on the Physical Therapy profession. I have given months of thought and research into other options but I just keep coming back to the PT field. I am thinking hard now about making the plunge in the next year or so and proceeding with preparing myself for a DPT program. I have a masters degree in accounting so I would have to start with the undergrad pre-req's and then go from there. So I'm wondering who out there has had a similiar experience with making such a radical change in careers and what was your tipping point for making that decision?! Any advice? I am 48 years old with a working wife and a daughter in her third year of college. This is a big decision for me and at my age I'm about out of do-overs!

I think your question can be better addressed by going down to the Physical Therapy forum lower down on the main SDN page or by going to the PT forum: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=210

The non-trad premedical board that you posted on is mostly reserved for non-traditional students (people in their late 20s, 30s, and 40s) who are applying to medical school. I can't give you any advice about doing physical therapy because I'm not going that route, but I would recommend that you have a very supportive wife with a secure job before undertaking it. It can get expensive very fast and all those classes are going to cost a lot of money.

 

[DPTWannabe]

ChairmanMao - Thx for pointing me over to the PT forum. I just saw this non-trad thread and thought there might be some older career changing types like me that could offer words of wisdom. I saw the thread where everyone was listing their age and was quite impressed by the number of 40+ and even a few 50 year olds heading into med school. Now that takes guts and determination and quite frankly inspires me! The DPT program doesn't seem nearly as daunting when compared to Med school.