Mid-career
workers craft new, hands-on occupations
Some white-collar workers follow their hearts by shifting jobs at midlife
to experience the joy of pursuing a craft
By Joan
Axelrod-Contrada, Globe Correspondent, 2/22/04
Trial lawyer Dennis
McCarten started fiddling around with making violins and then got hooked.
In September, he left a
successful law practice in Providence to study violin making at Boston's
North Bennet Street School. McCarten said he didn't want to end up like
his father, a statistician, who found his work unfulfilling.
''I didn't want to grow
old with regrets,'' said McCarten, 54, of Cumberland, R.I. ''I grew up
with a sad dad. His work didn't scratch his itch at all. His only creative
outlet was the woodworking he did down in the basement.''
McCarten is one of many
middle-aged white-collar workers who have jumped off the career ladder to
pursue the satisfaction of working with their hands. In a world where
fewer jobs have a finished product a worker can point to at the end of the
day, hands-on occupations offer the opportunity to create something
tangible. And a piece of wood or a mound of dough can also be more
malleable than, say, people or budgets.
If it seems that employee
dissatisfaction with corporate America has grown, research confirms it. A
study by The Conference Board, a New York-based research firm, found that
employee satisfaction dropped from 59 percent in 1995 to 49 percent in
2003, with levels of dissatisfaction particularly high among employees
between the ages of 35 and 54.
''A lot of the people that
I work with are at a point in their life where the idea of doing something
meaningful and purposeful has become very important to them,'' said Jason
Smith, founder of Your Soul's Work, a career-counseling firm in Boston.
Working at a craft can
also seem like a welcome alternative to working in the corporate sector
for those caught in the undertow of an uncertain economy. Administrators
at the North Bennet Street School say interest in their crafts programs
has increased in response to the recent economic downturn. Applications to
the school's carpentry program rose 60 percent last year, according to
admissions director Bob Delaney.
People who switch from
traditional white-collar careers often speak about how working with their
hands brings them into a different state of mind.
''It's what people
describe as a Zen experience,'' said McCarten. ''I'm totally absorbed by
the thing in front of me.''
Like any group of
occupations, though, hands-on jobs are no panacea. The work can be
physically demanding and the financial rewards modest. Some who yearn to
work with their hands try to make the switch too quickly. A successful
transition takes time, careful planning, and the willingness of a spouse
to assume a greater financial role, say specialists.
''What people do is get so
frustrated in the corporate world they want to swing the pendulum to the
other side,'' said Amy Mazur, a career counselor for the Jewish Vocational
Service of Newton.
Henry Bryson, 50, of
Franklin knows from experience. Over the course of his career at Polaroid,
he moved up the management ranks from process engineer to white-collar
operations manager. Each promotion took him farther from the shop floor
where he thrived. Finally, after leaving Polaroid for a new management
position at a firm that laid him off in 2001, he tried to get back into
the hands-on work he did at the beginning of his career. But no one was
hiring. So Bryson got the book ''Cool Careers for Dummies'' and started
looking for new possibilities.
''I made a list of about
40 alternative careers, which I then narrowed down to 10 and then to
four,'' said Bryson. ''Some of the others were just as interesting, but
they weren't as practical.''
He settled on locksmithing
because of the accessibility of the North Bennet program. To make ends
meet, the divorced father of two sold his house and moved into a condo. He
also got a $3,000 grant from the state for retraining. He is currently
combining his studies with a modest-paying apprenticeship. He hopes to
parlay his training into a financially secure career.
Other midlife career
changers are able to switch without enrolling in formal programs. Deni
Ross, for example, worked for 13 years as a teacher before deciding it was
time for a change. Her volunteer work in gardening with the Boston Harbor
Islands led to a part-time job in horticulture, but she needed something
else to make ends meet. She decided to try baking.
''I was walking home one
day and thought that baking bread would be a nice way to spend the
winter,'' said Ross, 44, who lives in the North End. ''I took out the
Yellow Pages and called about 20 places. One day I got lucky.''
She found a restaurant
willing to train her. But the new job paid considerably less than her
previous ones, and she needed to pay for her own health insurance.
''It was scary,'' she
acknowledged. ''But I'm doing something I'm passionate about. I feel like
I'm making a difference when someone tries one of my cookies or scones.''
Changing to hands-on work
can involve not only a dramatic reduction in pay but also a change in
identity. Jill Montgomery, 57, of Northampton, grew up in a lower-middle
class Jewish family that valued education and achievement. She got her
doctorate in clinical psychology, then became a psychoanalyst.
''My mother would
introduce me as, 'This is my daughter, Dr. Montgomery,' '' she said.
''That's who I was supposed to be.''
But shortly after
co-editing a book on masochism, Montgomery realized that she, too, was
suffering. She needed to do something more joyful. Montgomery closed her
practice and started baking wedding cakes. Her husband, a writer and
educational consultant, stepped up his consulting work to make ends meet.
He thrived in his new role, but Montgomery found baking too physically
demanding and messy. She started working with a master knitter and
teaching knitting, a craft she had learned as a child from her
grandmother.
''It's so nice to not have
to be this professional,'' said Montgomery. ''I didn't have to be so stuck
up, so full of myself, so identified with my work. It's more real. It's
not such a phony mask.''
The store, Webs: America's
Yarn Store, in Northampton, created a new position for Montgomery as its
knitwear designer.
''It like having my own
playhouse,'' she said.
For her, the joy that
comes from teaching knitting and designing knitwear has been worth the
financial sacrifice. She's quick to point out, however, that she and her
husband have always lived modestly.
McCarten also traces his
interest in hands-on work to childhood. He grew up helping his father in
his woodshop. In midlife, McCarten became interested in Irish fiddle
music. He started taking violin lessons and took a violin apart to see how
it was made. He was fascinated by the construction of violins, but his
work as a lawyer left little time to pursue this interest.
Last year, McCarten was
accepted at the three-year violin-making program at the North Bennet. His
wife, a legal editor for LexisNexis, supported his decision to quit his
job and go.
''She's a dreamer, too,''
he said.
McCarten noted that he is
still getting income from his law partnership.
''It gives me a bit of a
cushion the average Joe might not have,'' he said.
Although McCarten thought
that he'd do something connected to law in the summers, he's changed his
mind. ''I realize just how stressful it was,'' he said. ''People tell me I
look younger now.''
His father had hoped to
pursue his hobbies of woodworking and oil painting in retirement. But,
soon after retiring, he was in a car accident and died. McCarten is now
living out his father's dreams.
''I
think my dad would be happy for me,'' he said.
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