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Career prospects suffer after bouts of mental illness, research shows

Apr 12, 2023
For younger workers, an episode of depression is linked to 24% lower earnings more than a decade later.
More companies are taking mental health seriously, and not just because it's the right thing to do. "There is always a business part of it, for attraction, retention, absenteeism, presenteeism," said Tina Thornton of Nationwide Insurance.
Nenad Cavoski/Getty Images

When you find your calling late in life, retirement can wait

Oct 11, 2022
Susan Labarthe didn't start medical school until her 50s. Her 80th is around the corner, but she's not done practicing medicine yet.
Philippe Huguen/AFP/GettyImages

This Arizona esthetician is glad she joined the "great resignation"

Sep 7, 2022
We check in with Shauna Kruse, who moved her family across country and went back to school to become an esthetician.
“It just seemed very natural, actually, to go into something where I was, you know, literally face to face with helping people feel their very best,” says Shauna Kruse, who went back to school to become an esthetician.
Getty Images

They changed careers during the pandemic. Here's what they learned.

Jun 21, 2022
Even when you're passionate about work, making it your whole identity can be toxic, experts say.
The pandemic forced millions to reevaluate what they wanted out of life — and out of a career.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

After a career pivot, one woman is balancing teaching, law school and motherhood

Jun 15, 2022
Catherine Fink of Colorado said this was the year she felt "most frazzled, just in terms of having to be basically at three full-time jobs."
Fink just completed her 18th year of teaching, and this year she also took law school courses.
Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

Glass art called to him, so he left Home Depot to make marbles

May 16, 2022
Hunter Read traded in his day job for long hours and the physically demanding task of crafting artsy marbles. And he loves it.
“You couldn’t stop me from doing this if you tried,“ Hunter Read says of making his faceted glass marbles.
Marielle Segarra/Marketplace

Some are leaving white collar fields to work with their hands

Mar 22, 2022
With demand high in sectors like construction, some people are using the "Great Resignation" to go in a new direction.
Danielle Chagnon fits a piece of molding beneath a window sill during class at the North Bennet Street School in Boston's North End. Chagnon wants to make a career change from being a math teacher to a contractor.
Jesse Costa/WBUR

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The Great Resignation is leading workers down new career paths

Oct 20, 2021
A record number of workers are quitting their jobs, and some are changing direction to explore new careers.
Dave Harris lost his job as a car mechanic early in the pandemic, then became an insurance adjuster for better pay.
Courtesy Dave Harris

Leaving the lab to hunt mosquitoes in the swamp

Sep 7, 2021
Mel Glenn, based in the Denver metro area, on why she decided to leave her lab job to become a seasonal mosquito control technician.
"I'm basically a mosquito hunter," said Mel Glenn, pictured here in a mosquito control position she previously held.
Courtesy of Mel Glenn

How a choir teacher found new purpose during the pandemic

Aug 30, 2021
Jordan Leckband, the general music teacher at Windsor Elementary School in Des Moines, Iowa, figured out a new direction for his career.
About 20% of workers switched jobs during the pandemic, and 26% plan to look for a new job when the threat of the pandemic decreases, according to Prudential Financial’s Pulse of the American Worker Survey.
Photo by Graeme Robertson/Getty Images