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Did you know that I taught myself data analytics and broke into it in just 6 months, and the entire time I was working full time? Well- kind of- I was finishing graduate school so I was doing full time internships. I was in the field, in brand new settings as an occupational therapist, for three months at a time. So, it was work. Hard work. But, I was paying to do it- not getting paid! That is why I decided to go the cheap/free route to get into data analytics.
Yes, finding balance was hard. I was running a Tik Tok and LinkedIn page on top of learning+ job searching + working. I tried to go to the gym a few times per week, but by the time I got into job searching (which was way more stressful than the fun of learning analytics), I was too burned out and switched over to daily mental health walks.
I was lucky enough that I had no other commitments. I have no kids, no pets. I live with my boyfriend, and he was paying 100% of the rent until I get a job (already agreed upon when I knew I would have to quit my jobs which I worked while in school, in order to go out on the internships). He also cooked many meals for me, and cleaned the apartment more than I did. Without all of that, none of this would have been possible.
I found that while I was still in the learning phase, finding balance was not too bad. I could learn at my own pace, and carve out time to go to the gym to get a movement break when my brain became too saturated.
When I started job searching though... woof. It became much harder. Job searching was soul sucking. I felt like if I wasn't ALWAYS on, I would miss out on opportunities. Since I was working full time, I would have to schedule all of my interviews for right after I got out of work. That was so mentally draining that it would often kill the rest of my evening.
Here are the little things I would do to try and maintain my mental health while in the midst of all of this:
Go for walks
Cook yummy food
Call friends
Sing / dance when nobody was around
Plan (loosely) what I would do when all of my hard work paid off
Listen to audiobooks while driving
Practice deep breathing
Go camping
Go to the gym
Take breaks from job searching to work on data projects I enjoyed
Eventually, it paid off. When I finished my internships in early July, I took two weeks of vacation. At the end of the second week, I accepted a job offer. The following Monday, I started work!
I made sure while I was on vacation to take a real, good, break. Even if I hadn't gotten a job at the end it, I would have needed to be well rested to come back to job searching and think about if my current strategy was working for me.
I am so glad I worked as hard as I did. It was honestly 6 straight months of grinding. I took one vacation in April, but besides that, it was hard work all of the way through. Now, I am working at a job I love. I am making more than I originally even had thought would be the high end of my salary range. I work from home, and this week I will be taking my first trip (to Ashville to visit a friend) while continuing to work remotely. Freedom and flexibility was a huge motivation of mine to switch paths, so it is very rewarding to be putting it into action so soon.
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