Radio Announcer Switches Tracks, Turns to Nursing

It took a visit from a more experienced radio announcer hunting for work for me to realize I needed a career change. Once, while I was working as on-air talent for Shadow Traffic in New York, a man I used to listen to on the radio as a child showed up looking for on-air freelance work

How could this be? I was far less experienced in radio and here was a NYC radio veteran looking for a job.

I realized the last thing I wanted was to be a middle-aged women knocking on doors for work regardless of my experience. So I promised myself I'd begin a second career before 40.

But the bad economy in 2008 and a restructuring company beat me to it.

I anchored news, traffic and weather reports for several stations in New York and New Jersey with Shadow Traffic NYC, a subsidiary of Westwood One. I had worked there for nearly 11 years. But on Sept. 12, 2008, I and several of my co-workers were laid off and our jobs eliminated as part of a company restructuring plan. Instead of anchoring the news and traffic that afternoon like I had done for more than a decade, I was sent home crying with box of my belongings.

I loved radio, having spent more than 13 years working in the field. But it's a very unstable career. The timing of the layoffs could not have been more perfect. I had already begun looking at nursing programs around New Jersey two months prior to the pink slip. I was 37 and jobless. I realized when I got home that day and saw the school brochures and my college transcript on the kitchen table that it was time to move on from radio.

I chose nursing for my second career, but the decision was not simple. I considered teaching and even detective work before I looking into health care. But nursing seemed to be the most stable choice. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the nursing field will grow 22 percent between 2008 and 2018. In addition to job stability, nursing gave me the chance to study more sciences, which I enjoyed as a hobby but never in my professional life.

I only regret not making the transition sooner. Starting a second life isn't easy. I still needed to take science classes before I could even apply to nursing school. I spent 2009 taking prerequisite classes and didn't officially starting nursing school at the Essex County College's RN program until this spring.

I love nursing school so far. But it's not easy being a student again. No one cares I was once a traffic reporter on a NYC radio station. And I had to get used to living on a tight budget while I'm a full-time student and not working a full-time job. But having the opportunity to learn a career that can change the lives of so many people is alone is worth my short-term fears and struggles.