CAREER
MOVE ON &MOVE UP story and photo by Jessica Curbelo
The possibilities keep you up at night. Questions pile up, each
in the industry they’re in now. It’s hard to realize that you could do
clamoring for attention: Are you happy with your job? Is this what
what they did.
you’re meant to be doing? What if you tried something new? You can absolutely, 100% and without a doubt, change your career Would you be able to make the change? Would it set you back? Would
— if you want to.
money be tight? Would you be happy?
Should you take the leap and change your job? Making a career change may feel daunting and lonely, but there are
Celebrity stories may feel too out of reach, so let’s bring it a little closer to home with Irving Publications. The local magazine company based in Alachua County just celebrated its 10th anniversary and has enjoyed success with its two titles: Giggle Magazine and Wellness 360. But can you guess what the company’s co-founder and sales director, Shane Irving, was doing 10 years ago? Hint: It wasn’t magazines.
more people on the same ride than you might think. A 2016 LinkedIn study estimated that people who graduated between 2006 and 2010
If you guessed running McAlister’s Deli restaurants, then that is one
averaged about three jobs in the first five years post-graduation.
lucky guess.
Various articles on the subject suggest the average person will have up to seven career changes in their lifetime. While the data
Irving started off as an assistant manager at the Archer Road
isn’t always detailed and there is a major difference between simply
location back in 1999. By the time he launched Irving Publications
changing jobs within an industry and jumping into an entirely new
in 2008 with his wife, Nicole Irving, he was in charge of seven stores
industry, the overabundance of articles, self-help books and studies
spanning from the Alabama-Florida border down to Tampa. Irving
show it’s not an uncommon practice.
continued working both jobs for about five years before finally leaving McAlister’s Deli to focus on the magazines.
In fact, there are plenty of well-known celebrities who have made a career change or two in their lifetime. Let’s not forget Arnold Scharwzenegger took a break from acting to pursue political office.
“It’s night and day,” Irving said. “They’re two totally different jobs. One of the biggest things that made me go in one direction versus
Who could’ve predicted the Hollywood star would set his sights on
the other is ownership. If I was given the opportunity to own the
becoming the governor of California? Jessica Alba, Harrison Ford,
restaurants, I probably would still be at the restaurant, but that
Martha Stewart, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Oprah Winfrey are
opportunity wasn’t there for me, so I wanted something of our own,
only among a few more names people may recognize. It’s easy to
something that we could build and potentially leave to our kids or
forget that all of these people started somewhere else before working
retire from. I’m an entrepreneur at heart.”
orange&blue magazine
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