So I think I need to look into a career change.

I'm pretty good at running homeless shelters. I've written policy, designed emergency shelters from the ground up, led large staff. I was pretty good.

But then I burned out hard. So I ended up quitting in a way that didn't leave such great impressions among the muckymucks. Still had tons of solid experience, but not the connections I'd need to just start managing a whole shelter again. So when I came back to work, it was on the ground level.

I was always pretty good at maintaining a safe shelter space and deescalating conflicts. It's how I built my career. But shelter work has changed a lot locally in the last few years. You aren't shelter staff anymore, tasked with keeping the milieu safe and secure and running smoothly, dealing with conflicts or emergencies when they happen. You're case managers. You have a case load that you need to meet with regularly to work on their individualized goals. It's very personal, with lots of mandatory meetings and goal setting and figuring out how to inspire these people into taking action on their goals.

I am a dogshit case manager. I struggle with one-on-one meetings.

It's the autism, I think. My skills are very good for administration, but I don't read emotions good and constantly fumble my words and I'm sure some of my clients think I'm stupid. And being told "this is your client, their problems are now your problems" is a lot harder than the team-based approach I'm used to. Some of my clients very obviously don't like me, and I can't tell if it's because they're just grumpy or if I've done something wrong or if it's just cause I'm trans.

I've considered looking for more admin-based jobs at other nonprofits, but I'm also not great at looking professional. Cool thing about shelter work - you can come to work in jeans and a boymoder hoodie and still be considered a credible professional. Fancy clothes are for when the governor visits. Having to regularly dress up for work would be an adjustment.

I've also thought about trying something completely different and maybe less people-focused. I've been getting into CAD a lot recently and like to build things - maybe I could learn how to do steel fabrication or something? I don't even know where I'd begin with that - what jobs exist or what education I need. I can turn technical drawings into 3d models, but I'm sure they want a lot more than that. I'm just a hobbyist, maybe I make a website as a portfolio with my more presentable projects or something?

All this rambling to say, does anyone have experience completely changing careers? What did you do and how did you do it? Am I trapped in a cycle of having a mental health crisis every couple years cause I see too many overdoses and shit?