I Left a Career in Tech Marketing to Become an EMT at 61 — Here’s How

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Stephen Condon, a 62-year-old former tech marketing professional and current EMT based in California. It’s been edited for length and clarity.

I’ve been a full-time emergency medical technician for six months and plan to continue working in emergency medicine until I fully retire in about four years. But before I started as an EMT, I was in marketing for about 40 years.

I made over $200,000 at different points throughout my career, so it was very difficult to walk away from that, but I’d been thinking about pivoting for years — I needed something different.

I could retire, but that didn’t feel satisfying. After I left my last marketing job, I looked for job vacancies in various fields. I had one criterion that helped me find my low-risk career pivot: I had to get out in the community and do something that was personally rewarding.

The marketing jobs I had paid very well, but I wasn’t satisfied anymore

I had career objectives and always wanted to be a vice president of marketing at a public company. By the time I was in my 40s, I’d done that twice, and I really didn’t have a plan after that.

At one point in my marketing career, I switched from consumer to business-to-business and tech marketing, and it was a steep learning curve that I never really got 100% comfortable with.

I also had a lot of short-term jobs over the past 15 years or so, many were remote, and I felt isolated working from home all the time.

Becoming an EMT felt like a low-risk career pivot

I didn’t want to invest in a master’s degree or another bachelor’s degree. It was really a process of elimination that got me to emergency medical service.

Plus, I determined that doing the course would teach me valuable life skills even if I didn’t decide to go into EMS. It’s also a career I can do after I turn 65, and it’s something that isn’t going to be replaced by AI.

It felt like a low-risk option. I had 10 weeks of school and then had to study for a national exam. That was something I could accommodate and look forward to.

I was taking classes every afternoon with a bunch of 20-year-olds, and I was the old guy in the group, but I enjoyed it and don’t think I missed a class. It isn’t a white-collar path, and it’s pretty impressive to see the caliber of these young people. They really care about helping people and go above and beyond to make the experience for patients as comfortable and pleasant as possible, even though we’re getting paid $18.25 an hour.

My class had a group chat to discuss what kinds of EMT roles we wanted. I knew I wanted to work on an ambulance, so I applied for open roles at ambulance companies. I interviewed for one position that I didn’t get, and almost a week or two later, I interviewed for another position that I was offered. It didn’t feel that hard to get the job.

My health is much better now, and the job is never boring

One of the things that I love about being an EMT is that I work four nights a week and don’t get home until 9 or 10 p.m., which has definitely helped my health because I used to drink on weeknights often, and now I usually go home and go straight to bed.

I love to swim, and now I swim in the ocean and in the pool a couple of times a week. I also do a 22-minute workout every morning before work. And lifting a 200-pound, 300-pound gurney onto the back of the ambulances, maybe six times a day, really helps build muscle.

We usually do about four calls in an eight-hour shift. There are some very challenging calls. On transports from one facility to another, you’d love to just sit there and chat with the patient and ask about their life, but if it’s a short window call and something goes wrong, you have to attend to the emergency, get a new set of vitals, and make sure the hospital is ready for the patient’s arrival — all in under 10 minutes. That’s one of the most challenging parts of the job.

It’s always different, so it’s never boring. I’ve had two-hour drives on the job that seem like 20 minutes because we just chat the whole time, and it’s a 62-year-old with a 20-year-old. I also love being in the emergency rooms at hospitals; I find that environment really exciting.

We have plenty of savings, but I want to provide benefits so my wife can retire

My wife’s job covers our benefits and more of our daily expenses now. But she will probably retire in a year, and then I want to have a job that can provide good benefits. I don’t want to spend money out of our retirement savings on benefits.

I’m looking at being an emergency department technician, which would involve transporting patients within the hospital, and assisting the doctors and nurses in the department however they need, or an EMT safety officer at a retirement community, which could include responding to medical emergencies and providing first aid on the grounds. The advantage of being an emergency department technician is working for a big hospital system, which offers great benefits. Retirement communities aren’t bad either in terms of benefits, so that’s why they’re the two primary options.

I could look at working at somewhere like LEGOLAND or SeaWorld in San Diego as an EMT, which would be a lot of fun — and really popular when grandkids arrive.

Don’t be afraid to take that opportunity to pivot

If you’re not enjoying your current job and haven’t been for a while, you’re not going to be successful. Find out what makes you happy, and don’t be scared to take a shot at it. If it doesn’t work out or if it’s not right for you, you’ll have the opportunity to pivot again — and at least you’ve learned something.

I languished in my marketing career because I no longer had an objective. One of my favorite sayings is, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”

If you keep changing jobs in the same field and are not feeling rewarded or happy, that just leads to a downward spiral. At some point, you have to jump off and try something different. I’m very fortunate to be in a position to make this change.

Do you have a career change story to share? Contact this reporter, Agnes Applegate, at aapplegate@businessinsider.com.