THE PROBLEM

"I'm well qualified but I'm in the wrong job"

Anna, 32, earned an engineering degree at university and has spent ten years in an industry she says she loathes. "At school I excelled at science. I knew it was a field crying out for women, so that's the path I followed," she says. "But since my early 20s, all I've really wanted to do is start my own wedding planning business. But how can I do that now? I'd be giving up a salary of £40k when my partner and I want to start a family. The risks are huge, but I feel miserable in my job. Now I wish I'd had the guts to go it alone when I was younger, before I had financial commitments.

THE SOLUTION
"This is a much smaller problem than it seems," says Pamela Kingsland, an occupational psychologist at Career Analysts. "Anna should realise she's incredibly lucky because she actually knows what she wants to do. I deal with people who are desperately unhappy with their careers but don't have any idea of what they'd prefer to be doing. "Passion is the most important factor when changing careers. Anna needs to use weekends and evenings to build up clients and get commissions for small parties or weddings. If it develops, she'll start to see money coming in, her reputation will develop and she'll be able to make the transition more easily.

"It'll be hard work, but if she really wants to have her own business, she'll put the hours in to make the transition. If that means putting family plans on the back burner, she may decide it's a small sacrifice to make. Anna's still young and has plenty of time to achieve all the things she wants in life. There are always ways to retrain or transfer careers without losing out financially."