'Crisis' leads to building a new dream

Each month "Transitions" profiles an individual who has made significant changes in his or her work life and highlights the techniques used to make the changes.

Heather Edison

Born: Boston
Raised: Braintree
Age: 32
Education: Boston University, B.S., Broadcasting & Film, 1996; Emerson College, Graduate Certificate in Public Relations, 1998; Tufts University, M.S., Occupational Therapy, 2006
Was: Account Coordinator, Rogers & Cowan, Los Angeles
Is: Occupational Therapist, Progressus Therapy

From the time she was very young, Heather Edison was enamored of the movie business.

At the age of 3 or 4, family members tell her, she would wear sunglasses and introduce herself as "Heather of Hollywood," Edison recalled with a laugh.

She remembers constantly poring over movie magazines and "always having an interest in the entertainment business, in film." As Edison grew, the passion persisted. When it came time for college, after a brief detour into the "safer career path" of business school, she entered the film and broadcasting program at Boston University.

While a student she landed an internship in a local video production company, which she eventually parlayed into a part-time job, then into a full-time position after graduation.

After a disastrous month in New York City - "I hated it!" - Edison moved back to Boston and soon began talking with a friend about moving to Los Angeles. "We said 'Let's give it a shot, try it out for at least three months.' "

Edison and her friend sublet a studio apartment "in a very bad section of Hollywood." But the sublettor's connections got Edison a job within a few weeks of her arrival as a legal assistant at Robert Redford's production company. Then she took a job in Nick Nolte's production company. After two years there she moved on to a position as account coordinator at Rogers & Cowan, the agency that handled Nolte's public relations.

By all accounts, Edison was living her Hollywood dream. But just a few months into the Rogers & Cowan job, she knew something was wrong.

"I was in crisis," Edison recalled. For years she had found people in the entertainment industry difficult to work with, witnessing repeated workplace indignities, and unprofessional behavior. "Do I want to do this for the rest of my life?" Edison recalled thinking. "Ten years from now when I'm looking back, it will have no meaning, no value."

Letting go of a lifelong dream proved hard for Edison. "I had no idea what to do," she recalled, and started for the first time to think seriously about changing careers.

"I was drawn to the healthcare field but hated the sight of blood," Edison said.

Then, another childhood experience that had left a deep impression on Edison came to the fore. At age 18, in high school, Edison had had a bad fall, causing a serious injury that sent her to a rehabilitation hospital. "I was treated by occupational therapists," she recalled, "and I always held that in the back of my mind."

Edison's mother, a nurse, encouraged her to explore the field. She determined occupational therapy had "a comfortable salary range," and she also realized the field would afford her flexible hours and part-time work if she wanted, so she would "not be a slave to a job."

She kept her day job in entertainment and enrolled in prerequisite courses at Santa Monica Community College in anatomy, physiology, and child psychology. She loved the material and stuck with it.

Over two years she took six courses, then applied to master's degree programs in occupational therapy. When she got into Tufts University and decided to move back East, her Los Angeles friends were in shock. "What are you, crazy?!" Edison recalled them saying.

After sticking it out for 3 1/2 years at Rogers & Cowan, she finally moved back to Boston and started the master's program in the fall of 2004. She graduated in May, 2006 and by July was board certified. A month later she landed a job.

Her clinical internships during the program had confirmed Edison's interest in working with children, so she signed on with Progressus Therapy, which places therapists in school settings.

Now starting her second full year at Boston Renaissance Charter Public School, Edison works with learning disabled students in grades K-6 on handwriting and other fine and gross motor skills.

"It's all based on play," said Edison. "We do fun activities, such as obstacle courses, and playing on the swings." Edison, who works on a team with other workers such as speech therapists, said she "loves working with kids" and that her work is "now a lot more rewarding."

"I see tangible signs of progress, and get very attached to the kids," Edison said. She quotes one of her students, who recently told her "Miss Heather, you make me proud of myself!"

It's a marked contrast from her previous work, which Edison is still glad she did. "It prepared me to deal with any kind of difficult person," she said. "I had to learn so much patience."

Edison said her mother's support "was and still is critical." She said she's fortunate to be able to live in her mother's home while she pays off her student loans and saves for her own home.

Money also played into Edison's decision to change careers. "I was tired of working for such little money. I wanted to find something I could live on." In her previous position Edison made approximately $28,000 a year. Now she is earning nearly double that.

Though embarked on a new and more fulfilling life back east, Edison has not completely let go of her Hollywood dream. "I still live vicariously through my friends in LA," she says. "I have no regrets, but it was hard to leave them behind."

If you have a career transition story you would be willing to share, send e-mail to transitions@bostonworks.com. Please include your name, phone number, and a brief description of your career change.