Switching careers is easy with our guide to mid-life
success. With these steps you
can find the best way to a new career in no time.
Success is defined by many people in many ways, but one of the main components people
look to as a measure is a
successful career. Oftentimes, if you have a long, stable job with a track record of
growth and potential to
look ahead to, someone will describe you as successful.
Tack on a hefty pay check every other week, and by many people’s standards, you’ve
“made it.”
It’s ideas like this that make choosing a new career path later on in life feel
terrifying. However, if you are
wondering how to change careers, it’s more common than you might think.
In fact, while there are no hard and fast statistics how to change careers (it’s
difficult to define what
constitutes a career change), the average man has 12.5 jobs over his career(s) and
the average woman has 12.1 in
hers, according to U.S. Labor
Bureau
statistics. Job tenure averages about four years and an
EdX survey found that 29 percent of people had changed careers at least once
since leaving college. Add
the ever-changing job landscape to these statistics and you can be sure that plenty
of workers are wondering how
to change careers for all kinds of reasons.
There are many circumstances that can lead to one switching up their career at a
later point in life, but
regardless, it doesn’t have to be terrifying, and it certainly is not impossible.
Just a few guides on how to
change careers and life lessons can help you find your greatest success in the
latter half of your professional
career.
Switching jobs or
switching careers: Nail down
the difference
While switching out the word job for the word career may seem like innocent use of
synonyms, the truth is these
two words are very different and mean varying things for your ongoing professional
success.
Switching jobs
A job is defined as your occupation, while your career is a broader description of
your profession. For example,
you may be an elementary school teacher – that is your job. However, your profession
is in education.
When you’re wondering how to change careers, it may be for a number of reasons.
Actually, statistics tell us that
people leave their jobs for one or more of these top seven
reasons:
Lack of Opportunity : Workers feel they have learned everything
they can at their job and
there is no room for growth.
Lousy Management : Poor leadership is an easy way to lose great
employees; many people who
feel mistreated, unrecognized, and underappreciated will switch jobs.
Toxic Work Environment : A toxic workplace goes beyond a bad
manager; when the company
culture is generally negative, it can be a nearly impossible place to work.
Career Advancement : Sometimes, no matter how hard you work or
how long you have worked at a
company, there is simply nowhere for you to advance professionally; this often
happens in smaller companies
that have limited leadership roles.
Too Much/Too Little Work : Someone who has become overqualified
for a position can quickly
become bored, while someone who is well-trusted may end up with too many
responsibilities thrown upon them
for no extra compensation.
Finances : As much as you might not want money to play a role in
your dream job
, in the end, it always does; you might need to find a new job only because the
paycheck isn’t supporting
your lifestyle.
Lack of Benefits/Rewards : Many companies will offer incentives
for excellent work along
with various bonuses, holiday compensation, and benefits packages. If your job
isn’t offering you any of
that but still expects top-notch work, you may consider switching jobs.
Image by Helloquence
If one of these reasons is resonating with you, then you may be more in the realm of
switching jobs or working
for another company than changing
careers
. Have you thought long and hard about whether or not you should quit your job
? As with any important decision, be sure to think it over before taking the
plunge.
Let’s look at our teaching example from earlier. You may be an elementary school
teacher who loves your job, but
perhaps the school you work for can’t afford to pay you what you're worth. With your
own family expanding and
the cost of living getting more and more expensive, it may be time to start looking
at other school districts.
In this instance, you would be switching jobs and not switching careers. However, if
you decided that it was time
to move on from teaching into a different profession, then you would be talking
about changing careers.
How to change careers - why?
As we mentioned earlier, it’s common for people to switch careers during their
lifetime. That EdX survey also
found that nearly one-third of respondents had seriously considered changing from
their current career.
But why do these people want to change the field in which they work?
Well, some of the reasons are similar to why individuals want to switch jobs, but
there are a
few novel situations
that reinforce the idea of a career switch rather than a job change.
Money : It seems that money is the root of all of our problems.
Many workers decide to
change careers because they need a higher salary and more benefits than what
they can obtain in their
current profession. Fewer people cashed in early and want to aim at their dream
job instead of the
money-maker.
Stress : Some job roles just become too stressful over time. A
construction worker can only
exert himself physically for so long, just like
a 60-year-old kindergarten teacher may be
unable to keep chasing small children around.
Appreciation : Some professional fields are much more rewarding
than others. Anyone who
feels under-appreciated or unrecognized in their area may feel dissatisfied in
their work and therefore, may
turn to another industry that’s more valued in society.
Flexibility : Flexibility tends to come into play later in life
when families start to grow,
vacations are planned, and life evolves. As a young professional starting out, 9
to 5 jobs with standard
workweeks may be fine and your working life may consume your whole life, but as
life changes, the need for a
work-life balance may become more significant.
Opportunities and Advancement: Many professionals end up
feeling stuck the longer they are
in the workforce. If it seems like your years of experience aren’t translating
into opportunity, you may
feel the need to move on to something bigger and better.
Any of these can be a legitimate reason for wanting to change careers. You may even
feel that more than one
applies to your current situation, making you feel even more like getting out of the
profession you’ve been in
for the last five, 10 or 20-plus years.
Having a midlife crisis is a cliche for a reason. Sometimes, midlife is a time for
reassessing priorities. You
lie in bed at night wondering how to change careers - many of us have been there.
Perhaps, your idea of career
success has changed. You may not be having a career crisis, but are simply bored and
a midlife career change is
one way to spice things up.
Image by Danielle MacInnes
How old is too old for a career change?
Taking the benefits of changing careers into account, and your specific
circumstances, a career change can seem
like a no-brainer, right?
But wait. The age-old question of age has reared its ugly head: Am I too old
to be changing
careers? No. Absolutely, categorically, no. You are not
too old for a career change
because no age is too old.
The idea that your career is on a timer and the moment you hit a certain age
milestone you forgo the opportunity
for changing your mind is silly. It's rooted in the thought that you MUST know what
you want to do with the rest
of your life when you leave school, that if you make the wrong choice in your youth,
it’s tough luck.
This is nonsense. If you want to make a career change, go for it.
The two ages thrown around most often by the “it’s time to stick with the
career you chose, I'm
afraid” brigade are 30 and 40. The thinking goes, that by 30 or 40,
you’ve invested a lot of time
in your current career and leaving means throwing away years of invested energy.
This is a perfect example of the sunk cost fallacy, and it can
be extremely destructive if followed.
Why would you spend even longer in a career you
hate
because you’ve spent a lot of years there already?
It’s crazy. So let’s focus on dispelling a few how to change careers
myths.
Changing careers at 30
66%
of adults in their
30s are interested in changing careers.
Let’s say you’re 30 now and you’ll retire at 65. That’s 35 years in a new career.
More time than you’ve spent on
this planet thus far.
Changing careers now doesn’t make you damaged goods to employers, it actually puts
you at a strong advantage. You
have the perfect combination of experience and youth.
According to NACE’s Job Outlook survey, 91%
of employers prefer
candidates to have work experience. At 30, with one or more jobs
under your belt, you’ve
certainly got that. The same survey also shows that 26% of employers
prefer work experience of any
type and 44% have no preference over how work
experience was gained.
If you want proof that changing careers at 30 is a real possibility, at
30 Jeff
Bezos was in a lucrative career as a computer scientist on Wall
Street. By 31, he’d moved into
e-commerce and launched Amazon. Not such a dumb choice was it?
Sara Blakely spent seven years in her 20s selling office supplies door-to-door before
quitting in 2000 to pursue
a career selling footless pantyhose. Fast-forward to today and her business, Spanx,
generates over $250 million
in annual revenues.
When Terry Crews quit the NFL in 1997 at 29, he was broke and took a job sweeping
floors. Two years later he
landed a job on a syndicated TV show. Three years after that, in 2002, he got his
big break in the movie “Friday
After Next.” Now he’s one of the most recognizable actors in the world. And the face
of the Old Spice ads,
some of the best commercials of all
time!
Changing careers at 40
60% of adults in their 40s are interested in changing careers.
But how possible is it? How much of difference do 10 years make? No difference at
all. Just as many people
wondering how to change careers. If fact, they might be feeling more confident about
it because they have
already done it once or twice before.
One of the biggest perceptions of changing careers at this stage of your life is that
employers will see you as
less productive than younger candidates. This isn’t true!
A study by The
Society for Human Resource Management found no link
between advancing age and
productivity.
Another career change myth is that you’re simply too old to get hired.
First of all, 40 isn’t old. Secondly, there are laws in
place that protect against age
discrimination. An employer has to hire you based on your character, skill set, and
ability to do the job. And
the good thing for you is that, at 40, you have experience in abundance. The
positive points about changing
careers start to stack up.
At the end of the day, employers want good workers with relevant experience. If
that’s you, your 40 years of age
has little bearing on the hiring process. Making a career change is not easy. If
anything making an intentional
career change demonstrates to hiring managers that you are a pro-active
problem-solver and not the kind of
employee just looking for a paycheck.
In a post for Career
Intelligence, job
coach Bettina Seidman of SEIDBET, listed some of the qualities job-seekers over 40
bring to the table:
Workers over 40 are highly educated
They are healthier than ever before
They are committed to doing quality work
They bring patience, expertise, maturity, and stability
They have great experience
They bring good connections to an employer
They are great mentors
Turnover rates are lower among workers over 40
They’re not gaining experience just to move on to another employer
Taking these into account, you’re looking like a damn fine candidate from where we’re
sitting. Time for some more
of that real-world proof:
Vera Wang was a figure skater and journalist before she decided to change paths and
become a bridal wear designer
at aged 40. Today, she is one of the most sought-after designers in the world.
Before becoming a TV host and comedian, Joy Behar worked as a high school English
teacher until the age of 40.
Why did she give up on that career despite having a master’s degree in English
instruction? In her own words, “I
just didn’t want to do it anymore.”
Finally, Harland Sanders was 62 when he franchised Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1952.
Before that he worked as a
lawyer, railroad worker, and gas station operator.
When it comes to work, age ain’t nothing but a number!
3 tips for how to change careers after 30 or 40
1. Perform a self-assessment
The key to finding the right career at this stage is learning about yourself. Take a
notepad and write down your
interests, personality type, ambitions, and work-related values. This will help you
narrow down a list of
occupations that fit with your various traits.
From there, explore each occupation in depth. Look at duties, training, and salary.
Weigh up the pros and cons
and decide whether the career is right for your future.
Better yet, find a local career coach and start dusting off that old
resume.
2. Tailor resume and cover letter
Employers are looking for candidates who can make an instant impact. They’ll judge
whether you’re the person to
do this based on your resume.
Look for parallels between your current experience and the skills required for your
new job and highlight them in
your resume.
For example, if you’re looking to work in business or global development, skills such
as communication,
negotiation and foreign language might be critical to the role. If you’ve spent the
early part of your career in
sales, communication and negotiation are transferable skills you’ll have acquired.
And you can show them off by quantifying them:
Increased company revenues by 44% over a three-year period.
Led sales team to company high sales figures, securing contracts worth over $4
million in four years.
For each previous job, focus on the skills that employers in your new
career want to see.
The same goes for your cover letter. Tailor it to hammer home the skills you’ve
highlighted in your resume. Keep
it concise, focusing on how what you’ve done links to the role and how your skills
make you a good choice.
To help you fine-tune your resume and cover letter, take a look at these posts:
4
tips to improve your work
experience in your resume
How to write a great cover
letter
3. Brush up on your interview skills
It’s probably been a while since your last interview and what worked in an interview
for one industry might not
work in a different industry., Brush up on those phone and face-to-face skills.
Memorize your resume. You’ll be questioned on it and the answers you give need
to match.
Don’t bad mouth your current career. Take the angle that you’ve learned a lot
but are ready for a new
challenge.
Research the company and the job role thoroughly online before the interview.
Make sure you know everything
there is to know.
Plan questions to ask the interviewer in advance.
Maintain eye contact, try not to fidget, and smile (even during a phone
interview!).
Follow up via email after the interview thanking them for the opportunity.
Where to start
One of the best places to start when considering how to change careers is with
yourself. A new career opportunity
isn’t likely to just fall into your lap. Many potential career changers don’t know
what they want to do next –
they just know their working life is unsatisfying.
Start by assessing your own
interests,
followed by your personal skills. Review these lists and brainstorm what career
opportunities they might lead
you to. In your current career as a personal assistant, you probably have high
levels of transferable skills
such as organization, excellent writing skills, and vast amounts of creative
problem-solving abilities.
However, your primary area of interest may be reading novels, watching movies, and
daydreaming your own life
story.
Also consider your career goals. Do you want to make more money? Do something more
rewarding? Are you looking for
your dream job or just one that offers more flexibility? These questions will help
you narrow down a field and
may be useful later on when you start job hunting and then when you nab that job
interview. Take a look at our
favorite
career lessons
from successful founders and see how you can apply those lessons to your own career
goals.
When you pair your interests with these skills, you may find that a career in writing
might be the right choice
for you. See how that works? If you are still struggling to figure it out, consider
consulting a career coach.
In the meantime, read our tips on whether or not you should apply for that job
here
.
Image by Saulo Mohana
Next steps
Once you have a good grasp of who you are, what you like, and some of your wildest
dreams about how to change
careers, you can start to get into some solid research. The internet will be your
best friend during this
process. You can get yourself going by merely searching for jobs.
Start your job search with work that requires your skills. For example, “jobs that
are good for creative
problem-solvers.” You can also search for jobs that are good for your
personality type
. You may also look into the job market. It’s great to want to become a tightrope
walker in mid-career, but what
are the chances you will find a job?
Don’t be afraid to get some additional information. Proper research will do a lot in
the way of finding potential
careers (make a list!), but it’s the people in these roles that will be your best
resources.
Talk to professionals
Once you have made a list of three to five potential career paths for you, think
through friends, family, and
colleagues who may have connections in this industry. Tell them you are considering
a career transition and are
gathering information. Make some calls and see if you can set up an information
interview
or a shadowing. You can even ask for a bit of career advice.
You can try to simply meet up with someone in the industry and pick their brains.
Offer to take them out to
coffee or meet them in their office and have a list of questions prepared for them.
These questions can range
from general information about what they do to the qualifications a company would
require of them.
If you can set up a job shadowing, that might be even better. Contact a family member
or a friend in an industry
that you’re interested in. Ask them if they’d mind if you shadowed them at work for
a day, or even just half of
the day.
Shadowing gives you a first-hand look at what a day in the life of this career looks
like, and it will help you
decide whether it’s something that you’re genuinely interested in or not.
Image by Tim Gouw
Try it
There are a few different ways that you can get your feet in the door a little bit
before diving into
applications head-first with an unrelated and unimpressive resume. A great way that
you can do this is by
volunteering your services, if possible. This also requires little sacrifice except
for time. Quitting your
current job to switch careers if you are unsure about what you really want could
leave you worse off than when
you started.
If you think you may enjoy non-profit work
or community service coordination, try volunteering at your local shelter, soup
kitchen, or after-school
community center. You may find that you love helping the homeless and at-risk
children, or you could decide that
the work isn’t for you. Deciding how to change careers is so much easier when you
have had a trial run.
You can also try freelancing your services if possible. That’s another way to keep
your day job and still be
advancing your career change. If you want to try to give writing a chance, try
contacting some of your favorite
bloggers and asking if you can write a guest post. You may not get paid for your
efforts, but you could have
some work published to add to your portfolio.
And what’s more, if someone likes your work, they’re likely to either reach out to
you for more or recommend you
to another colleague. See what kind of responses you get just by putting yourself
out there – you never know!
And keep your LinkedIn profile up-to-date with your new skills so prospective
contacts and employers know you
are on the move. LinkedIn is full of people wondering how to change careers, so be
sure to look for inspiration.
Education
In some instances, a midlife career change may mean furthering your education. Just
as changing your career can
be scary and intimidating, so can going back to school be a leap for someone later
in life. However, there are
tons of resources available today that make it easier than ever to develop new
skills.
A drastic career change, such as going from being a teacher to being a veterinarian,
is going to require a more
substantial amount of schooling. But other career changes may require a few simple
courses or even the
education
provided by the company to learn new skills.
Expert tip
If you can find a company that’s willing to send you back to school, you’ll
be in good hands.
Start small by taking one short course in the field you are interested in. Your local
community college may offer
courses in journalism, finance, cooking or whatever interests you. Not only can
education be beneficial to your
career, but it can also help solidify whether or not you like the option.
If you truly have decided this is how to change careers, find out what kind of
educational steps you’re going to
have to take. Additionally, see if there are related jobs you can work in while
receiving your education. For
example, you may be able to work in a vet’s office developing animal-handling
know-how while earning your degree
in the profession.
Make connections
At this point in your life, you have probably heard it said that it’s not about what
you do, it’s about who you
know. Lots of people secure new jobs based on their networks. When a friend knows a
friend whose company is
hiring, it’s an opportunity for that friend.
In fact, some experts would estimate that as many as
85% of open job
positions are filled through networking. Luckily, as a person in midlife,
you know plenty of people.
Mine your contacts!
Use professional online sites to make connections with businesses and attend local
networking events. Make
yourself a business card that you can hand out to people when you meet them. Even
running into a local
entrepreneur in your town’s coffee shop can turn into a professional opportunity, so
always be ready to talk to
people and make an impression.
Don’t forget about your social media contacts either. You never know who knows
someone who knows someone.
Best career change jobs
You might think that some jobs are better than others in terms of transitioning into
a new career, but it really
depends on the transferable skills that you can take with you on the way (and how
good you are at them).
For example, organizational skills might not be the top priority for a teacher
(although they are undoubtedly
important), but if a teacher were an organizational wizard, then a move into a
distant career like logistics
might not be so far fetched. Juggling priorities, responding to unexpected
situations and shouldering
considerable responsibilties come with the territory in both cases. You might not
think teaching and logistics
are natural fits, but it is the blend of skills and how proficient you are at them
that makes the difference.
It may also help you make your case if you can show that you have made a successful
transition previously. Career
changes are normal, but they still entail a reasonable amount of risk, so show that
you understand what it
takes.
Final words
Changing careers doesn’t have to be so overwhelming that you force yourself to be
happy with where you are now.
By following these steps and developing your skills through professional
connections, on-the-job training,
additional education, and volunteering, you can find your way to a new career in no
time.
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