Midlife
Career Change
Career change is never easy
and midlife career change, whilst popular, needs a lot of thought. This
is 6 step plan is designed to help you make a career change over the age
of 40.
Step #1 Make an Assessment
of Your Present Situation
When you were first starting out in the world of work, that is when you
were in your teens or twenties, you probably felt you could do just about
anything and had big dreams when you thought about what you could achieve.
But now you are a bit older,
and althought you have plenty of new experiences regarding work, as well
as skills and general life experiences, you are likely to be more cautious
than the younger you. So the first step to take before embarking on a
midlife career change, is to make an honest and accurate assessment of
your current situation.
Step #2 Choose Your Ideal Work Location
You'd also need to consider where you want to work.To begin with, think
in general terms of location and refine this further once you have finished
step 3. Would you prefer to work in an urban setting or in the country,
do you want to be indoors or outdoors, and in your home country or abroad?
Or do you want a job which includes travel? What would this mean to you,
ideally? Regular trips abroad to different locations or travelling within
your own country ?
When making a midlife career
change, you may find you are in a position to move around more easily
than before, for example, if your children have grown up.
Step #3 Decide What You Want To Do for Your Midlife Career Change
Considering all your work
and other experiences so far, write down a detailed description of your
perfect job.Don't forget to include aspects of your current and past jobs
which you enjoy. And remember to write down all the new skills you want
to learn and develop.
Step #4 Research
The next step is to research the jobs which match your skills, dreams
and aspirations. Let's take an example, say you are a teacher and you
are looking for a new career with travel and languages, you could start
by searching for a general term such as "other jobs for teachers".
Create a list of possibilities which appeal to you, and then start looking
to see how you can get into you ideal career.
Be as creative as possible when choosing search terms, combine several
different skills in one search and who knows what interesting jobs you
might find!
Career
websites and work-related sites set up by the goverment are a good place
to search. You can start with broad areas like education, technology or
healthcare and then check out the wide range of opportunities, as well
as being able to read job descriptions and information about areas like
training, pay and promotion prospects. Many will have a specific section
for midlife career change.
Step #5 Midlife Career Change
- Putting It All Together
Now you need to lool at what you want, compare it with the careers you
have discovered and go through the results to find a match. There will
be jobs which you just aren't interested in and others which would be
difficult for practical reasons. But if you have done your research in
detail you are more than likely to have found several possible options.
Once you have narrowed your choices down to ta couple of alternatives,
it's time for more in-depth research. Websites relating directly to these
careers will help you learn more. So look for sites belonging to relevant
companies as well as sites with careers information and get as much detail
as you can. If you can, talk to folk who are working in these careers.
This will really help you understand what the job is actually about.
Another option is to book a session with a careers advisor or go to a
careers library and find books designed to help people entering the profession.
Step #6 Create Your Midlife Career Change Action Plan and Make Sure
You Take Action
Get out a pen and paper and map out a plan with the steps you need to
follow to reach your goal. don't forget to think about how you will pay
for any training and how the changes will fit into your lifestyle. You
may need to discuss this with some members of your family, especially
partners and children who stilll live at home, since this might involve
significant changes which affect them too.
Midlife career change can be
a challenging and rewarding experience, as long as you take the time to
plan it properly and to discuss it with your family
To see the video version of
this article go to Midlife
Career Change
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for information, please post a comment on the CoolerCareers
Blog. We look forward to your suggestions!
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