Why it is not too late to change careers [where to start and what to consider]

It is not too late to change careers with a thought out plan and followthrough. It doesn’t matter if you want to career pivot at 30, 35, 40, or 50+ years old.

If you are feeling the job burnout and are thinking about making some life changes, you can improve your situation. You are not too old to start a second (or third or fourth) career and investing in your happiness is valuable. Improving your life and well-being job-wise might even have positive net effects for for your financial and career goals. A pivot is not a set back! Here are some steps to get started and things to consider.

List out your qualifications. Include obvious things like education and job experience, but also include other skills. For example, do you manage a household? You might have skills in budgeting, time management, interpersonal communications, prioritizing, and multitasking . Consider hobbies. Are you able to use design software, make things out of wood, or sew? Do you know coding languages or how to build webpages? Figure out how to use what you already know how to do. Remember to include volunteer experience, club participation. If your qualifications and skills are feeling light, there are professionals that review resumes and could find where you have holes in yours.

Brainstorm what you you’d want to spend your time doing. Do you want to shift jobs slightly or do a complete 180° change? Browse job listings and see what is available. What is feasible? Perhaps you would be happy starting a business. Are you burnt out from healthcare? What would make you feel proud to do instead? Gone are the days of working in the same job forever (if you don’t want to). Do you want to work in finance now? Do it! Maybe you’d like to be an esthetician or a masseuse. Tired of teaching? Try being a virtual assistant or move to more of a corporate job. There has never been a better time to rethink a career. The possibilities are essentially endless. Join facebook groups for others like you and see what people are doing themselves. It is surprising what some people come up with to do and it could be inspiring to you. Browse and take your time if you are not sure.

Compare your qualifications to what is needed for a job change. Do your qualifications match what is needed to get the career of your dreams? Does your education or experience need to supplemented? Would you need a new credential or certification? A lot of lucrative and fulfilling careers can be done without a new degree and sometimes without one at all. Look for trainings, certificates, internships and all the the ways to get to the same endpoint. For example, it is possible to be a software developer without a computer engineering degree. It can be done with bootcamps and demonstration of capabilities. There are even return to work programs for people who have taken long periods of time off from working. These types of programs would be great for someone looking to pivot or just for folks returning to work after a reprieve.

See if the change can be made financially. Will you take a cut in pay? Would you need to invest in training? Do you need cash up front to start a business? Will you be able to keep your insurance and other benefits like retirement? These are some of the most important questions to ask yourself and could be a major roadblock to transitioning careers. It would be good to weigh if it would be worth potentially setting yourself back in retirement savings or being without insurance. Consider starting with a side hustle and expanding it into a full time set up. This could be done bit by bit while still working. If money is an issue, look into budgeting and see where cuts can be made. Always consider what the end payout would be before taking out a loan. Sometimes the job change itself would lead to an improvement in pay and benefits. If that is the case, easy!

Decide on your timeline to make the change. Can it be made immediately? Do you need to ease into it? How long will school/training take? Will it take some time to afford the change? Make a timeline with goals for the transition. Be sure to include financial, family, education, and career movement goals in the time.

Make the jump! Sometimes you just have to dive in and see how it works. Reassess if needed. It is very easy to get caught up in the planning stage. Some things can be learned as you go and some require hands-on experience. If you planned and researched all you can, it is time to make some waves. Personal fulfillment is worth the effort. Many folks had to make hard and quick changes to their lives when covid hit. It really pushed to the forefront what matters and how resilient people can be. There is no reason to hold yourself back from improvement.

It is never too late to consider making life changes. Once all responsibilities are accounted for, figure out what will make you feel refreshed and ready to seize the day. People of all ages are able to improve their day-to-day lives with the desire and drive to do it. It certainly takes a lot to decide to make such a large change and it is definitely more complicated as we have more responsibilities and others to include in the decision making. Having a well thought out plan is the best way to make the changes into reality.

When feeling the burnout and waiting for the chance to make a career change, try to do things to lighten the load for yourself. Do you need some down time to decompress? Do you need more time to work on things that you care about? In many cases, pivoting careers takes time and it won’t always be a possibility to stop working your current position. Try journaling, meditating, exercising to help improve mood. It’s hard to stay positive every day when faced with going to a job that is weighing you down. Some employers have programs for wellbeing as part of their benefits There could be a way to take a leave of absence. If you are having actual medical issues, it is possible to be set up for fmla leave. Talk to a doctor if that sounds like something you might need to do.