Tips for a Mid-life Career Change
Making a mid-life career change often means changing your lifestyle because your income is no longer as high, stable or secure as it once was. But, like all change, it also hold the opportunity for fulfillment, challenge and personal satisfaction. If you're choosing to make a mid-life career change, make sure that changing jobs is the real answer to your problems and feelings of dissatisfaction.
Take stock of your skills and identify the ones that are transferable to other occupations. Research the requirements of occupations your are considering. Make sure you consult everyone who will be affected by your career change. Try to anticipate how your change will affect you and your family. Be prepared for what "starting at the bottom" means after you've held a more senior job in your old occupation.
Consider trying your new occupation on a part-time or casual basis. Prepare a detailed budget and allow for unexpected expenses. Understand that the transition process may be an emotional time for you. Use a professional counselling service if you need help.
What to do:
Taking Action "Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action." - Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister, 1874 - 1880
After you've analyzed your situation, it's time to make some moves.
Here's why:
Action helps you think. By exposing you to real-life experiences, action - even in the wrong direction - can be informative.
Action raises your self-esteem. Most inaction is the result of fear as well as indecision. You can improve your self-esteem by doing things that scare you, just a bit.
Good luck happens when you're in action. Set a goal, any goal, and start doing everything you can think of to achieve it. Go to a library and look up articles, call people, join organizations, go to appointments. Volunteer in a field that interests you. Something will happen. Your life will change. You'll get breaks you never planned for because you didn't know they existed.