Career Switch: Older People Do It Too, You Know

: Image by John McNab via Flickr

One of the biggest myths out there about switching careers is the idea that you can only do it when you are young. Ironically, you can’t really call four years in the work force a “career”, so it is hard for young people to be the ones doing all this career switching that everyone is talking about.

The reality is that career switching can happen at any age. You just need to plan differently if you have, for instance, a large mortgage, young kids, health concerns, or other complicating factors that a younger person might not have had the time and life experience to accumulate. But this does not mean, at all, that you cannot switch careers if you are older. In fact, your age may give you the experience and insight you need to make the switch.

A couple things to consider: one thing a career switch always requires is a lot of extra work. You have to learn a new trade or profession, often at the same time that you are conducting your previous one. Extra work takes energy. Energy takes sleep, the right diet, some vitamin D, and moderate exercise to sustain one to two years of doubling up. In other words, your collective act needs to be together if you are going to undertake a career switch and live to see the end of it. Burn out isn’t fun, and my general rule of thumb is that is takes twice as long to recover from the time you spend burning it at both ends as the time you spent, well, burning it at both ends.

Also, a career switch requires you to know what you want to do next. This is the hardest part for many people. What do they want to be? Do some serious soul-searching and note jotting. Research careers on the internet, take personality tests and read job descriptions. Make sure you look really hard before you leap.

However, if you can handle those two things – balance and research – you can easily make a major career switch no matter what age you are. You just have to be willing to put in the hours to two careers for a while, or save to take the time off to gear up.