Want a midlife career change? Don’t miss this essential first step.
If you’ve hit your career stride in midlife, fantastic! Recognise what’s going well, and enjoy. If, like so many of us, you’ve got to midlife and thought ‘surely there’s more than this?’, then this blog is for you. You’re not alone, in fact, you’re right on track.
Midlife is the perfect time to take stock of what’s important. But I see many of my clients make this mistake in their career change planning. Start off on the right foot by making sure you don’t miss this essential first step.
Why make a career change now?
Here are some of the reasons clients tell me they’re exploring a career, job or life change:
‘There’s got to be more to life than this’
‘The kids are growing up, it’s time for me to focus on me now’
‘I’ve had enough of this shit’ (Read my personal take on that one here!)
‘I don’t want to retire doing this’
‘I’m just ready for a change’
‘If not now, when?’
‘I’m so bored, I’ve been doing this for years and nothing changes’
‘My expertise isn’t valued, and I’m sick of it’
‘I’ve always wanted to be a [insert dream job here] and life just sort of happened instead’.
Do any of those resonate with you?
Midlife is a time when we reassess where we are. We realise we’re a bit creakier than we used to be. We’ve been rocked by various life happenings: death and divorce often among them. We’re tougher than we used to be, but we’re more raw too. We’re a little battle weary.
But, we’ve also had moments of joy, of being in flow, of feeling like we’ve got it right. And we realise life’s too short not to go after more of that while we can.
It’s no surprise midlife is a time when we want to tear up the rulebook and start over. But that doesn’t have to mean a red Ferrari, or heading off to the woods (like Bridget Christie in The Change It can mean life and work changes that bring fulfillment, and work with where you are now.
What NOT to do when you want to change your job or career in midlife
When I got divorced I was lucky enough to work with a very experienced, skilled divorce coach (Emma Heptonstall, if you’re interested!). And one of the things she says on repeat to her readers and clients is this: ‘Don’t instruct a solicitor as soon as you decide to divorce!’.
I won’t get into why Emma says this here, but I have my own ‘don’t get a solicitor’ rule for you:
‘Don’t start looking for a new job as soon as you decide you want a career change!’.
Looking for a new job when you’re unhappy with your current situation feels like a logical thing to do. It’s practical, it’s taking control of your situation, it’s seeing what possibilities there might be.
But, if you’re not careful, you can jump from the frying pan into the fire. Here’s why.
The pitfalls of job hunting straightaway
There are three main downsides to jumping into a midlife job hunt:
You exhaust yourself with possibilities: the world is a whole lot bigger, with LinkedIn, job search boards, professional networks and job sites. A scattergun approach to job seeking can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. You spend a whole lot of energy, get nowhere fast, and decide to stick with what you’ve got for a few more months.
You limit your possibilities: on the other hand, if you decide you don’t like your job and you just want something else, you may go straight for the next thing that looks like a decent fit. Which may work out fine, but what might you be missing? There may be a whole new direction that’s perfect for you.
You take yourself with you: you might think the problem with your job is your boss, or the working hours, or the project you’ve been assigned. But what if it’s something else? Quite often people find themselves repeating patterns because they haven’t taken care of the essentials first.
So, if job hunting straight away is a no-no, what do you need to do to get your midlife career change off to a successful start?
Do a self-audit first
A self-audit is a little like an MOT. When a car goes in for an MOT the mechanic doesn’t test the state of the road, or ask whether you want to drive to France, or to Brighton. They look inside the bonnet.
And that’s what you need to do first. You need to find out these absolutely essential things:
● What matters to you most
● What you’re good at
● What you love to do
● What drives you
● What you need to feel good
These are huge questions, but the answers to them are absolutely critical to any midlife career change. Because, without them you’ll find yourself flitting from one unfulfilling job to another, or unable to find something at all.
How to get the answers you need
So how do you go about getting the answers you need? A good place to start is your values and strengths.
Broadly speaking, your values tell you what’s important to you in life. And your strengths aren’t just what you’re good at, they are also the things that give you energy when you do them.
You can find some helpful starting points online to get you thinking. The free work values test takes you through a series of questions to help you prioritise what matters most to you about your work. It’s quite a long one, but grab a coffee and stick with it, the report’s pretty insightful.
And the Via Institute is a highly respected resource for understanding your character strengths. It offers a free online character strengths survey.
Putting it all together
Free online resources are a great starting point. Sometimes they show us how far away we are from the life we want to be living. Sometimes they make us realise how hard we find it to actually reconnect with who we are. Sometimes they bring into clarity how we want to be.
But what then? You need to have a vision of what you want your future to look like: what life will actually look and feel like. And, for my clients, that vision can feel elusive. Because, by midlife, they have spent so much time looking after other people’s needs, or getting on with the bread and butter of paying the bills, that knowing what they want is a long-rusted skill.
And that’s why working with a coach is so helpful. It changes the process from one of frustration, and beating yourself up to one of curious discovery.
As your career coach I will support you to:
● Set goals for where you want to be, so you are always moving forward
● Clarify your vision and bring it to life, so the future feels within reach
● Truly understand your values and strengths
● Make a plan, with review and reflection built in, to keep you on track.
Career Radiance
When I first published this article last year, Career Radiance was the name of my career coaching package. Now’s it the name for my online learning programme accessible for all, to help you align your work and life.
To find out more watch the video below or get in touch to discuss your career needs.
Rae is an experienced coach having worked with hundreds of women throughout her NHS career and more recently as Founder of Coaching Women to Shine. Rae is values driven and passionate about the work she does with her clients. Her vision is to help women feel aligned in work and in life by living their values.