For this career move, getting older is actually an advantage

There are a bunch of myths about work that we tend to believe. One of the most persistent is that that older you get, the harder it is to switch careers. Once you have picked your lane, we’re told, you just have to just stick to it.

But the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. Changing careers at any age, from 20s through to your 60s, is a lot more common than you realise, with McKinsey research finding that about a third of all career changes occur after 40. And those who pivot later in life are rewarded with 28 per cent higher job satisfaction than those who moved around earlier.

Our history books are filled with long lists of people who switched their careers to better suited ones. Colonel Sanders famously worked many odd jobs, like an insurance salesman and gas station operator, before franchising his first KFC restaurant when he was in his 60s.

Martha Stewart had a career as a model and a stockbroker before becoming a caterer and home entertaining goddess in her 40s. Even Fisk creator Kitty Flanagan worked as a PE teacher and advertising copywriter before thankfully trying her hand at open-mic night and switching to comedy.

Of course, it might seem like the older you get, the harder it is to change, but more experienced workers often have the edge in jumping into new careers.

By the time you hit your 40s and beyond, you have valuable and transferable skills, more perspective, greater confidence to know what you like and usually more of a financial buffer than younger workers. Yes, you also have bigger bills and more responsibility, but at least you’re not starting over from scratch.

To pivot, you need to start incorporating the work, habits, training and lifestyle of your new job into your current life.

If you’ve found yourself wondering what a new career might look like, there are a few things you can do to give you the best chance of making a successful transition.

The first is to interrogate exactly why you want to make the change. Are you looking for better pay, new challenges or more meaning? Make sure you can’t find those things in your existing business or industry before jumping ship.

If you’re certain that you can’t, ask “why?” over and over to get to the core of the reason you want a change. That will ensure you’re solving the real problem and not just something on the surface.

The next is to consciously start changing your identity. To pivot, you need to start incorporating the work, habits, training and lifestyle of your new job into your current life. That begins by sharing with people you trust what you really want to do until it becomes part of your new identity.

The third thing is to embrace the beginner’s mindset. Yes, you’re going to take a step backwards or sideways, and yes, that might involve a pay cut. But if you’re serious about educating yourself in an entirely new industry, that’s usually a small price to pay.

The final step is to prepare as much as you can. Save up money, speak to people in that industry and begin the transition earlier than you think. It takes time to pivot, so start the process with as much notice and preparation as you can.

It is scary, daunting and exciting to try something new in your career, no matter how old you are. Remember that if it doesn’t turn out the way you hoped, you always have your existing career to fall back on.

So if you’ve been toying with the idea of switching careers to something else that lights you up more than your current job, consider this the gentle push that you’ve been waiting for.

Tim Duggan is author of Work Backwards: The Revolutionary Method to Work Smarter and Live Better. He writes a regular newsletter at timduggan.substack.com.

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