MONEY & ENTERTAINMENT

Do you wake up, drag your sorry butt out of bed, force yourself into the shower, out the door, through the commute, and then through your day? This is no way to live. One day, you realize that not only can you not spend another day in the job you are in, you cannot spend another minute in the career in general. Perhaps it is because you feel that you have no more challenges in this career, no more you can learn. Perhaps you just hate working for someone else and crave the freedom of being your own boss. Either way, it is important to listen to this voice in your head telling you that you need a change, and perhaps a drastic one.

There are many differences between being in the situation of starting a new career for the first time, and starting a brand new career mid-life. One big difference is that when you start your first career, you are giving up a type of freedom that you are expected to give up, as a grown up. You are expected to trade in late nights drinking for late nights finishing a work assignment. You are expected to give up 78 hour video game tournaments for business lunches and networking gatherings.

Once you are a “grown up,” however, you are expected to work diligently and honestly as you move up the ranks of your profession and your company, gaining higher compensation as you go in return for your hard work and loyalty. That is what our parents did, and it is expected that we will follow suit. In our suits. To change jobs as you go along is to be expected, but to change careers altogether is something that takes courage and conviction. Some people will think you are crazy, that you are sacrificing security on a whim, or, more dismissively, in the name of some sort of mid-life crisis.

Hopefully, you will have the support of those who care about you as you travel through this process. You may be surprised that some of your friends or loved ones are not supportive, and worse, attack you as if your desire were mere folly. This is when you need to have the strength of your convictions, because the people who attack you are probably doing so in reaction to their own inability to make an important change in their lives. They transfer their fears onto you in an attempt to quell their own sinking feeling of being in a dead end career that they do not have the courage to leave.

Preparation
The most difficult aspects of changing jobs mid-life are the financial cost, the time cost, and the threat to your sense of security. Emotionally, all could be said to be wrapped up in the latter. Security is important to us as we get older. With constant threats to social security programs, people are worrying about saving money for their retirement long before their student loans for school even go into repayment mode. Add onto that just the potential emotional security of staying in a job that you know, that is predictable in pay and duties, you soon learn it is a big decision, and a courageous one to make. But once you realize that the quality of your life depends largely on being happy, fulfilled and challenged at a career that you spend the better part of your life focussed on, it is not a difficult decision.

Once you have made the decision that you deserve to be fulfilled in your work, you need to figure out what it is that will fulfill you. Deep down, we all know what makes us happy, what our dream job would be. Your role is to realistically look at your options and then make a plan from there.

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If you are totally stumped as to what you want to do, you can go to see a career counselor or a career coach. A career coach is little more hands on, not only in helping you figure out what kind of job would suit your emotional, financial, and intellectual needs, but also what fits in line with your personal values and aptitudes. The coach will also help you come up with a plan to make the changes you aspire to happen in your life.

A less expensive way to work out what you want to do is to write down 10 things you love to do and ten things you are good at, then see where those things converge in career terms and explore your options.

Once you have a better idea what it is you want, research the careers to narrow them down. Job descriptions, salary expectations, and educational requirements will be available at libraries and career centres (all university or college campuses will have these), and recruitment services. For a more personal glimpse of the high points and frustrations of the job, use message boards and discussion groups online. There, you can ask questions about training or job market, or simply eavesdrop for an idea of the daily culture of the job. . Using a combination of these resources, you can get realistic pictures of what each career entails.

Once you have a career in mind, make a plan. In this plan, you will have to include an exit strategy from your current job, retraining options, and job searching in your new field (or perhaps the possibility of opening up your own business). If your new job is even remotely related to your current job, see if you can’t finagle some retraining on your current employer’s tab. Changing careers may be accomplished within the same company if it is large enough, and if the company’s management structure isn’t one of your reasons for wanting to leave your current situation. If this is the case, take advantage of that option, as retraining can be costly and time consuming.

Another way you can approach retraining is volunteer work, building up experience working at something you want to do eventually. For instance, if you were thinking of going into counseling or something related, many non-profit counseling agencies offer free training in exchange for volunteer hours worked in their programs. You can also look at internships, on-the-job training opportunities, and even job shadowing. While the latter might not give you a lot of hours, it will give you a real sense of the daily realities of the job, as well as build your connections in a field. If you are willing to work as a low-paid trainee, that is still some pay, a foot in the door, and valuable experience.

If you are leaving your company altogether to retrain and search for a new job, make a financial plan. Be realistic about the cost of retraining, the length of time needed to do it (consider part-time if that is an option), and make sure you have some savings on hand. Remember that when you leave your job to retrain, you are also potentially leaving behind benefits you may have to cover while in the process of retraining.

Make sure that your goals are realistic and set time limits for them. Make sure you are constantly doing something to move closer to your goal of changing careers. There will be times when you stop, shake your head wearily and think, “What have I done?” but just keep one eye on the prize, and keep the other eye on where you’ve been so that you don’t end up back there for lack of effort and passion.

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