Six Midlife Career Change Tips – an Unconventional View

There is an increasing amount of advice available to people in midlife who are looking to find a new job or change careers. Rob Bennett, of PassionSaving.com offers six career change tips which are less conventional than most of the advice on offer. See what you think.

1.       Unconventional midlife career change tip 1: Each day you remain at a job you don’t love because the money is good you fall farther behind on your long-term quest for financial freedom.

Rob contends that remaining in a job because the pay and benefits are good overlooks the importance of recognising ‘what you learn’ from your job. If you aren’t learning in your current role you will be falling behind your peers who are in jobs where training and learning are considered essential. The financial risks of staying at a job where you are not continuing to learn are often greater than the financial risks of making a well-planned move to something you enjoy more.

2.       Unconventional midlife career change tip 2: Don’t take the “Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow” maxim too seriously.

Whilst this may be true, in most cases, it does not establish WHEN the money will follow. A sound financial plan is required to ensure that the new job or project is given enough time to mature and provide the expected financial rewards.

3.       Unconventional midlife career change tip 3: Focus not on work issues but on money issues.

However much you plan, however much you feel you are suited to the new job, you have not done enough to take the risk involved in handing in a resignation from your current job in pursuit of a mid-life career change.

You must put a financial plan in place to smooth out both the current and future transitions. If you don’t, there is a good chance that a few years down the road you will be back in the same sorts of circumstances that caused you to want to make the first midlife career change.

4.       Unconventional midlife career change tip 4: Understand that the real reason for your job dissatisfaction lies within.

Rob’s view here is that it isn’t a bad boss or a bad company culture that causes you to want a midlife career change – it’s you!

There are of course outside forces that play a role in causing you to be dissatisfied in your career and there are bad bosses and some pretty awful company cultures. But those outside forces are not usually the primary factor in causing job dissatisfaction, and it is important for you to understand what the primary factor is if you hope to pull off a successful midlife career change.

It is natural and good to feel dissatisfaction about a job after you have been in it a number of years. It is the desire to learn and grow that is causing you to become dissatisfied with a career that no longer provides the challenge it once did. The surprising thing would be if you never felt a need to pursue a mid-life career change.

5.       Unconventional midlife career change tip 5: Be wary of quick solutions to the problems causing your feelings of dissatisfaction.

It makes perfect sense to seek a new career after mastering an earlier one or finding that one is not suited for the earlier one. The issue to beware of is that there is a good chance that the frustrations experienced in the earlier role will recur, this time when you are older and have fewer fresh-start options open to you.

The best approach is to gain some level of financial freedom before making the switch to a new role. Not always possible, of course, but if this can be attained, then the pressures on you will be greatly reduced. It is by reducing the extent to which one needs to work for money that one obtains the best possible long-term assurance of being able to spend one's time doing soul-satisfying work.

6.       Unconventional midlife career change tip 6: Understand that what you really need is not career planning alone, but a combination of career and financial planning.

Financial planning on its own doesn’t work. Career planning on its own doesn’t work. It is a combination of the two which works best. If you can build a nest egg you have more control over your career options.

Yes, you need to change careers. But you might want to slow down in your implementation of the plan and make sure that the solution you come up with is one that will serve you well for a long time to come. To make a successful mid-life career change, you need not just a job-change plan, but a money-change plan too. Let’s call it your Life Plan!

Read the full article here: www.passionsaving.com

=======================================

The Mid Life Opportunity (www.MidLifeOp.com) is a community for Mid Lifers. Advice and Guidance will soon be available from The Mid Life Coaching Panel. It’s free to join so what are you waiting for? Join hereFREE!

Please take 1 minute to complete the 2010 Mid Life Survey: Click here