Off-Topic Any Over 40 Career Changers?

[Carol K]

I was a computer programmer with the same company for over 23 years and I was laid off at the beginning of 2009 at the age of 51. Fortunately, I was able to go back to school and get an associate's degree at a community college that allowed me take the Registered Health Information Technician exam. Two weeks later I had a job as a medical coder at a university hospital. I now have a more interesting and less stressful job that I love and I've been there 3 years. I can't believe I found a second career at my age. There was a lot of work, but a lot of luck involved too.

[FirmDancer]

Here are some suggestions too. These are the tools I used to used to make my career change. Not only was I moving to a vastly different field, but I am also taking a signifiant reduction in salary.

book: "The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential ... in business and life", by Leo Babauta. Interestingly I found this book when I was in my de-cluttering phase. But it ended up being my life-changer.
Chapter 7 is powerful: "Simple Goals and Projects". It explained how to set goals and what to do every day in order to achieve that goal. I decided my goal at the time wasn't necessarily "have a clean basement". Rather, my most pressing goal was "change my life". I followed the tips in that chapter for over a year, and its what got me ready to move into a completely different career with different skill sets. I can't recommend it highly enough.

minimalist and simplicity blogs: some are practical, others highly conceptual. But I learned to focus on what makes me happy, what is important in life, and what I really need, rather than our consumeristic focus on accumulating stuff

money management blogs: contain lots of tips on reducing expenses; nice crossover with the minimalism blogs as all espouse a simpler way of life.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course: this is a program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn. He has books and there is MBSR material online. I was fortunate to take the program "live" with a teacher. Excellent! A critical tool in helping me manage the anxiety and stress.

[Carol K]

I would also recommend that if you are currently in a high-paying job and you think you might be in a lower-paying one later (intentionally or unintentionally) that you become a saver rather than a spender and build a substantial nest egg. This will give you the freedom to get retraining and the option of going for a lower-paying job that might make you happier.

[pattyd0319]

Originally Posted by Carol K

I would also recommend that if you are currently in a high-paying job and you think you might be in a lower-paying one later (intentionally or unintentionally) that you become a saver rather than a spender and build a substantial nest egg. This will give you the freedom to get retraining and the option of going for a lower-paying job that might make you happier.

I agree. When I switched from nursing to IT, initially I took a sizable paycut that first year when I transitioned to IT. Later when I was making a decent salary but working quite a bit of hours, I took a paycut to take a federal job so that I could work less hours while still doing work that I enjoyed.

[raeven]

My hubby is a programmer at a non-tech corporation. Working for people that don't comprehend tech, or programming, or how things do and should work...is stressful, to say the least. But he's worked for this corporation forever now, and despite how freaking insane his bosses are and the insanity of it...he didn't want to leave. He does make great money, he works from home , and has great benefits. I'm a sahm and homeschool the kids..so everything rides on him.

The answer and conclusion we came to, is that he had to care less about his job. He had to be less passionate about his work, about doing and writing great stuff, in order to survive the insane work environment. So that is exactly what he has worked at for a while now...and honestly has made great strides and has been much happier for it! He had to accept that doing his best work wasn't possible on this team, and instead to just give them what they want, regardless. While this sounds crazy...what it has allowed him to do is be less stressed all around...to be more happy outside of work as well as during it....and he can now more easily work on his own programming and interests outside of work and enjoy it more!

Now, he would never put up with the crap that he does except that we still have kids at home, and like I said, he just doesn't want to risk things, and isn't big on change and starting over in a new environment. Once they are grown however, he'll have more flexibility to do whatever he wants and not worry about it. All this to say, that maybe if you can possibly shift your focus and attitude towards your job being just that, a job, a source of income...then maybe you can still tolerate it to allow you to keep your great hours and benefits while the kiddos are still young. Oddly enough, my hubby just posted me this link while I was writing this post, hah!

http://www.quietrev.com/want-to-be-h...less-about-it/

No matter what direction you take, I wish you the best! I hope you find a peaceful solution for you and your family!

[TinierTina]

Just that I have nearly 200 pages of manually-written lists and notes that I need to study (some of it, study again) ... I do, do Windows (8.1 - my actual, physical glass ones are filthy ...) Youtube pretty much is inadequate for learning office productivity technology and you leave yourself wide open for malware infestation in so doing ...

Also, while not myself partaking of the smartphone mania, I am immersing myself in the sociology of mobile technology (as further enrichment) ...

A mind is a terrible thing to waste as any displaced worker ...

Maybe all this will come in handy, soon, anyway; even if I don't get to coach ...

I am ready to cry though ...

Disenfranchised from the work force; (some) family treats me as if I am already obsolete, old and somehow not (yet) an immobile invalid ...

[Aunt Famous]

I had a great job -- that I grew to hate with every fiber of my being. I made the difficult decision six years ago, at age 41, to leave that job and become self-employed. It was terribly hard at first. But this call with my sister one day snapped it all into focus: "Remind me that I hated my old job." "We ALL hated your old job."

Occasionally I miss the guaranteed paycheck; often I miss the benefits. I don't miss the friends that I had, because I still see them regularly. I have never regretted leaving.

But deciding to leave sparked a number of personal changes in me, which is often what I blog about these days. Among other things, I became a saver, not a spender, which is good advice for a career change. (There is nothing like self-employment to change completely your attitude about money!) But you know what? I have always found that I have enough. Although I have stress still, I became more relaxed, and my home life has been a lot happier. It was a good decision for me.

I read this on a Dove chocolate wrapper: Love many, trust few, and always paddle your own canoe. It has been the best advice ever given to me by a piece of foil, and ranks right up there with a lot of what my parents said.

Courage, friend.

AF

Check out my blog at www.typeALC.com

[BigBadBetty]

I had a liberal arts degree. I found my way into admin work eventually into doing budgets, financial tracking, etc. I realized if I had to do this the rest of my life that I would go crazy. I started taking IT classes at the local community college. I worked full time while I went to school part-time for 4 years. (I am my only support.) I never finished that degree because I found a new job first. I was 41 at that time.

Have any of you looked into Coursera? Established universities have free classes. You can also pay a nominal fee and get a certificate. I thought this Data Science sounded interesting. https://www.coursera.org/specializat...udatascience/1

[AZY]

For some other novel ideas check out these websites:

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

http://fourhourworkweek.com/overview/

Interesting to read all the variety of choices people make - thanks for sharing all and best wishes with your decision...Anne Y

[Kellie]

Originally Posted by Marylandmom

Wow, this thread is so timely. I'm looking at changing careers also. I'm 50, worked in the broadcast field for 15 years, transitioned to becoming a legal secretary at a broadcast/communications firm and have been here for 15 years. I'm tired of the commute and would love to be able to work from home and set my own hours. I'm looking into going back to school and studying court reporting with an emphasis on captioning/CART. I've already narrowed it down to two possible schools and it is all online. I know it's going to take a big commitment, especially practicing my speeds but it's something that I've been interest in doing for quite some time. And besides, it would be something great to do to supplement my retirement in the future.

Paula

Paula, good luck in your venture! I'm a court reporter and have been an official for just short of 30 years. I can tell you that CART/Captioning is the way to go in the field right now. I'm actually thinking of retiring next year and possibly pursuing transitioning to CART (and possibly deposition work.) Good luck!!