Career change - mix up your ingredients to create a new recipe

What was the first recipe you learned to cook on your own?   The one staple that lasted you through your student days, that stopped you from starving or developing scurvy.  The one that didn’t break the bank.  The one that didn’t require an app or for you to phone someone to deliver it.   Think on it fondly.   Chances are it’s something you’ve not tried in a while.

As we get older, we pick up experiences that mean we’re always and constantly changing as adults – in what we can do, in what we like and prefer and the more we know the more choices we have and the more discerning we can be.

But when it comes to careers, a lot of us remain stuck to the same recipe we knew, maybe loved – more likely tolerated, as a student.   Just as when you were a student you’d roll out your (let’s hear the collective groan) spaghetti Bolognese signature dish, when you’ve spent a few decades in the workplace it’s easy to see yourself through the career you’ve had so far.

So we see ourselves as the more or less finished article, we are what our LinkedIn profile says we are.  Even worse, we ignore the ingredients we uniquely bring and have a tendency to boil everything down to the common denominator – I am an accountant, an architect, a manufacturing supervisor, a lawyer.

2022, the post pandemic reassessment of our lives led to the fabled “Great Resignation”.  It seemed like everyone was at it.  Others who didn’t often felt left behind, kind of inadequate because they stayed.  And then came the “Great Regret” as people jumped to places where grass on the other side was pretty much the same colour as it always was.

It’s worth reminding yourself that the more mature version of you has ironed out many of the kinks from your youth and far from being “just another” – fill in the blank here – lawyer, real estate agent, banker, actuary, sales executive, your signature dish is made up of ingredients some of which are completely unique to you and when blended together are entirely unique to you.

So here’s a few advantages you have over your younger self:

You’ve more experience of work, leadership and workplace culture

-        which means you’ve likely worked for great and not so great bosses, through energising and energy sapping periods, though periods where your workplace was fun and enjoyable and periods where it was just plain toxic. 

-        You therefore know two things:  there are better and worse places out there you could be and if you can stomach waiting around for long enough most situations have a tendency to resolve themselves – either you move on or the source of the toxicity moves along – you know what good looks like and you can spot a jerk when you see one

You’ve a great understanding of who you are and when and where you perform at your best 

-        you’ve worked in large and small teams, in energetic climates and in solo work, with motivational bosses and complete ogres and you have a better sense in your forties of how you thrive compared to when you just left education with little experience of work. 

-        You therefore also know:  what working conditions allow you to thrive and work at your best and to what extent do you expect to play a pivotal role in creating and maintaining those conditions.  You also know that enhancing those skills doesn’t happen quickly by accident and that learning is an ongoing endeavour not something that came to an end when you walked out with the university or college degree.  Somethings are worth working for.

You have an understanding of how your skills and strengths stack against others. 

-        Without anyone noticing, you’re able to consider how you compare to others around you, older and younger, where your strengths lie, where younger and newer entrants have the edge and what needs to be done to maintain your marketability.  You also have a good sense of what investing in your learning means to you and your willingness to put in the effort. 

-        The longer it’s been since you took part in a learning activity generally the more intimidating it'll feel to acquire new skills.   So think about how you can start small, recall all the little things you’ve found yourself able to do this year and how the way you learn has been evolving – even if it’s learning how to replace a washer on a tap through a youtube video – you’re probably learning more than you give yourself credit for.   And learning is the key to career change.

You have a professional standing, reputation, network and equity

-        Who did you know in your early 20s who could really make things move for you?  Chances are you had a dependency on an employer, maybe if you were exceptionally lucky access to a network brokered by your parents.   But now you have professional standing and a reputation for delivery, you’ve a network of people who know not just what you do but how you do it and you’ve people who will go out to bat for you?

-        It’s easy to think when you’re considering mid life career change that signal your intent and these folks will drop you like a stone.   But is this really true?   People buy people, skills can be acquired and learned. 

-        Your values and how you approach working with others isn’t going to change just because you decide to do something else.  And the network of people who truly root for you now, will be rooting for you all the more for your courage in taking on your change journey.

The foundation of mid-life career change is to have a really good and truthful understanding of yourself and becoming entirely comfortable with identifying a few things that need the odd update or remodelling.    

These are assets to own, and assets to leverage in your mid-life career transition too.   The only thing that’s preventing you from becoming unstoppable, is you.