“What do you want to be when you grow up?” People ask us this when we are young, far too young to understand what it means—i.e., what kind of job we want when we’re older. In high school, the questions become more serious. “What do you want to study? “What field do you want to go into?” “How will you make a living?”
Many of us commit ourselves to a career path before we develop a strong sense of ourselves and what kind of life we want to lead. Yet, we spend our late adolescent years working and studying to achieve a goal that, once we reach it, doesn’t fit. It’s no wonder that people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and even 50s find themselves reevaluating their choices and changing careers.
We know lots of our readers find themselves in this exact situation. In this article, we share stories from real people who changed careers at different stages in their lives. These stories will inspire you to think about your own career and whether you’re ready to make a change.
Key takeaways
- It’s okay to change careers—and pay grades—to have a better balance in your life
- It’s also okay to change jobs to earn a better income
- You may need to spend time taking courses or learning new skills to change careers
- A new career may find you—stay engaged on LinkedIn
- You may need to help recruiters see past your experience to imagine you in a new role
- It’s okay to change careers if you don’t like the culture that it embraces
Changing careers in your 30s
Starting a career on Wall Street—and knowing he needed to make a change
Alex started his career in his 20s at what he thought was his “dream job,” working on Wall Street. Alex had grandparents who immigrated to the U.S. to find a better life for their family. He was raised to believe in the American dream: if you worked hard, you could provide a secure financial future for your family. To him, Wall Street was the perfect place to achieve that. He felt proud to be on his way towards that future, and his family was proud as well.
It didn’t take long, though, for Alex to discover that he might not be the best match for a life on Wall Street. Alex thought he’d meet people similar to himself, people who came from a middle-class background. What he found instead were people who owned their own polo ponies and who were competitive to the point of being cutthroat. He knew this world wasn’t right for him.
It’s not easy to pivot to a completely new direction in your career, so Alex stayed on Wall Street for the better part of a decade. In the back of his mind, though, medicine was calling to him.
The pandemic pushed him to make the change
When COVID struck, Alex knew that the time had come to make the change. He enrolled in a post-baccalaureate degree program for the science courses he needed to apply to medical school. Science courses weren’t the only things he needed, though. He needed direct contact with patients and experience doing research.
He began to apply to any position where he could gain this experience—EMT assistant, phlebotomy technician, etc. Alex estimates he applied to over 500 positions in the healthcare field before he found what he needed. Why so many? People couldn’t see past his experience.
Recruiters couldn’t see past his Wall Street experience
You might think at the height of a global pandemic, the healthcare industry would be looking to take on people who were smart, committed, and had the staying power to work in high-pressure environments. Alex found something different.
Even when he got interviews, Alex said people were confused by someone coming from his background wanting to get into medicine. Some people, knowing he worked for one of the big banks caught up in the 2008-2009 financial crisis were openly hostile. They acted, he said, “Like I was going to steal their grandmother’s house.”
Finally, he met with one researcher who saw something in him and gave him a shot. In that role, Alex was promoted twice in 2 years.
Wall Street was great experience for what came next
For all that Wall Street was a mismatch for Alex, he still calls it “the number one training ground for life.” The standards in his place of employment were so high, that scoring a “99 was seen as an F.” Written work needed to be perfect, everything needed to be proofread to perfection, and presentations needed to be flawless. There were so many things expected of him, that it “turned him into an efficiency machine,” able to operate at the top of his game and meet extremely high standards.
Alex credits his experience on Wall Street with being able to hold a job, while being enrolled in a degree program, conducting research, studying for the MCATs, and being accepted into Tufts Medical School.
Even when you’re in your 30s, you can rethink your career
Many people can relate to Alex’s experience of being in a job and thinking they’ve made a mistake. Alex’s story shows that it’s never too early to rethink your career choices.
Changing careers in your 40s
Christine, who works as Director of Competitive People Intelligence with Fidelity, has had significant career changes in her 20s, 30s, and 40s. She’s gone from lawyer to legal librarian to financial services librarian, and finally, to the position she has now.
Being laid off and reconsidering her career choice
When Christine was in her 20s, she graduated from law school and went to work at a corporate law firm in New York City. Her first day on the job was the day that Lehman Brothers collapsed—back in 2008—at the peak of the great financial crisis.
Christine practiced law for nine months, sometimes working 12-13-hour days, seven days a week. After nine months at the NY firm, she was laid off, along with many other junior associates.
Being laid off allowed her to reflect on her experience. Christine says, “I realized that my whole identity had been tied up in that job because it was so demanding. For those nine months, I hadn’t been a good daughter, or a good sister, or a good citizen, even. That scared me a little bit, and I think that was a big motivator, even as a young person.” She decided to make a change and went back for a degree in library and information science.
Christine used her library degree to stay in the legal profession without the soul-crushing hours of being a full-time corporate lawyer. She explains, “I switched to being a person who does research and writing, either for courts or law firms. I was still in my industry, but I was working a normal schedule.”
Convincing recruiters that her career choice was valid
Christine encountered some resistance from recruiters after she moved from lawyer to librarian. Many couldn’t understand why someone would forgo a substantial paycheck in favor of a smaller one. Others thought she might just be biding her time until she had the chance to practice law again. She learned how to explain her change of heart without apologizing for her choices. “I came up with a sentence that explained my decision to pursue research and writing because that was my favorite part about the discipline of law. It also allowed me to be a community activist, an athlete, and a good family member. And so, I shut down that skepticism.”
Opportunity knocks, and a second career change is born
After working for several years as a research librarian at law firms, Christine was contacted by a recruiter from Fidelity. After finding her profile on LinkedIn, they reached out to her for a position as a financial services librarian. Financial services was a whole new area for her, but she had the research skills needed for the role.
“I’m a big advocate for keeping [your LinkedIn] content up to date. Now I’ve been at Fidelity for 10 years, and I wouldn’t have found it if I hadn’t been keeping that content up to date and engaging on that platform.”
Exploring leadership
To further her career at her new company, Christine took part in a two-year intensive Leadership Development Program at Fidelity. She felt that stepping into leadership was the right move, but found she didn’t love the work. Her heart still lay with researching and writing. She just wasn’t sure how to make that gel with working in a leadership role (and earning a leadership salary).
She says, “Through exploration…I found that there were lots of librarians doing executive work. I had the a-ha moment where I had been kind of telling myself a lie or I had a limiting belief about how far my passion could take me. Then I was like, ‘Okay, well, I need to find a way to do research and also be in leadership.’”
Finally, Christine was offered the chance to take on a brand-new role with Fidelity. “They needed a leader for this new function they were building called competitive people intelligence. That person also had to be super good at research. I feel pleased and proud, that I’m getting to do a thing that feels really inspiring to me and is also super valuable to the company.”
Advice for people thinking about a career change in their 40s
Questioning your career choices can create a crisis of confidence. What am I good at? Why haven’t I figured this out yet? Christine advises looking at your career progression with a wide lens, to gain perspective about your career highs and lows.
She says, “If there are times when I’m not feeling like a success, now I’m able to look and say, “Over the course of a longer timeframe, not just this week, or this quarter or whatever, I’ve accomplished a lot of things that I set out to do.’ Maybe you reached goals in a way that wasn’t how you perfectly planned it, but you reached them. My advice is to look to a longer time horizon. You may find that you’re really impressed by your success and the things you’ve been able to accomplish.”
Maybe you reached goals in a way that wasn’t how you perfectly planned it, but you reached them.
Changing careers in your 50s
Chase currently works for a landscape design company after twenty-plus years as a buyer and general manager in precision manufacturing.
Needing to find a better fit
Chase had been laid off and was searching for a new job. He wanted to find work that matched his interests more and wanted to make a change from the manufacturing industry. “It wasn’t a good fit for me anymore. I wasn’t passionate about it, or motivated by the work,” he says.
Ultimately, Chase was hoping to work for a company involved with the environment or the outdoors in some capacity. He didn’t have formal training in those areas but had knowledge and experience from his own personal pursuits, such as gardening, landscaping, and outdoor hobbies. He found a company posting a job that combined his skills and his passions. “This company just happened to be looking for someone with planning and purchasing experience who also had knowledge and background in horticulture. It was one of those a-ha moments—like this could be a good fit.”
Finding a company that embraced people changing careers
While some companies and recruiters look askance at people stepping out of their lanes, Chase’s new company didn’t. They viewed people with a diversity of experiences positively. He says, “With this particular company, it was definitely a plus. They had already found some good employees that changed from one industry into this one. They really emphasized finding the right people, with the right passion and team spirit, to fit into the culture they were trying to create. To them, those were more important than having specific experience and knowledge.”
Advice for people who want to change careers in their 50s
When all is said and done, you have more options than you realize when it comes to making a career change. From your 20s to your 50s (and beyond) if a career change is right for you, don’t let others convince you to stay in a role where you’re not happy. Chase’s advice? “Don’t limit what you think you can do, based on what you’ve been doing. Take the time to think of what it is that gets you excited and motivated.”
That’s good advice whatever your age.
Don’t limit what you think you can do, based on what you’ve been doing.
Final thoughts
Maybe we should stop asking people what they want to “be” when they grow up. How about we start asking these questions instead: “What kind of work do you want to do when you’re a young adult?” and “What might you want to do after that?” “How can you prepare to move from your first career to your second (or third or fourth) career?” Those questions normalize career changes and get us thinking about broader possibilities for ourselves.
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