Changing Careers later in life

Has anyone here ever experienced the terror that comes with leaving your secure job to go into business for yourself or to get into a different field? What can you do to make that transition a little less scary?

 

I left a corporate job in order to chase my dream of becoming an author, and I have to say it really was very scary. If you can manage to push through the fear, you will be rewarded with a fulfilling and more joyful life when you do what you love everyday.

 

It is absolutely terrifying, but can be extremely rewarding. I would suggest that having a fallback plan, such as writing for a newspaper or copywriting is essential though, as a gap on your resume can make it hard to go back into conventional employment.

 

I doubt anyone who has had a chance to chase their dream would want to go back into conventional employment, but you're right, Tregaron. Sometimes it's good to have a fall-back plan.

 

Lately we see more and more on the internet that people are moving toward doing things that they love and it's becoming easier and less scary to change careers no matter one's age. I personally think that anyone who feels that they are in the wrong career should definitely start considering change as soon as possible.

 

I read somewhere that these days people have an average of three different career paths, though I suppose that may be more likely for younger people than those approaching retirement now. I would say making the leap without a definite push due to unemployment or redundancy would happen after a lot of thought and preparation.

Go for it, that's my advice.

 

Three serious paths, maybe, but a lot of young people are going to go through a lot more jobs than that before they settle on one that they want to do long term.

 

You know what the sad thing is looking at those kind of statistics? It's the fact that some people will go through that many jobs or careers and still never actually find the one that makes them happy because they don'n know that they can work at something that they love.

 

It may also be that some people are not prepared to deal with a crap job and are more willing to look elsewhere and move on. Plus their tastes are ever changing and they don't seem to have the idea that one job is enough and are more interested in experiences in their free time.

 

Hiya - if you do it once or twice then you get used to it and its so much easier if you don't get too attached to a job.

Just remember to make lots of friends everywhere you go.

 

I did it once, going from permanent to freelancing which I loved. It looks like I am going to be doing it again soon involuntarily because of the reactions to my eye condition in interviews. Persuading someone to give me a job is difficult.

 

Seems everyone thinks your over the hill at 50 now. Amazed when anyone gets a new job at that age.