For many people, the idea of starting their own business is a dream come true. But what if you’re 50 years old or older and think it’s too late?
“For everything, there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven”, says a verse from the Old Testament, but it does not say exactly in which moment the “right moment” is placed.
Since the perception of time is extremely subjective, we can say that if you feel that the right time to start a new career has arrived for you, then it is better for you to start.
And I’m not talking about selling everything and opening a bar in Puerto Rico or escaping to the Bahamas but drawing up a very specific plan of what you want to do.
Often at a certain age, you already have very useful previous experiences, and you can identify skills that can be very useful even in the new career.
The first thing to do is to clarify your ideas, here is a list of questions to start defining your career change plan or new beginning:
- What do you want to do? What career or position do you want to fill?
- How long does it take to get to that new job or position?
- Do you have the financial resources to cover the period from your previous job to the new one?
- What skills from your previous job can be useful?
- What new skills do you need to develop and where can you acquire them?
How to overcome the age barrier
It’s never too late to start a new career: this sentence is both true and false at the same time.
Indeed, it is never too late if you have clear ideas, know what you want, and have the resources to achieve it.
It is true if the new goal you are setting yourself is within the range of possibilities offered by your life path up to this moment. For example, if you have been a researcher in research institutes and decide to enter a pharmaceutical company as a clinical data manager or as a medical writer at 45 or even 50 years old, it is completely fine.
If you decide to pursue a career as a dancer at 50 and you have never danced in your life, perhaps it is better not to think about a career change. If you want to leave your permanent position to open a restaurant and you don’t know what it means to manage the staff, work hard hours, and prepare menus, perhaps it is better if you keep your permanent position.
I want to invite you to be honest with your real chances.
Having said that, if you decide that you still want to change your course, then go all out!
Give it your all and don’t stop until, even after several falls, you have achieved what you were looking for.
Isn’t it too late? Save time with these six points
Everyone is entitled to a change of career, maybe you are no longer satisfied with your workplace, or you want to move or have a hobby that has almost become an activity. The reasons can be manifold, and nobody can judge your motivations.
The truth is that at 50 you must have a concrete plan and then … and then … launch yourself because the reality is always much more complex than we have imagined it.
The real situations, contacts, and offers we can receive will be very different, and often much more beautiful than what we had hoped for.
Build your plan in six steps:
- Be honest with yourself, observe your path up to the present moment, and identify your strengths and weaknesses regarding your character, and your professional attitude. Online there are many sites where it is possible to take a test of your personality, we are often not very aware of our personality, and a test could give you surprising answers. Be honest, don’t be rude to yourself, and try to see your blind spots, aspects of yourself that are hard for you to admit. Make a list that helps you see both your character and your professional skills. You are not just a job, you are a person who makes a job. If you change your career, you will have to adapt to the new environment. You better understand if you might be suitable for the new environment. The fact that you like the idea of your new career is not enough, you also have to learn how to do it and you have to be persistent enough to hold on until you have earned your new job.
- Do active brainstorming: if you are not yet clear about what you could do, start asking yourself what you could do by crossing your skills with your personal characteristics. Choose something sustainable over time both economically and humanly for you. Some works are extremely complex for some people while for other people those jobs are stress-free and not too complex. Take the management of clinical data, for example, for some people it is very difficult and boring to find errors in the data, replace quotes with points, and check whether a value is plausible or not, while for others the same activity makes fun.
- Once you understand where you want to go, build yourself a map to get there. Sometimes a career change requires only a small adjustment of the required skills. It is sufficient to update your CV and perhaps re-write your skills using the vocabulary of the new area you want to enter. Each sector has its own words and keywords. Knowing how to use those words in a resume means that we are part of the new tribe and that we understand how the inhabitants of the branch we aspire to be part of, express themselves. But in many cases, a career change involves a series of steps that require time and effort, so the career change must be well planned and built step by step.
- Don’t be afraid of long rides: If you want to become a medical writer for example but you have no experience in the medical-pharmaceutical field or in clinical studies, you first need to find a way to enter these fields in a compatible role such clinical data manager o project manager or vice versa. After that, you have to understand what kind of skills are needed in the profession, you would like to do. So first you need to enter the field and then you have to start taking the necessary steps to get to the profession you want. A process of this type can take up to three or five years, just like starting a new business. The journey will be long, your plan in this case must be feasible in the long term.
- Begin when you’re not ready yet. If you want to change your career and wait until you have defined your plan in detail, you risk ending to plan your future steps for years, and the opportunity to drive a change will never pop up. Plan the first six to eight months of your journey and then start right away. If you are 45 or 50, you don’t have time to leave a dream behind.
- Use creative hopelessness in your favour: a career change or career growth in your 50s is tough. Sooner or later along your path, there will come the time I call creative hopelessness. Good! Know that if you want to create your new career, you have to go through creative hopelessness. It is inevitable and painful. Anyone who says a career change at 50 is easy is lying to you.
Three reasons to start your new career now
There are several reasons why you should begin your journey now, even if you’re older than average. Here are three reasons why starting a new career is a great idea at any age:
- You can still learn and grow
I know people in their 30s who are stunted and unimaginative, others over 50 full of life and new ideas. The desire to learn and the spirit of initiative are not measured with age. Typically, a 20 or 30-year-old is expected to be lively and bright, oops! It is wrong! Not all 50-year-olds have reached the end and not all 30-year-olds are ready to make an amazing career. No matter how old you are, there’s always room for growth and learning. If you’re passionate about something, there’s no limit to the amount of knowledge you can acquire and improve upon. And when you have a new career to focus on, it becomes that much easier to stay motivated and focused. - New opportunities always exist
There’s no telling what the future may hold – whether it’s in the field you currently know nothing about or somewhere completely new. The world is always changing, which means that opportunities for success always exist. If you’re willing to take the risk and go for it, there’s no telling where your journey will take you. - It can be fun and rewarding
Starting a new career is difficult but remaining blocked where you are now can be much more painful.
Conclusion
It can be tough to make a change in your career, especially if you’re at the point where you feel like your current job is holding you back. However, there are always reasons why it’s never too late to start a new career. In this article, we have highlighted some of the main reasons why starting a new career might be a good decision for you. By taking the time to read through these reasons and weighing them against what is currently occupying your time and energy, you should be able to come up with a solid plan of action that will help you take the first steps towards an exciting future.