Interested in changing careers at 30 or finding a new career at 40? Here’s how to make your mid-career change or career transition smooth and painless.
With the growth of remote work, many employees are quitting their jobs looking to make a mid-career switch to a remote or more flexible workplace.
When you add to that the massive number of layoffs during the pandemic it becomes obvious that there are millions of Indians looking for a career shift to a more stable, pandemic-proof industry.
If you’re looking to make a career change and plan on changing careers in your 30s, you may want to start fresh with these career options in India that include career change jobs with no experience.
But what most women really need when looking for new life-changing opportunities is online career guidance to help them navigate the job switch successfully and the assurance that they’re not too old to change careers.
For instance, if you need a career change after engineering, you can connect with a career counsellor in the Glow & Lovely Career Community for career transition assistance and advice.
“Being able to master a career transition has become an essential 21st-century skill in a world that is changing faster than ever before,” says career change consultant Chip Conley, who teaches career professionals how to build TQ (Transition Intelligence).
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10 Tips To Make Your Career Transition Smooth And Painless
Whether you’re changing jobs after 20 years or need to find a job more suited to your skills, here are some steps to help you navigate your career transition smoothly and painlessly.
1. Know Yourself
Before you change your career or start looking for ideas for new careers at 45, take the time to understand yourself better. Most of us go through life like robots, never pausing to reflect on who we are and what we want from our lives.
Once we reach midlife, we often find that we have sacrificed our passions and dreams in order to provide for our family or be better parents. As a mid-life career professional making a career change at 45, it would be a good idea to make an attempt to understand one’s personality, aptitude and life purpose.
Career transitions are becoming rampant nowadays, especially since the pandemic, which has given us the time to reflect and reconsider what we’re doing in our lives.
For many people, this career move can be a life-changing opportunity that gives them the chance to find their passion and choose a career more suited to their personality and aptitude.
This doesn’t mean you need to sit cross-legged and meditate (although that can’t hurt), but that you should figure out how you can apply your skills to live a happy and fulfilling life.
Besides taking the time to reflect on your life, you can also do a free career test and consult get free career counselling to know your career change options, whether you’re changing jobs after 10 years or switching jobs after 1 year.
Not only will this give you more self-awareness about your personality type but you’ll also get suggestions on the best careers for your personality type so you can apply for jobs that play to your strengths.
You should also consider doing a practice psychometric test online. This is a psychological assessment tool that employers use to screen job applicants for suitability and it can help you learn a lot about yourself and which jobs you will function best in.
One of our favourite successful career change stories is that of a single mom, Shimmi, a preschool teacher in Bangalore trying to provide the best for her daughter. She says:
When I got the chance at a better job, I was told I would have to give an aptitude test and a personal interview. I remembered seeing an ad for free online courses and was lucky enough to find an aptitude test there for free.
I practised the whole day and aced the test the next day. The questions in the actual test were similar to the practice test. So, I could get a job, thanks to the free aptitude test.
2. Adopt a Growth Mindset
Making a career transition or career shift is all about being open to new possibilities and life-changing opportunities. And when it comes to success in life, having the right mindset is everything.
But, what is mindset? And, more importantly, what mindset are you? Are you trying to prove yourself and win? Or are you trying to improve yourself? Do you have a beginner’s mind or are you a know-it-all?
Learn the difference between a fixed mindset vs. a growth mindset and the four most common mindset shifts for developing a success mindset. As Conley says:
For example, if you plan to change careers at 40, you’ll get access to more new career ideas at 40 if you’re willing to learn new skills. There’s no shame in going back to school for a career change and upgrading your existing skills before you look for new careers to start at 40.
Whether that means learning new skills or upgrading the ones you already have, being open to learning new skills by doing free online courses will help you become a better job candidate.
3. Practice Appreciative Inquiry
Is there something you’ve always wanted to do with your life but have hesitated from doing for one or more reasons? Ask yourself why and be open and non-judgmental of the answers.
According to Conley, weighing your career decisions with empathy and curiosity through the process of Appreciative Inquiry, as opposed to being judgmental and critical, can help you open up to new possibilities and career opportunities.
At its heart, Appreciative Inquiry is about the search for the best in people, their organizations, and the strengths-filled, opportunity-rich world around them. It will help you find the best in yourself by focusing on your strengths and the opportunities open to you.
4. Tap Into Your Network
The advantage of being a mid-career or older professional is that you’re likely to have already built a pretty good professional network. Sometimes tapping into your network is all it takes to make that career transition smooth and painless.
If you have a social media profile on LinkedIn, it can help to put out feelers and send a message to people in your network saying, “I want to change my career to [mention your career preference here]. Can you help?”
People are often very willing to help someone they like and respect, so make sure you only connect with those with whom you share a friendly and mutually respectful relationship.
5. Become a “Mentern”
According to Mentern.com, a ‘Mentern’ is the fusion of a MENTOR and an INTERN or an older professional who can bridge the gap in the workforce between Boomers and Millennials.
The movie, The Intern, starring Robert DeNiro and Anne Hathaway, demonstrated this type of intergenerational collaboration, where older professionals share their career experiences and knowledge while learning new skills from their millennial and younger coworkers.
Conley believes that the modern workplace could use more intergenerational collaboration by creating a mentor-mentee relationship between Menterns and Millennials.
6. Create a Killer Resume
As an older professional, you may be tempted to write your entire career history in your resume. However, this may not get your foot in the door. The ideal resume is one that is tailored to the job description that you’re applying for.
While there are many popular resume formats you can go with, it’s best to start with a career summary and tailor your profile to the job.
Don’t make your resume more than two pages long and make sure you avoid common mistakes such as adding irrelevant details and using creative fonts.
Don’t forget to write a career objective statement that’s tailored to the job description and company to which you’re applying. You can use a free online resume builder to help you build a killer resume in the Glow & Lovely Career Community.
7. Create a Professional Social Media Presence
Most young people use social media to help them find a job. If you don’t have a social media profile, start out by creating one on LinkedIn. You can ask your kids or a younger person for help with this if you need it.
Most companies check out the social profiles of candidates they plan to interview for a job. These social media job search tips will help you ensure that your social profiles are professional and job-ready.
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8. Brush Up on your Soft Skills
Soft skills such as communication skills, interpersonal skills, effective teamwork and leadership skills, and time management skills are essential skills to have in the workplace.
Most mid-career and older professionals already have good soft skills developed thanks to years of experience in the workplace.
If you are lacking some important soft skills or you want to speak better English, you can take spoken English classes online to improve your English communication skills and make yourself more employable.
9. Make an Interview-Ready-Video (IRV)
During the pandemic, video job interviews became an important part of the hiring process and many job interviews take place on the phone or video chat today.
According to Mentern, an Interview-Ready-Video (IRV) is the new way to present yourself as it can help you distinguish yourself from the competition.
Employers also use the IRV to quickly determine whether they think you’re a good fit for their organization and if they would like to proceed with an interview.
The more professional you appear to an employer on your IRV, the better your chances are of getting hired. Here are some tips for helping you create a great IRV:
- Dress for the job you want
- Write a proper, well-written script
- Use a teleprompter app if you need help to remember it
- Listen to yourself on tape to know how you sound
- Speak naturally and use proper pronunciation and diction
- Make eye contact with the camera while speaking
- Use open and confident body language
- Film a video on your phone or have it done professionally
- Practice a few times before you create the final IRV
- Your IRV should only be about 60 seconds
- Get it edited by a professional if required
Creating an Interview-Ready-Video can help you get comfortable in front of the camera and build your confidence for the actual interview. Watch the video below for some useful tips on what to wear, how to prepare and how to answer video interview questions.
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10. Become a Coach, Consultant or Trainer
Don’t be disheartened if you fail in your efforts to find a full-time job with the options in your second career ideas list. One of the best midlife career change ideas could be to become a coach, consultant, or trainer.
As a mid-career or older professional looking for a career change, you have a lot of wisdom to share. Becoming a coach, consultant, or trainer can be a very fulfilling way to get paid for your wisdom by sharing it with others.
As Conley says in his career transition coaching series, we are taught to believe that “Knowledge is Power,” but what if the new mantra is that “Wisdom is wealth?”
Whether that means becoming a life coach or a business coach or making the change from corporate to teaching by creating your own online courses, a mid-career switch to teaching may help you discover what midlife wisdom you can share while helping others.
For example, one of the best transition careers for teachers to transition to could be to become an online tutor and coach students all over the world in the same subjects that you used to teach in class earlier.
So if you’re considering a career change or switch, I hope these tips for choosing a new career will help you make wise decisions to make your career transition smooth and painless.
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