Later career transitions

I was reading a National Career Development Association article earlier this year (Frisch, 2023) about career transitions later in life, which got me thinking. Making a career change later in our working lives can be extremely liberating. We get to learn new things, we get to challenge ourselves in different ways, and we get to be a beginner again.

However, our self-liberation and challenge also shifts our professional identity, may strain our relationships, our security, our finances, and change our social groups. We can become less congruent in our own lives (Super, 1980). 

Let's run through what I have noticed, one at a time. 

• Professional Identity. Becoming a professional at the end of a degree shifts who we think we are, and how we think of ourselves. We may already be a professional in another field, but adding a new professional identity shifts who we are: we may be shedding one identity for another (e.g. GP to environmental activist) or gaining a joint identity (e.g. teacher and career practitioner). Aligned with Super's self-concept (1980), our professional identity is different to that of a trades-person; and quite different to those who have previously not held any qualifications. We also may need time to get used to the feel of the new us. 
• Relationships/Partnerships. When we learn new things, we change and grow personally. For a late career transition, we often have to return to some form of training, which is both liberating and challenging. If we are in a long-term relationship, the one who is learning tends to grow while the other may not. As a lecturer in a polytechnic, I have witnessed this many times where one partner does a degree and the other cannot cope with the change. For example, a married set of taxi drivers where one partner, having been the primary carer for children, went to do a business diploma as part of their return to full time work. This segued into an accounting degree, then Accounting firm work, and into Chartered Accountant exams. The partner - without a professional identity - could not cope with the change. The best is for both partners to learn together, if that is possible: or as one completes their qualification, the other begins theirs.
• Security. It takes a lot of organisation and resourcing for one of long-term relationship to return to school. One partner needs three years of patience for the other partner being largely absent from all aspects of life through homework, assignment work, and study groups. They also slowly lose their original professional identity. The person we have known is becoming unknown, and that challenges our relationship security. We have to work hard to understand the new dynamics and stay secure with each other.
• Finance. We have to understand that the forgone income, the lack of savings, and the education costs will eventually translate into something new and better. We have to stay firmly fixed on a jointly-agreed finance goal. With late career transitions, there may also be opportunity costs with holidays, and possibly family events, which should be prepared for.
• Social groups. Once we are qualified and make a transition, we are likely to find that we make new friends. What can sometimes take us by surprise is that our new friends may be somewhat incompatible with our old friends. For example, secondary school teachers may find they have little in common with organic horticulturalists.

As people live and work longer, most of us will at least consider retraining, if not throwing ourselves into it whole-heartedly, a number of times.

But we should go into it with our eyes open.

Sam

References:

Frisch, J. (2023). Supporting Late Career Changers: Applying Super's Theory and Offering New Tools. NCDA Newsletter, 2023(5). https://associationdatabase.com/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/506613/_PARENT/CC_layout_details/true?tcs-token=c5d672670ffda7c9af250c94151f65ab7cc8f66578ef1b7f03a4fc33f7a58f82

Super, D. E. (1980). A life-span, life space approach to career development. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 16(3), 282-298. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(80)90056-1