I’ve started working with a couple of people in their mid 50s recently. Both were unhappy at work for different reasons – one would probably have stayed feeling miserable at work, but the slump in the building industry has led to them being made redundant, although with only minimal redundancy payments. The other person has realised that this could be their last chance for a happy career – with 10-15 years left to retirement.
When I work with people in mid life and beyond I’m careful to let them know that alongside helping them to understand who they are, their strengths, natural talents, and a better understanding of what will be a great job for them, there is always the danger that they may become even more dissatisfied.
That’s because we can work together, either through my Gold Career Programme, one of the alternatives or via one to one sessions and identify the perfect career in theory, but will it work in practice – it could mean several years of training, or having to take a substantial drop in salary.
It doesn’t have to be so, so we take a realistic approach, thinking about what is important – salary, working environment, stress and pressure, levels of satisfaction and more.
Today I worked with Roger – whilst some of the jobs we identified could have resulted in a high level of retraining there were other areas that connected better with past experience, or he had sufficient experience to be come a credible candidate.
It’s always worth taking the time to consider the future and for some people they decide to stay put, a couple of years ago I worked with a Manufacturing Director who, after working with me decided to stay in his job – yes, it wasn’t making him happy but he was earning a substantial salary, with an indexed linked pension and he put into place a way of working shorter hours and creating a better social life, thus improving his quality of life.
If you are 50+ and think it’s too late, why not get in touch to see what might work for you?
